Cyclamen 2014

[Roma]

Thanks Steve and Pat.  I have a few spare plants which I hope to sell at the Discussion Weekend so it is good to have the correct name.   I will label them hederifolium ex PN99/151 Zakynthos. 

[Roma]

Pictures from last year
Cyclamen hederifolium ex PN99/151  Zakynthos on the left beside a normal sized Cyclamen hederifolium
Leaves

[Matt T]

Wow!  A big beauty. Will have keep a keen eye on the sales table   

[SJW]

Wow!  A big beauty. Will have keep a keen eye on the sales table   

And the seedex - I have some seed I'll send in.

[Mark Griffiths]

very nice all.

I'm wondering if I've made a monumental blunder here. I added a top dress of beech leaf mould and blood, fish and bone to my Cyclamen in pots. I've noticed that a few of those that are in flower, (C. purpurascens and C. hederifolium) have the flowers keeled over and it looks like some of the buds have gone. I did it just a couple of days ago and since we've had wind and rain - also the chipping were taken off, the top dressing and the chippings put back that I suppose might have done some harm.

I'm now wondering about the rest of the plants I did the same thing to in the greenhouse.

[Maggi Young]

There is quite a lot of readily available nitrogen on blood fish and bone- which may be the problem.
Not sure if that will be the answer. 

[Mark Griffiths]

true, but would it have that effect within a couple of days?

[Maggi Young]

That I don't know - but if it were going to have a "burning" effect  then cyclamen growth is very fleshy and, I would think,  more vulnerable than growth with more substantial "body" to it.

When I think of how Shortia flowers withered before my eyes when I gave them a gentle spray with soapy water, I am not surprised than  ghastly effects can indeed happen at speed. 

[jshields]

I'm a strong dis-believer in using organic fertilizers for potted plants.  The soil microbiota in a pot is vastly different from in the ground -- depauperate.  You are more likely to be feeding potentially pathogenic micoorganisms in a pot than in the soil.  Organic fertilizers can have salts in them as well as having the nitrogen almost exclusively as ammonia and amino acids.  Plants cannot utilize either of these efficiently, but they are manna from heaven for bacteria and fungi.

That said, I grow mostly geophytes from arid and semiarid climates having low natural soil fertilities.  The problem above sounds like too much salt to me -- too much sodium and/or too much chloride.

Jim

[SJW]

very nice all.

I'm wondering if I've made a monumental blunder here. I added a top dress of beech leaf mould and blood, fish and bone to my Cyclamen in pots. I've noticed that a few of those that are in flower, (C. purpurascens and C. hederifolium) have the flowers keeled over and it looks like some of the buds have gone. I did it just a couple of days ago and since we've had wind and rain - also the chipping were taken off, the top dressing and the chippings put back that I suppose might have done some harm.

I'm now wondering about the rest of the plants I did the same thing to in the greenhouse.

Mark - what about the leaves on your purpurascens, have they been affected also? Sounds to me as if the buds and flower stems could have started to rot off with all the rain? Also perhaps the new top dressing is holding too much water around the top of the tuber which would contribute to the problem...

I'd check the ones in the greenhouse to see how wet the compost is and whether the buds look healthy - they won't have been subjected to all that outside rain. I'm really careful about not getting the top of the tuber too wet when starting my pots back into growth to minimise the risk of rots setting in, although I still have casualties every year! (purpurascens is more forgiving though). In my experience, it's a watering and/or claggy compost problem that kills most cyclamen in pots and I'd check that out first before pointing the finger at the blood, fish and bone. 

[johnw]

Mark - I'm with Maggi on this one and suspect the "hot" bloodmeal, the fish meal I am not familiar with.   We cannot get away with top-dressing cyclamen in pots as in this climate (at latitude 44) as it leads to rot, not as quickly however as in your case.  Late October / November / December are bad for botrytis as well so corm tops must be exposed.  Perhaps better to de-pot and place the new compost in the bottom of the pot.

Thanks for the tip Jim, I always suspect organic fertilizers might not be so wise in pots. Getting a slow release that releases in our cool weather is a challenge in retail sizes.

johnw

still parched while others in the east are flooded

[SJW]

Out of interest, here's the data sheet for blood, fish and bone fertilizer: http://www.william-sinclair.co.uk/files/uploads/file/Gardening/COSSH%20PDFS/plant_foods/Fish_%20Blood_&_Bone.pdf

[Mark Griffiths]

thanks for all the replies - I think the fungal, burn and physical "clagging" are all likely culprits. I've removed the top dressing from my C. parviflorum as a precaution. I did the whole lot but I think many the tubers are pround and the topdress isn't too close to any growing points - e.g the C. persicums. Some are buried anyway and the top dress doesn't get into contact with the tuber or any growth (some of the repandum types) but the rest I'll need to look over.

I do agree that having anything even chippings close to the growing points is a problem for many species. Odd that C. purpurascens is one of them because my limited experience of them in the wild is that even the floral trunks are buried in pure leafmould that is generally moist in the summer.

[Melvyn Jope]

Cyclamen colchicum

[Naoto The Zombie]

Hi gang!

Does anyone know about C.coum "Alice D"? I've been trying to find the details but I can't.......