Massonia 2015

[Darren]

Anything is possible John.

Certainly leaf markings, hairs, pustules develop more as the bulbs age (never write off 'poorly' pustulated forms of pustulata (or longipes if that is what we are supposed to call it now) until year 3 - they do improve).

Usually seedlings of pustulata/longipes that have a faint purple cast in year 1 go on to have pronounced, sometimes blotchy, purple colouring on the newly developing leaves when mature.

That said - I've never seen this tesselated pattern before and I've raised hundreds of Massonia seedlings. Nearest I've seen to it are forms of depressa with purple markings - though these don't seem to have the same regularity of pattern. I don't recall the tesselation being so pronounced last year, when the bulb was still too small to flower.

Just spotted on ebay - a form of M. echinata with signs of very similar tesselation:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MASSONIA-ECHINATA-rare-BEAUTIFUL-SP-spiky-white-FLWG-SZ-/252090173308?hash=item3ab1bec77c

[Paul Cumbleton]

John I think this is very likely to be Massonia depressa which can have this kind of marking. It is certainly not M. hirsuta - you can tell that already from the form of the developing bud which lacks the characteristic overlapping scales of hirsuta but looks just like M. depressa.

I have several plants of M. depressa with purple markings and in all but one the markings fade as the leaf expands through the season. But just one has very pronounced markings that stay for the whole season - see picture below. Oddly I have other plants raised from seed said to be collected from plants with well-marked leaves that have all turned out to be plain green.

Paul

[Rimmer de Vries]

here are seedlings of Massonia depressa in 4 inch pots started in March 2013 from NARGS seed ex. 

the leaves on some are pustulate, does that mean they are hybrids with M. pustulata?

looks like some may bloom this fall.

[Rimmer de Vries]

here are seedlings of Massonia echinata in 4 inch pots started in March 2013 from NARGS seed ex. 

again the leaves on some are pustulate, does that mean they are hybrids with M. pustulata?

looks like some may bloom this fall.

[Rimmer de Vries]

here are seedlings of Massonia pustulata in 4 inch pots started in May 2013 from PBS seed donated by Arnold T as from purple leaved plant. 

this is the first season they are showing the purple and pustulate warts.  of the batch i kept, about 50% are darker coloured and 50% lighter colored.  and the green ones tend to have smooth leaves while the purple ones tend to have more pustulate leaves.  At the same time Arnold all donated seed of a green form of M. pustulate and the seeds from that crop that i grew were far less vigorous (only 3 grew up) but they show the exact same leaf diversity.

 i have not seen any bloom yet but i wonder how can one distinguish all these Massonias from each other?  they all look about the same especially with the leaf variations.  M. pustulata can be pustulate or smooth, the same with M. depressa and M echinata.

[Chris Johnson]

Impressive plants after two years, Rimmer.

Can I ask what treatment/feed you have given them and when? Presumably you moved them into individual pots after the first year.

Thanks, Chris

[angie]

Looks like you are going to have fun with all these plants  , one of my favourite so looking forward to seeing them in flower.

Angie 

[Rimmer de Vries]

Impressive plants after two years, Rimmer.

Can I ask what treatment/feed you have given them and when? Presumably you moved them into individual pots after the first year.

Thanks, Chris

Hi Chris
i started each seed lot in a 3 to 6" pot, inside initially with a sandwich baggie on top, then when the green shows the baggie was removed and the pots were placed about 6-8" below a fixture of  4x 4' T-5 53 watt 6400K,fluorescent T5 grow lights (very bright) near a basement window with a 6" fan blowing when the lights are one. the temps was 50-75 deg F (day- night).   My mix was left over seed mix from many used pots.  essentially builders sand- a dirty local sand with small limestone and other rounded glacier pebbles, sand and fines, plus some bonemeal, turface, granite chips probable some peat moss or leaf mold for organics.  these plants need to be kept rather wet during the growing season under these lights which put out a bit of heat. 

 i posted photos of their progress in prior SRGS forums on massonias.
here is one prior post:
http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=12377.msg317606#msg317606

one thing i learned in growing these is not to use osmocote. it puts the plants into premature dormancy when it gets warm under the lights .

i donated most of the seedlings to the Pacific Bulb Society BX 385 when i potted them into these pots in late August.
http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbslist/2015-September/ej00t5njg588rhtvncdga2hvp3.html

the new mix this past August was essentially the same.

[Rogan]

Massonia jasminiflora - sumptuous! 

[Chris Johnson]

Hi Chris
i started each seed lot in a 3 to 6" pot, inside initially with a sandwich baggie on top, then when the green shows the baggie was removed and the pots were placed about 6-8" below a fixture of  4x 4' T-5 53 watt 6400K,fluorescent T5 grow lights (very bright) near a basement window with a 6" fan blowing when the lights are one. the temps was 50-75 deg F (day- night).   My mix was left over seed mix from many used pots.  essentially builders sand- a dirty local sand with small limestone and other rounded glacier pebbles, sand and fines, plus some bonemeal, turface, granite chips probable some peat moss or leaf mold for organics.  these plants need to be kept rather wet during the growing season under these lights which put out a bit of heat. 

 i posted photos of their progress in prior SRGS forums on massonias.
here is one prior post:
http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=12377.msg317606#msg317606

one thing i learned in growing these is not to use osmocote. it puts the plants into premature dormancy when it gets warm under the lights .

i donated most of the seedlings to the Pacific Bulb Society BX 385 when i potted them into these pots in late August.
http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbslist/2015-September/ej00t5njg588rhtvncdga2hvp3.html

the new mix this past August was essentially the same.

Thanks for that detailed reply, Rimmer. With that attention to detail it's no wonder they are doing well.

I'm banned from yet more projects so will have to follow a more conventional route and wait a bit longer for flowering.

[Chris Johnson]

Massonia jasminiflora - sumptuous! 

They look very healthy, Rogan. A different approach from Rimmer's, crowding them all in one pot, but they seem to like it.

[WimB]

From seeds sown 4 years ago (they came from Hans J....many thanks again my friend):

Massonia pustulata (ex G. Koehres)
and Massonia sp. (ex Burdach 11182)...never knew if this one has been named to species so I kept it under it's collection no.

[johnw]

Two questions about Massonia, first I am running my Massonias quite lean and wonder if I should be fertilizing and with what?

Lastly, do Massonias offset underground? I ask as I have had a couple of small shoots arise 3-5cm from the mother plants.  All were individually potted in August and not a chance multiples went into any of the single pots.

john

[WimB]

Two questions about Massonia, first I am running my Massonias quite lean and wonder if I should be fertilizing and with what?

Lastly, do Massonias offset underground? I ask as I have had a couple of small shoots arise 3-5cm from the mother plants.  All were individually potted in August and not a chance multiples went into any of the single pots.

john

John, I fertilise them a bit with K2SO4 (Potassium Sulfate), twice in their growing period and (if I don't forget) once with a liquid tomato feed.

Never heard of them making offsets, always thought that they hardly ever propagate vegetatively, they are quite easy from seed though....

[johnw]

Thanks Wim.  Must have been some tiny stray seedlings that got into the pot whlst transplanting.

john