Strelitzia reginae

I think it might help growth and flowering if you use a high potash feed a few times during the summer.

 

Mine is an offset/division from a huge mama plant that belongs to gardening friends so i've no idea how old it is. It's currently up on a windowsill facing south and sheltered by a wisteria so it's safe from all these winds.

I've been watering it with banana skin water and it's produced 2 new flower buds.

 

Just a quick picture of the S. nicolai I bought last year.


Actually I think there are three separate plants in the pot.

 

That plant looks very luxuriant @pete !
I thought your protea cynaroides was growing next to your S. reginae? So isn't it a bit risky giving the strelitzia potash?

 

I don't feed my outside BOP, @CarolineL I was really referring to pot growing, I've got a couple of smaller reginae in pots, but they are struggling a bit.

Isn't it phosphate that proteas dislike?

I've given the leucospermum a couple of very weak high potash feeds this year and its looking well.

 

Now that is interesting. Do you just soak the skins in water? For how long?

That looks fabulous Pete.

 

@Victoria OH has a daily banana and Weetabix for breakfast and since id January I've been getting him to put them in a litre pot of water. It takes about a week for it to fill up and then I leave it to the end of the last day before straining it into a watering can. Once a week and orange peel goes in too. The skins end up on the compost heap so no nutrients and fibre are lost.

I then dilute the liquid and have been using it to feed my houseplants which includes the strelitzia. I shall carry on with it now it's outside, along wih my hibiscus siniensis.

 

Sorry @pete - terminal brain fade - of course it's phosphate. I blame the rain for washing my brain cells away! What do you use for your feed? I'm so paranoid about phosphate that these days I only use seaweed or dried blood on proteaceae

 

I don't feed much but half strength chempak high potash doesn't seem to do any harm.
And of course my old favourite of cold tea from time to time.
Doesn't seaweed contain calcium?
Calcified seaweed, or are there other types.

 

Agree with this, or coffee, or milk that has gone off.

 

Never tried milk.
Sour I assume.

 

Yes, a good use for soured, but ...
Using Milk In The Garden: How And When To Use It, And Its Pros And Cons! | Plants Heaven.

 

I guess, but not potassium I thought. I'll recheck the listing on the seaweed bottle...

 

Milk? Coffee? Tea? Banana water? Jeesh! I'm relatively new to all things green so forgive me for being so dumb, lol.

I started off with plain old tap water, that's it, no feed at all. Then I realised the error of my ways and started adding a few drops of feed as per bottled instructions.

Them I moved away from tap water completely due to the chlorine and flouride and started using water from my aquariums.

So many different watering/feeding methods, but for someone like me who's relatively new it's a minefield of what the best practises actually are.

The thing that strikes me with all these "home made" methods, my aquarium water included, is how do you know that these feeds have all the essential nutrients in them?

Surely shop bought feeds are easier because it tells you what's in them so you know where you stand. Is it just a case of watching your plants and see how they react to these different watering methods, or is therr genuine science behind the likes of tea, coffee and milk?

 

I only use tea to keep the compost acidic on plants that require it.

Lots of gardeners have home made concoctions that they swear by, but it's really a trial and error approach at least at first.