Dicksonia antarctica

I recently got a little baby tree fern, grown from spore, which is roughly 12" high. I repotted him into a larger pot, and he currently lives on the windowsill. How often should I water him, and should I keep him on the window (it's a deep windowsill so he's not in full sun until the late afternoon), which is the warmest part of the house during the day?

I was thinking of keeping him indoors for a good while yet, until he's grown and got some trunk on him, is this the right thing to do? I will be keeping him in a pot for at least a few years, as we are moving house in c.2 years when hubby finishes his PhD, and of course we want to take the fern with us!

 

Hi Linzi. You are probably going to open up a real debate here. I would certainly put him outside in summer but bring him in (assuming you have no green house) for a couple of winters. Water with rainwater and let him dry out between waterings for now. When he gets a big fern water down the trunk.

OK you lot, time to come in with your own theories.:D

 

Oh dear, didn't mean to open up a can of worms! Right, better get the rainwater harvesing going. Didn't know I had to give him rainwater, so thanks for that! I'll put him out on the sheltered front steps in summer... if summer ever gets here that is!

 

You don't have to give him rainwater. But in my opinion it is highly recommended.

 

Well, I', gearing up to harvest rainwater anyway as I'm going to look at growing some carnivorous plants soon, so it won't be a chore, and I'd prefer to do what's best

 

Believe me, if you are growing sarracenias, get plenty of it. Of course I love them. And it is NOT true that you can water them with Brita filtered water.:eek:

 

We get plenty of rain around here :D At the place I volunteer, they collect rainwater by having a plastic tube around the sides of the polytunnel that runs into water butts, so I'm thinking of doing something similar around the house (Can't really mess with the guttering to do it as we're renting).

 

Hi, if its trunk is 12" high then it will be 12yrs old Dicsonias are very very slow growing putting on only an inch a year and thats cos of cutting old fronds off!

 

TO. It doesn't actually start trunking for 2 or 3 years. So if the trunk is 12" then it is at least 14 years old. And you can't be 100% sure of 1" a year so that is just a rough guide. I'm sure BM will be here soon and call everybody idiots. But then he usually does.:D

 

Lol, he's only a baby, he has no trunk yet! His fronds are roughly 12" high, but he has no bark yet, he's just a tiddler. He's from spore and isn't very old.

 

It will be older as it would have been cut off to bring it back to the uk. They usually dont have any roots, although they will re-root in a pot. I always plant it as high as possible, and stake until established, and water the crown, trunk and ground, dont let them dry out.

I personally would plant it out and protect the crown in winter, i have had a small 1 footer out for several winters.

 

It hasn't been imported - it has been grown from spore in the UK, as I don't support their import. It has a very well develoepd root system, which I noticed when repotting.

 

Hi Lizibean, i obviously didnt read close enough, as you say its spore grown on the first message!! I would still be tempted to plant it out, and dig up again when you plan to move, if you want to keep it in a pot then do keep checking and repotting.

Where did you get it from? There are not many places selling larger DA from spore grown inthe UK, on the whole i have only seen one/two year old plants for sale.