The three hurdles every Clivia beginner must pass, and once you do, you can become a master gardener

The three hurdles a Clivia beginner must pass: soil preparation, potting, and watering.

For soil preparation, first choose leaf mold that has been rotting for about 2 years, remove the impurities inside, tear it into pieces about 3 cm square, and then sift it with a tool.

The fine crumbs that sift through

Then dig the soil out of the old pot; when digging, be careful not to damage the Clivia roots

Clear the old soil off the roots

Sift the old soil too, remove the fine crumbs, keep the coarse parts, then add 30% pine needles to the sifted leaf mold, put the sifted old soil in as well, add some river sand and charcoal, mix and stir evenly; in this way, the soil is ready

Potting:

First put soil in the bottom of the pot. Press it firm

Fill soil into the gaps in the middle of the Clivia roots, press it down slightly

Put it into the pot, and note that you need to find a gap at the side of the roots so that you can fill soil into the middle gaps

Then fill soil along the edge of the pot, pressing firm as you fill; be sure to press it firm

In this way, by holding it by the neck, you can lift the whole pot up with it, and then the potting is considered up to standard

For a newly planted Clivia, the next day flush it with water: first, it can wash away the debris in the soil, and second, the soil can fully absorb water, because a medium like leaf mold does not have strong water absorption at the beginning; you must let the water in the soil be fully absorbed until the water flowing out from the bottom is clear

Watering:

In everyday cultivation, watering must be thorough; when just watered thoroughly, the water content in the soil is generally 70%, and when it gradually drops to 30%, it is time to water. In home cultivation, it is generally topped up every 3 days and watered thoroughly every 6 days, because the medium used for Clivia is rather special, so watering must be done slowly, otherwise the water all runs away through the gaps in the soil. My way of watering is to first wet the surface of the potting soil, then after about half an hour, water once more with this same amount of water, repeating this until water drips from the bottom of the pot; in that way the watering can be completely thorough, and the potting soil can fully take in the water.

The leaf mold used for Clivia, because it has been rotting for more than 2 years, is also still rotting when it is soaked through during ordinary watering, especially in summer; when rotting, it easily produces heat and easily breeds bacteria, causing anthracnose, damaging the leaf surface and affecting its appearance, so fungicide is generally applied regularly; in summer it is generally applied about once a month, and it is best to rotate several kinds of fungicide to avoid resistance.

This kind of leaf mold is sold on the market.