How to Grow and Care for the Medinilla
Medinilla is also known as pearl pagoda, Medinilla, and Medinilla, among other names. It originates from the tropical forests of the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia. There are also 15 species in China, found in the tropical and subtropical rainforests of Hainan Island and southern Yunnan. Potted Medinilla is most suitable for display in hotels, halls, shopping mall windows, and villa living rooms. Let's take a look at how to grow Medinilla below!
Propagating Medinilla from Seed
1. Seed selection: Before sowing, the seeds must first be selected. Whether the seeds are chosen well directly affects whether sowing will succeed. It is best to use seeds collected in the current year; the longer the seeds are stored, the lower their germination rate. You should also choose plump seeds without damage or deformity, and choose seeds free of pests and diseases.
2. Disinfection: Disinfection includes two concepts: one refers to disinfecting the seeds, and the other refers to disinfecting the sowing substrate. For household seed disinfection, it is common to soak the seeds in hot water at about 60°C for a quarter of an hour, then use warm water to promote germination for 12-24 hours. The best way to disinfect the sowing substrate is to put it in a pot and heat it until hot, which will scald any pests and diseases to death.
3. Germination promotion: Soak the seeds in warm water (at a temperature similar to face-washing water) for 12-24 hours, until the seeds absorb water and swell. For very common seeds that germinate easily, this step can be skipped.
4. Sowing: For tiny seeds that are difficult to pick up with your hands or other tools, you can moisten one end of a toothpick with water, stick the seeds one by one onto the surface of the substrate, cover with substrate 1 cm thick, then place the sowing pot into water with a water depth of 1/2 to 2/3 of the pot's height. For larger seeds that can be picked up with your hands or other tools, place the seeds directly into the substrate and sow them at a spacing of 3×5 cm, then cover with substrate to a thickness of 2-3 times the size of the seeds.
5. Management: After sowing in late autumn, early spring, or winter, if cold waves and low temperatures occur, you can wrap the flower pot with plastic film to help keep it warm and moist. After the seedlings emerge, uncover the film promptly, and let the seedlings receive sunlight before 9:30 a.m. each day, or after 3:30 p.m., otherwise the seedlings will grow very weak and spindly. After most of the seeds have sprouted, appropriate thinning is needed. When most of the seedlings have grown 3 or more leaves, they can be transplanted.
Propagating Medinilla from Cuttings
1. Substrate: For household cuttings, it is difficult to obtain an ideal cutting substrate due to limited conditions. It is recommended to use the already prepared and sterilized cutting substrate provided by this site. Medium-coarse river sand can also be used, but it must be rinsed several times with clean water before use. Do not use sea sand or river sand from saline-alkali areas; they are not suitable for the growth of flowering plants.
2. Cuttings: When doing softwood cuttings, from late spring to early autumn when the plant is growing vigorously, choose robust current-year branches as cuttings. After cutting the branches off, select the sturdy parts and cut them into sections 5-15 cm long, each section carrying 3 or more leaf nodes. When doing hardwood cuttings, after temperatures rise in early spring, choose healthy branches from the previous year as cuttings. Each cutting usually retains 3-4 nodes, and the cutting method is the same as for softwood cuttings.
3. Temperature: The optimum temperature for cutting rooting is 20-30°C. Below 20°C, rooting is difficult and slow; above 30°C, the upper and lower cut ends of the cuttings are prone to infection by pathogens and rot, and the higher the temperature, the greater the proportion of rot. If low temperatures occur after cutting, the main measure for keeping warm is to wrap the pot or container used for cuttings with film.
4. Humidity: After cutting, the relative air humidity must be maintained at 75-85%. The basic requirement for cutting rooting is to ensure, before the cuttings root, that they remain fresh and tender enough to carry out photosynthesis to produce rooting substances. However, cuttings that have not rooted cannot absorb enough water to maintain their internal water balance, so misting must be used to reduce water evaporation from the cuttings.
5. Light: Cutting propagation cannot do without sunlight, because the cuttings still need to continue photosynthesis to produce nutrients and rooting substances to supply their rooting needs. However, the stronger the light, the higher the temperature inside the cuttings, the more vigorous their transpiration, and the more water they consume, which is unfavorable for the survival of the cuttings. Therefore, after cutting, 50-80% of the sunlight must be shaded out, and after the root system grows out, the shade net can be gradually removed.
How to Grow Medinilla
1. Potting: When potting small seedlings or repotting large plants that have been grown for several years, first place coarse-grained substrate 2-3 cm thick at the bottom of the pot as a drainage layer, sprinkle a layer of fully decomposed organic fertilizer on top as base fertilizer about 1-2 cm thick, then cover with a thin layer of substrate about 1-2 cm thick, and then place the plant in, so as to separate the fertilizer from the root system and avoid burning the roots. After potting, water thoroughly once and keep it in a shaded environment for one week.
2. Humidity: Medinilla likes a humid climate environment and requires the relative air humidity of the growing environment to be 70-80%. If the relative air humidity is too low, the lower leaves turn yellow and fall off, and the upper leaves lose their luster.
3. Temperature: Medinilla originates from tropical regions and likes a high-temperature, high-humidity environment, so it has strict temperature requirements in winter. When the ambient temperature is below 10°C, growth stops, and it cannot survive the winter safely when frost occurs.
4. Light: Medinilla likes a semi-shaded environment. In autumn, winter, and spring, it can be given plenty of sunlight, but in summer it must be shaded by more than 50%. When kept indoors, place it in a spot with bright light as much as possible.
5. Fertilizer and water: For potted Medinilla plants, in addition to adding organic fertilizer when potting, appropriate fertilizer and water management should also be carried out during routine care.
6. Pruning: In winter, when the Medinilla plant enters dormancy or semi-dormancy, cut off weak, pest-damaged, dead, and overly dense branches. Branch organization can also be combined with taking cuttings.
7. Repotting: As long as Medinilla is cared for properly, it will grow very quickly. When it grows to a certain size, consider repotting it into a slightly larger pot so it can continue to grow vigorously.
8. Pests and diseases: Medinilla sometimes develops leaf spot disease and stem rot, which can be sprayed with 70% thiophanate-methyl wettable powder at 1000 times dilution. Pests include whiteflies and scale insects, which can be killed by spraying with 50% dichlorvos emulsifiable concentrate at 1000 times dilution.