How to grow Camellia nitidissima (golden camellia)? A complete guide to cultivation and care
Characteristics of Camellia nitidissima: the flowers are golden yellow and dazzling, with beautiful flower forms and high ornamental value. It is much loved in daily life. Recently many friends who love plants and flowers have asked me how to grow Camellia nitidissima. In fact, the method is very simple: just pay attention to soil, water and fertilizer, and flowering-period management. Below is a detailed complete guide to Camellia nitidissima cultivation and care for your reference.
Growing environment
Camellia nitidissima likes a warm, humid climate and a semi-shaded, semi-cool, moist environment. It likes shade during the seedling stage, and after entering the flowering period it quite likes transmitted sunlight. This plant tolerates poor soil but also likes fertilizer, has strong resistance to waterlogging, and is not cold-hardy.
Soil management
Camellia nitidissima is not picky about soil and likes to grow in well-drained, slightly acidic to neutral soil. For potted plants, a mix of leaf mold, garden soil, and river sand can be used.
Water and fertilizer management
Camellia nitidissima likes weakly acidic soil, so when watering you can add a little ferrous sulfate, which can maintain a certain weak acidity in the soil and water. It likes fertilizer and needs fertilizing once a month, mainly with organic soybean cake water fertilizer or nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium fertilizer. After flower buds form, stop nitrogen fertilizer; during the flowering period, apply additional phosphorus and potassium fertilizer to promote more buds and larger flowers.
Sunlight management
Camellia nitidissima likes semi-shade. During the growing period, keep it in weak light in the morning and evening. In hot summer it needs shading to avoid direct sunlight. During the flowering period, keeping the air flowing helps it bloom.
Temperature control
The suitable growing temperature for Camellia nitidissima is 15 to 30 degrees. When the summer temperature reaches 30 degrees, shade is needed; when the winter temperature reaches 5 degrees, pay attention to keeping it warm.
Flowering-period management
Camellia nitidissima only blooms after 3 to 5 years of planting. For potted plants, when the seedling is 30 cm tall, pinch out the growing tips to maintain the plant shape. After the plant forms buds, you can cut off some weak branches' buds, inward-facing buds, overly dense buds, and deformed buds. This concentrates nutrients, makes the flowers larger, and can also extend the flowering period. Camellia nitidissima does not fully open until November, and it blooms continuously until March of the following year, with the peak flowering period lasting 1 to 2 months.
Pest and disease control
Mature Camellia nitidissima is prone to pests and diseases; just pay attention to prevention.
Camellia nitidissima is a very beautiful flowering plant. Its flower color is golden yellow, as if coated with a layer of wax, crystal clear and glossy. Its flower form is delicate and charming, elegant and refined. It is very popular among friends who love plants and flowers. For such a beautiful flower, you can try planting it according to the care tips I have shared.
Planting methods and care key points for Camellia nitidissima
Video: High-yield cultivation techniques for Camellia nitidissima
[Common question] How do you plant Camellia nitidissima?
[Expert answer]
Planting methods for Camellia nitidissima:
1. Cuttings: In the dry season from May to June, select a young mother tree and cut a one-year-old tender branch from the top, about 10 cm long. Remove the lower leaves, flatten the cut below the node with a blade, and keep one terminal bud and one lateral bud at the top, with 2 to 3 leaves. Insert it into a medium of river sand or gravel, with the insertion depth at 1/3 to 2/3. After inserting, cover with a straw curtain for shade, increase foliar spraying, and maintain the air humidity of the cutting bed to promote rooting. To improve the survival rate of cuttings, you can soak the cuttings in a 50 to 100 ppm ABT rooting powder solution for 8 to 12 hours.
2. Grafting: Choose a vigorously growing seedling or a camellia species that roots easily from cuttings as the rootstock. Cut it off 4 to 5 cm above ground level, split it through the pith about 1.5 cm deep, and use 1- to 2-year-old branches as scions. Keep 1 to 2 leaves on the upper part of the scion, cut the lower part into a wedge shape, and insert it into the split opening of the rootstock. The cambium layers on both sides must fit closely together, then bind it tightly with plastic tape. After grafting, cover the scion with a plastic bag and tie it below with a string, but not too tightly, so that water droplets form inside the bag and drip onto the rootstock from time to time. Then add a paper bag over the outside of the plastic bag to block direct sunlight.
3. Bud cuttings: Use each bud node as a section, keep one leaf, about 1.5 cm long, cut the lower part at an angle, and then insert it into the medium, with the depth just covering the branch. This method can make full use of branches and is suitable for many propagation needs.
4. Potting: When potting Camellia nitidissima, it is best to use a growing medium made from leaf mold or peat soil plus some garden soil and river sand. To make it grow quickly, it should be planted in a breathable clay pot. When planting, it is best to choose a deep pot. Before potting, first place a layer of broken tile pieces at the bottom of the pot to facilitate drainage; then apply a small amount of decomposed soybean cake fertilizer powder or bone meal on top as a base fertilizer, and fill a layer of growing medium above the fertilizer; then place the seedling in the center of the pot, straighten it, and fill in the growing medium layer by layer, pressing firmly as you fill, finally leaving about a few cm of pot rim. After planting, water thoroughly and place it in a semi-shaded place to grow. After it recovers from transplanting, move it to normal management.
Care key points:
Habits: It likes a warm, humid climate and prefers well-drained acidic soil. It likes shade during the seedling stage, and after entering the flowering period it quite likes transmitted sunlight. It is not strict about soil and can grow in slightly acidic to neutral soil. It tolerates poor soil but also likes fertilizer. It has strong resistance to waterlogging.
Wind direction: Camellia nitidissima fears strong wind, especially north wind and typhoons, so wind protection measures must be taken.
Soil: Fertile, deep, moist, breathable, with a weakly acidic pH between 4.5 and 6.5. Use proportionally mixed pine needle soil and gradually remove the "yellow mud" brought from the south.
Temperature: To achieve high-yield planting of Camellia nitidissima, its most suitable temperature must be maintained between 20 and 30 degrees, and the lowest temperature must not be below minus 5 degrees.
Light: Camellia nitidissima is a semi-shade, semi-sun tree species. Shade can be provided by planting trees or by using a shade shed. The shade shed should preferably be designed at a height of 2.2 m to 2.5 m, so that the light transmittance reaches about 30 percent, which is optimal.
Watering: The water used for watering the flowers must be mixed with 1% ferrous sulfate each time, so that the water always maintains a certain weak acidity.
Fertilizing: One type is diluted sour milk, which can be used directly without fermentation. Another traditional method is fermented soybean cake water. Fertilizing once a month is enough.
[Editor's comments] Camellia nitidissima is one of China's rare and endangered plants and is called the "giant panda" of the plant world. So, do you know how Camellia nitidissima should be planted and how it should be cared for? The editor of First Agricultural Economics above introduced the planting methods and care key points of Camellia nitidissima, hoping it will be helpful to you.
Super practical planting and cultivation techniques for Camellia nitidissima
Content introduction: Camellia nitidissima, recorded in the Theaceae family, gets its name because the flower color is golden yellow. Its flower form is beautiful and elegant, mostly solitary, and it can be used both as medicine and for decorative relief. Today this article introduces super practical planting and cultivation techniques for Camellia nitidissima.
[Planting and cultivation techniques for Camellia nitidissima]
First: Propagation methods
Camellia nitidissima is mainly wild, and with the popularity of artificial cultivation techniques, its cultivation techniques have become more and more comprehensive. The main propagation methods are four: seed propagation, cutting propagation, grafting propagation, and tissue culture.
1. Seed propagation: Seed propagation is relatively easy, but the seedling emergence rate is not high, and the propagation time is relatively long. Generally, seed propagation is in October, sowing in autumn, and propagation continues until the spring of the following year.
2. Cutting propagation: Cutting propagation is around late spring and autumn. It has the advantages of a high survival rate and easy planting, but it is not suitable for high yield, and cuttings need to be taken from the mother plant.
3. Grafting propagation: Grafting propagation is relatively easy and can also be called seedling rootstock grafting. It can be used for hybrid cultivation and depends on a vigorous mother plant to survive, requiring plastic film and soil as aids.
4. Tissue culture: For the propagation of Camellia nitidissima, you can directly choose to tissue-culture the fruit seeds. This method requires professional expertise and is not practical.
Second: Cultivation methods
First, you need to choose a suitable flower pot or location. Open-air planting is recommended as the best method. The environmental temperature should be in a semi-shaded, semi-cool environment, and the soil should be relatively moist. Second, the indoor area should be kept ventilated at all times.
Second, for soil preparation, use mainly pine needle soil. The soil should be fertile, loose, without a sticky feeling, and without any possibility of water accumulation.
Third: Growth management
After successful planting, during the growth period, fertilizing is not recommended. When watering, you can add a trace amount of ferrous sulfate to clean water to keep the soil at a certain weak acidity.
Indoor care of Camellia nitidissima is mostly in a closed state. It is recommended that every two weeks the plant be moved outdoors, mainly to let the plant get some wind.
As for fertilizing timing, it is mostly once every half month. Organic fertilizer, sour milk, soybean residue, etc. can all be applied as fertilizer. If directly using compound fertilizer for care, when fertilizing, keep it away from the root area and shallowly bury it in the shallow soil 3 cm from the roots.
As for the main indoor temperature control, the best suitable range is 15-35 degrees Celsius, and the temperature difference between winter and spring should not exceed 7-10 degrees Celsius.
Fourth: Flowering-period management
Camellia nitidissima does not bloom within the first 1-3 years of planting, and most varieties begin to form flower buds in July-August.
When Camellia nitidissima blooms for the first time, it is recommended to prune the newly grown flower buds and flower bracts, and when they are too dense, thin them appropriately. For branches that produce flower buds for the first time, pinch out the growing tips and remove the buds, which can help the plant concentrate nutrients and produce a better flowering effect.