Notes on Hydration for Edible Fungi and How to Grow the Nodding Clivia
Nodding Clivia (Clivia nobilis) is a type of clivia, mainly growing in southern Africa as well as in Hubei Province and other places in China. The plant is generally around 38 cm tall, and its flowers are quite showy, orange-yellow with a touch of pale green. Nodding Clivia has deep green leaves and an elegant posture. So how should Nodding Clivia be grown? Below, let me introduce the cultivation methods for Nodding Clivia.
Cultivation Methods for Nodding Clivia:
It prefers a warm, cool environment, needs plenty of sunlight in winter, and slight shading in summer. It requires loose, fertile leaf mold soil. If the indoor temperature in winter drops below 5°C or rises above 30°C in summer, it is unfavorable for growth and flowering.
Potting Soil for Nodding Clivia
When potting, use a mix of sand and peat, or sand and leaf mold soil. For mature seedlings, repot every 2~3 years, with pot size determined by the seedling. When repotting, replace the soil, and compost it together with cake fertilizer and barnyard manure to promote rapid growth of the clivia.
Watering Nodding Clivia
Nodding Clivia prefers a warm, humid environment. Its fleshy roots are well developed and it has a certain drought tolerance, but it fears waterlogging. When watering, follow the principle of alternating dry and wet, and it is best to keep the relative soil humidity at 80%~90%, not lower than 60%. Wiping the leaf surface with tea water every week can make the leaves fresh and glossy. In short, for clivia in all four seasons, as long as you avoid wind in spring, avoid direct sun in summer, protect from rain in autumn, and keep it from drying out in winter, the plant will maintain vigorous growth with abundant flowers and lush leaves.
Temperature for Nodding Clivia
The suitable temperature for Nodding Clivia is 15~20°C. When above 25°C, the plant grows poorly, often with leggy leaves that affect flower bud differentiation, so at this time pay attention to ventilation and cooling; below 10°C, growth slows; below 0°C, the plant may freeze to death. In summer, pay attention to cooling, which can promote flower bud differentiation. A large temperature difference between day and night is beneficial to the growth of Nodding Clivia, generally 6~10°C is suitable.
Fertilizing Nodding Clivia
Nodding Clivia can be fertilized 1 month after potting and seedling recovery, with fertilized water once every 10~15 days, and fertilization should stop in summer. Half a month before the two growth peaks in spring, it is advisable to apply dry soybean cake or chicken manure on the pot surface, but not too close to the roots to avoid root damage. After autumn, it begins to form buds and bloom, and phosphate fertilizer should be added to make the flowers large and colorful and to prevent "arrow clamping" (bud binding). When fertilizing, do not splash it on the leaves or into the leaf sheaths. If fertilizer is insufficient, the leaves will lack luster, flowers will be few and small, and it may even bloom only every other year. Regular topdressing is generally done in spring and autumn, less in summer and winter.
Light for Nodding Clivia
Nodding Clivia has broad leaves and a certain shade tolerance, preferring a semi-shaded environment. Plants grown under 50% light transmission have fresh, emerald-green leaves, which greatly enhances the ornamental effect. Light also affects the arrangement direction of clivia leaves. If light comes from only one side, the leaves originally arranged in a single row will become disordered, reducing the ornamental effect, so make sure the plant receives even light and regularly rotate the pot.
Sowing Nodding Clivia
The fruit of Nodding Clivia usually turns from green to red 8~9 months after flowering. At this time, if you rub it with your hand and feel that the fruit is hard and makes a rustling sound, it indicates the seeds are mature and can be harvested in good time. After the seeds are taken out of the fruit, they can be sown in 2~# days; if left too long, the germ will dry out and shrink, and the seedling emergence rate will drop significantly. The seedling substrate is best as humus-rich sandy soil. When sowing, place the seed holes facing upward and evenly, and cover with substrate just enough to cover the seeds. After sowing, water and keep warm with plastic film, but leave ventilation holes. The germination temperature is preferably 20°C, and roots will form after one month. Once two true leaves have grown, the seedlings can be separated and potted. Division propagation can be done in all four seasons, with the best results in spring and autumn, and division can be combined with repotting.
Division of Nodding Clivia
Before division, control watering first. When the potting soil is half dry, separate the side shoots from the mother plant and coat the wounds with plant ash. Wait until no liquid seeps from the wounds, then plant them in pots. After potting, place them in a semi-shaded spot and keep them at 20~25°C for management. They can sprout after one month.
Pest and Disease Control for Nodding Clivia
1. Sunscald: The leaves all turn yellow, caused by prolonged strong direct light in summer. Shaded cultivation should be adopted, and leaves that have already turned yellow can be cut off.
2. Root rot: Its symptoms are that the leaves begin to turn yellow from the leaf tip, and few new leaves appear or no new leaves grow. The cause is excessive water in the pot soil or pathogens entering through broken root wounds during planting. Solution: carefully dig the plant out of the soil and check. If only a small part of the root system is rotten, cut off the rotten part, coat the cut surface with sulfur powder or plant ash, and then replant in new soil. If most of the root system is rotten, cut off all the roots from the root collar, disinfect with a copper sulfate (CuSO4) aqueous solution diluted 200 times, then insert into river sand. Keep the pot sand moist but on the dry side, place in a ventilated, shaded spot, and let it re-root.
3. "Arrow clamping": During cultivation, Nodding Clivia often fails to send out the flower scape after bud formation and cannot bloom, a phenomenon called "arrow clamping." This is related to temperature and fertilizer. The main cause of arrow clamping is unsuitable temperature. The flowering period of Nodding Clivia is mostly from December to March of the following year. If the room temperature is below 14°C at this time and the day-night temperature difference is very small, the flower scape grows slowly after emerging, causing arrow clamping. The solution is: when the flower scape shows, immediately raise the room temperature above 20°C, and at night it is best to keep the room temperature around 12°C, so that the day-night temperature difference reaches above 18°C, which can prevent arrow clamping. You can also pour 25°C warm water into the soil to force the arrow. When the room temperature is too low, you can make a frame with plastic film and cover it outside the flower pot, place it in sunlight, to increase the temperature and force the "arrow."
4. Anthracnose: This disease mostly occurs in rainy, humid seasons, with lesions mostly on the edges of the middle and lower leaves. In the early stage, moist brown small spots appear on the leaves, which gradually expand into oval lesions, and concentric rings form on the lesions. In the later stage, the lesions dry up and many small black dots are scattered on them. Control methods: first, in late autumn or early spring, remove dead branches and fallen leaves and promptly prune diseased branches, and burn them together; second, before the disease occurs, spray 65% zineb 600 times solution for protection; third, fertilize and water reasonably, and pay attention to ventilation and light transmission; fourth, in the early stage of the disease, spray 50% carbendazim diluted 500~800 times, or 50% thiophanate solution, or 75% chlorothalonil solution diluted 600~800 times.
Cultivation Techniques for Nodding Clivia
1. Propagation
Division and seed propagation are commonly used. For division, after flowering each spring, remove the offsets beside the mother plant and plant them separately. If the offset has no fleshy roots, it can first be inserted into sand, and potted after rooting. For sowing, sow in pots indoors in winter, and the room temperature must be above 20°C, otherwise the seeds easily rot. They germinate 20~25 days after sowing. Seedlings grown from seed take 4~5 years to bloom.
2. Cultivation
When potted, do not water too much; just keep it moist. In the plum rain season from May to June, prevent rain from washing over it, so as to avoid root and leaf disease and rot. During high summer temperatures, pay attention to spraying water to cool it down. In autumn, topdress appropriately to promote leaf growth. In winter, heating and keeping the soil moist are beneficial for flowering.
How to grow Nodding Clivia, and the cultivation methods for Nodding Clivia, are introduced here for everyone. I believe it will certainly be helpful to friends.