Techniques for preventing and treating sunburn disease in clivia and how to grow Clivia nobilis
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, and its flowers are relatively showy, orange-yellow with a hint of pale green. Clivia nobilis has deep green leaves and an elegant posture. How should Clivia nobilis be grown? Below I will introduce the cultivation methods for Clivia nobilis.
Cultivation methods for Clivia nobilis:
It prefers a warm and cool environment, needs plenty of sunlight in winter, and slightly shaded conditions in summer. It requires loose, fertile leaf mold soil. If the indoor temperature in winter is below 5°C or in summer is above 30°C, it is unfavorable for growth and flowering.
Potting soil for Clivia nobilis
When potting, choose a mix of sand and peat or sand and leaf mold soil. For adult seedlings, repot every 2~3 years, and the pot size depends on the seedling. When repotting, replace the soil, and it should be composted together with cake fertilizer, barnyard manure, and the like to promote the rapid growth of clivia.
Watering Clivia nobilis
Clivia nobilis likes a warm and humid environment. Its fleshy roots are well developed and it has a certain drought tolerance, but it is afraid of waterlogging. When watering, follow the principle of alternating dry and wet, and usually it is best to keep the relative humidity of the soil at 80%~90%, not lower than 60%. Wiping the leaf surface with tea water every week can make the leaves fresh and shiny. In short, for clivia in all four seasons, as long as you avoid wind in spring, protect it from sun in summer, prevent rain in autumn, and keep it from drying out in winter, the plant can remain vigorous and produce abundant flowers and lush leaves.
Temperature for Clivia nobilis
The suitable temperature for Clivia nobilis is 15~20°C. When it is above 25°C, the plant grows poorly, often showing leggy leaves, which affects flower bud differentiation, so attention should be paid to ventilation and cooling at this time; when it is below 10°C, growth is slow; when it drops below 0°C, the plant will 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 Clivia nobilis, generally 6~10°C is suitable.
Fertilizing Clivia nobilis
Clivia nobilis can be fertilized 1 month after potting and seedling recovery, applying fertilizer water once every 10~15 days, and fertilization should be stopped in summer. In spring, half a month before the two growth peaks arrive, it is advisable to apply dry bean 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 phosphorus fertilizer should be added to make the flowers large and colorful and to prevent "flower arrow clamping." When fertilizing, do not pour it onto the leaves or into the leaf sheaths. If fertilizer is insufficient, the leaves will lack luster, the flowers will be few and small, and it may even bloom every other year. Regular topdressing is generally carried out in spring and autumn, and less in summer and winter.
Light for Clivia nobilis
Clivia nobilis has broad leaves and a certain shade tolerance, preferring a semi-shaded environment. Plants grown under 50% light transmittance have verdant green leaves, which can greatly improve 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 straight line will become disordered, leading to a decline in ornamental effect, so care should be taken to let the plant receive light evenly and rotate the pot regularly.
Sowing Clivia nobilis
The fruit of Clivia nobilis often 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 that the seeds are mature and can be harvested in time. After the seeds are taken out of the fruit, they can be sown after 2~# days; if left too long, the bud eye will dry, flatten, and shrink, and the seedling emergence rate will decrease significantly. The seedling substrate is best as sandy soil rich in humus. When sowing, place the seed holes facing upward evenly, and cover with substrate just enough to cover the seeds. Water after sowing, and use plastic film to keep warm, but leave ventilation pores. The germination temperature is best at 20°C, and roots can form after one month. After two true leaves grow, 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 should be combined with repotting.
Dividing Clivia nobilis
When dividing, first control water. When the potting soil is half dry, separate the side shoots from the mother plant and apply plant ash to the wounds. Wait until no liquid seeps from the wounds, then pot and plant them. After potting, place them in a semi-shaded place and manage them at a temperature of 20~25°C. After one month, they can sprout.
Pest and disease control for Clivia nobilis
1. Sunscald: The leaves all turn yellow, caused by long periods of 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 a small part of the root system is rotten, cut off the rotten part, apply sulfur powder or plant ash to the cut surface, and then repot with new soil. If most of the root system is rotten, cut off all the roots from the root crown, 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, and place it in a ventilated and shaded place so that it can regrow roots.
3. "Flower arrow clamping": Clivia nobilis often fails to send out the flower scape after bud formation during cultivation and cannot bloom. This phenomenon is called "flower arrow clamping." This is related to temperature and fertilizer. The main cause of flower arrow clamping is unsuitable temperature. The flowering period of Clivia nobilis is mostly from December to March of the following year. If the room temperature at this time is below 14°C and the temperature difference between day and night is also very small, the flower scape grows slowly after emerging, causing the flower arrow clamping phenomenon. The solution is: when the flower scape shows its head, immediately raise the room temperature to above 20°C, and at night the room temperature is best around 12°C, so that the temperature difference between day and night reaches above 18°C, which can prevent flower arrow clamping. You can also pour 25°C warm water into the soil to urge the arrow. When the room temperature is too low, you can make a frame with plastic film to cover the outside of the flower pot and place it in the sun to increase the temperature and urge the "arrow."
4. Anthracnose: This disease mostly occurs in rainy and humid seasons, and the lesions are mostly on the edges of the middle and lower leaves. In the early stage of the disease, moist brown small spots appear on the leaves, then 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 cut off diseased branches, and burn them together; second, before the disease occurs, spray 65% zineb 600-fold 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 spray 75% chlorothalonil solution diluted 600~800 times.
Cultivation techniques for Clivia nobilis
1. Propagation
Division and sowing propagation are commonly used. For division, after flowering each spring, remove the offsets beside the mother plant and plant them separately. If the offsets have no fleshy roots, they can first be inserted into sand and potted after rooting. For sowing, sow in pots indoors in winter, and the room temperature needs to be above 20°C, otherwise the seeds are prone to rot. They germinate 20~25 days after sowing. Seedlings grown from seed must be cultivated for 4~5 years before they can bloom.
2. Cultivation
When potted, it should not be watered 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 the high-temperature period in summer, pay attention to spraying water to cool it down. In autumn, topdress appropriately to promote leaf growth. In winter, increasing temperature and keeping the soil moist are beneficial for flowering.
How to grow Clivia nobilis, the cultivation methods for Clivia nobilis are introduced here for everyone, and I believe it will certainly be helpful to friends.