Need help please!

I have never really grown these type plants at least successfully. I have killed so many African Violets and Gloxinia. I should be in Gesneriad jail. However I have done well with Streptocarpus for I just leave them outside all year and they are surprisingly hardy.

I have always wanted to grow the so PINK Episcias. A few years ago I bought some terrariums just to do that. Well I finally got it together to get some colorful and very PINK Episcias. I have them in bags right now.

Would anyone be so kind here to share with me a good terrarium soil recipe so I can successfully grow some in a closed terrarium?

THANKS so much!

I have been using the african violet soil (any brand, Home Depot, Walmart, etc), and add extra perlite. I probably have a 2/3 soil and 1/3 perlite. Some people add charcoal. I also microwave my soil for about 2 minutes now...lately I've had some issues of mold growing in my containers, thats why I nuke it...be careful..it can catch on fire.

I put and inch or so of perlite in the bottom first and then add the soil and plant the plant. Keep an eye on it that it is not too damp in there.

Those pink episcia are pretty aren't they. The ones with the orange-red flowers clash though..I have one that blooms pink but I'm not sure what its name is.

Do you repot your violets? You need to get them out of that peat soil they are growing in at the stores. I can't grow a strep or orchid to save me.

If you wait a bit, others will post on here about how they grow.

Post a pic when you get it finished!

tish

Make the mix extra wet, nuke it in a covered container, let it cool down and squeeze out all the water you can. This way you won't set your house on fire/ruin your microwave... :)

Olaf

LOL Good tip, Olaf! Thanks so much. I for sure would be the one to have their house burned down too!

Thanks Tish! I had a recipe that called for orchid moss to pulled thru potting soil and to use that as the soil. But then I realized it was a recipe for begonias in terrariums.

The first year I realized streptocarpus were so hardy I was shocked. I had planted some in the ground at the base of a rose arbor. In the spring they were still there! We do go down to the 30s at night so I was thrilled. Maybe you are babying them too much.

No, I have not repotted my now dead AVs. I have heard you should but never got to it. I usually get suckered in at some real pretty variegated leaf one and buy it on a whim. And they die so fast! Too be honest, I do not want to start with them. I have way too many plant collections as it is. Just hard to walk on by sometimes.

I do love the leaves of Episcias. Anything variegated just sings to me. And PINK variegation is even better. I recently saw this one and just had to pick it for Bloom of the Day though not a bloom. The whole plant rates as a bloom, so special. http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/botd.php?date=2011-02-26

Thank you both for your help. I just do not want to rot them. They are doing well in their bags on my seedling table! LOL

I don't know why you couldn't use moss in the mix...I would just be sure of the perlite as that will give it some aireation (sp). I tried rooting gesneriads and episcia in New Zealand Spagnum moss (mixed with some soil and perlite, think they call that "dirty moss"?) and they loved it. Just keep an eye on the moisture level . They are slow growers too...guess because they have less green.

Let me tell you about streps...My first one was a leaf of Echo. It rooted and grew two plants. One I weaned out of the glass container and one I left in. The one outside did really well, it grew and bloomed and grew and bloomed and was very hardy. After a couple years it needed to be divided and repotted. Both parts died. The one in the glass jar tho not as hardy or strong grower, lived and bloomed for a long time. After that I could get no strep leaf pieces to root. People on 3 different plant forums gave me ideas of how to grow them...nothing worked. I have 4 now, all growing in large gallon glass jars....so yes, its true, they are babied, ha. Can't grow orchids either. I'm good at just about everything else though! I threw some violets outside one year...they were not doing well so they were "tossed" where I put all my old soil, I'm trying to build up a new place to make a flower garden. It was shady and they kept growing and rooted well in place...looked better outside than they had inside...so I guess neglect was better than pamper.

There was an article in Gesneriads a while ago titled "What works? What works!". The point is: You can definitely take advice from other growers. However: You got to figure out/adjust everything to your growing conditions.

I wouldn't put a tall growing nutrient hogging Kohleria in "dirty Spaghnum" but for micro mini Sinningias it works beautifully. And this is just an example.

I have a Begonia growing in my standard Gesneriad mix and it's doing fine and I have Sinningia pusilla in "dirty Spaghnum" and they're doing fine. For instance: I would plant a pink Episcia in "dirty Sphagnum" just like a terrarium Begonia and would keep it a bit more on the moist and warm side.

I use MiracloGro Tomato fertilizer 1/4-1/2 strength on everything because it's cheap and it works like a charm while I heard people say that they have trouble with it. I sometimes use Schultz Bloom Plus which has an insanely high second number (Phosphorus) and everybody warned me about it but it works great for me.

And these are only a few examples. The beauty of the hobby is that it's a constant learning process. It's a lot of trial and error and figuring out what works for you.

Olaf

That's so true Olaf.
My pink Episcias are all growing in plain old 1-1-1 mix.Cleopatra is mostly covered,Canadian Cleo has a large hole in the top of her container and Debary's Embers,a very dark pink leaf grows with or without cover.

Lynn

Hi Kell --

Oh you "have to" post a pic when your project is done!! You have such an excellent eye, I'd really love to see what you come up with.  

Interestingly, one of my more recent plant obsessions is episcia ... especially pink ones .. and I am putting together two terrariums with them.  The first is coming along, but is kind of so-so.  I've been busy rearranging the poor plants --   they are tolerant of my interference and are starting to settle in and grow.  The second one is larger and still in the planning stage, but I'd like to put in episcias, a small bromeliad, some miniature violets, and possibly a mini paph or phal orchid if I can get these to coexist happily.   We'll see how that goes, but awfully fun to try in any case.  

Anyhow, I am definitely still a rookie here, but from what I've seen, perlite is the magic component in the soil mix  -- it buffers the water level, protecting from over or under-watering, which I think is really easy to screw up in a terrarium.

Jan

Interesting point Olaf. Some of the most talented gardeners I know rely on their instinct and seldom follow the rules.  I've tried to learn this lesson from them. 

In my case, my first "plant love" was succulents.  I am stingy about watering  and don't even think about it until I can feel leaves getting limp.  Well ... that's a great approach for succulents, but with gesneriads, I've had to adjust and at times, break the rules to accommodate my tendencies.  For streps,  I still think it's best to wait until the leaves soften before watering, but in a small pot, my mine can't go more than ~12 hours like this.   Although I'm pretty vigilant, this just isn't enough of a margin of error.  My streps really weren't doing well at first.  But once I put them in larger pots ( which everyone swears is a terrible mistake), I bought myself a "grace period" of about 24 hours.  Perfect for me and now they do really well.  But I'd never tell anyone else to do this.  As you say,  whatever works ... 

Jan

For me, trying to learn, what is "dirty sphagnum?" When you put your streps in larger pots, what size pots were talking about? I have two young streps that wilt when they are dry , and don't perk up after watering but are continuing to grow. I 'm tempted to put them in a larger pot. Lou

Well, "dirty spaghnum" is just what the name suggests. You take some moist, long fibered spaghnum and dredge it through a mix of milled peat moss and Perlite and the result is "dirty spaghnum". Many people grow their rhizomatous Begonias in it. It also is used for a lot of epiphytes. I tested it on AVs and it works. All it is is a relatively moisture retaining, very open medium.

Thanks!!! Learned something new already today. LOL Lou

Hi Lou - I moved my streps into pots that are square and 4" per side (is this a 4" pot? -- I'm not sure). They were originally in square pots roughly 2" per side. My soil is 1/2 perlite 1/2 Promix BX. That said -- I am incredibly stingy about water. As in ... I once underwatered a cactus! :(

Jan

Thanks! Poor Cactus. LOL Lou

Do you believe it has taken me this long to get it together to do 1 of these? I used my smallest container and see now I will have to redo it. I put too much soil in so it does not have much room to grow.

I first placed about 1 inch of sand then 1 inch of charcoal in the bottom of the glass. I used Orchid moss which I hope works too! I dredged wet orchid moss into African violet soil I had bought.

Anyone else use this kind of moss?

Looks like this. Lowes sells it.

So for 2.5 months, my episcias survived with no added water at all in the plastic bags I had put them in when they came in the mail. LOL Hereis my big pink one that needs to go into my biggest container. Pretty good!

I also bought a Episcia 'Lime Ade' that I was going to put in with a so PINK one for contrast in the same terrarium but now I think I rather have a solid big PINK bowl!

I just looked back in my records and see I actually bought these in the middle of March so they have survived 3.5 months in bags with no added water. They were/are in In tiny 3 inch pots by 2 inches high that I made out of plastic cups and they actually grew quite a bit.


This is Episcia 'Lime Ade."

PS Hey Jan (wiggiej), how are yours coming along? Any pics? As you can see mine will not be fancy! I have always been blown away by the terrariums that are one big PINK bowl. So I am not going to complicate my bowls with other plants. My next bowl is huge so the plant can get big and so PINK. I am being optimistic! LOL .

Hey Kell!

I use the same LFS (Long Fibered Spaghnum) since I buy most of my supplies at Lowe's.

Dredging it through AV-mix works very well, although I tend to add some Perlite. Again: It's more of a personal preference than it is exact science.

Most people grow their Episcias unenclosed, except for the pink variegated ones like 'Cleopatra', 'Ember Lace' or 'Unpredictable Valley'. These do much better in a terrarium for the most of us. They also are (for Episcias) slow growers. They just need a little less of everything. I have Episcia 'Unpredictable Valley' in a terrarium for about 2 months now and I haven't watered it but once or twice.

As for the other Episcias: They are VERY fast and rampant growers with a tendency to get leggy in a matter of months. So, restarting them from tips or stolons will be necessary quite often.

There is not really a problem leavng them in their baggies for such a long time, except that you will send them into shock if you just uncover them now an probably lose them. Open the baggie gradually a little more every day and keep doing so for a week or so. This way, you might be losing a few leaves but the plants usually survive.

They are water and food hogs when growing unenclosed and should be watered pretty frequently. While Streps usually revive with little or no damage to the leaves, Episcias won't be too happy if you forget to water them...

I usually use a 1/4 strength fertilizer solution (I use MiracleGro Tomato fertilizer) with every watering and I flush the soil from time to time with plain tap water to prevent fertilizer buildup. This method works on pretty much all my Gesneriads except for the less hungry ones like Petrocosmeas or Chiritas (Oh, oops! They're all Primulina now...).

Episcias love the heat. They will stop growing when the temperatures dip below about 75-80 degrees. They will get damaged below 60 and they will die below about 55.

Always keep a few stolons as a backup. If you keep cutting the stolons off a plant, it will literally burst into bloom within a few weeks. I had 'Thad's Diamond Dust' do this just recently:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/flowerfreak/5857834931/

I can't think of anything else for now. I need a cup of coffee... LOL

Olaf

Great job Kell! Be sure to get a really large bowl for your Canadian Cleopatra....the one in the 10:59 post.Mine is in 2 large salad bowls hooked together and it's trying to grow out of them.

Lynn