Hydroponic Chammies

[Kamipalms]

Hadn't checked in the greenhouse for a while and it's amazing to see how much things grow when you don't check every day.....

Whilst in the greenhouse today I found my hydroponic C.metallicas are flowering . Had to rub my eyes to make sure I wasn't seeing thngs but sure enough 2 of 4 plants are flowering.

for a bit of history, I grew a heap of metallicas from seed , these seeds went down in September-ish of 2003. A year later I transplanted 4 seedlings into expanded clay then into a hydroponics set while keeping a couple of "test" subjects in regular medium.

2 years on and these hydroponicaly grown metallicas are flowering. Growth rates are almost tripple the test subjects and spewing new fronds within a matter of weeks , even through winter.

The last 6 months or so I've gone away from using expensive off the shelf hydroponic nutrients and changed over to a chemical based liquid fertiliser . There has been absolutly no change in using the liquid fert over the proper hydro nutrient.

Whilst being more than busy of late, It's been a few months since I have checked Ph and EC levels and again, there is no evidence of the plants being starved in any way or Ph levels having any affect without knowing what their like.

For the few that have followed since the beginning, the C.tepejilote's in the hydro stet are now too big to continue. These are now 3-4ft tall and one would have flowered earlier this year if I hadn't acidently broken off the flower bract....bugger it!

Photo's to come

Jason.

[RainForestt Robert]

How about some pics?  Great going though.  Metallicas (rock) are among my favorite Chamaedoreas.

Robert

[BigWaveDave]

Hey Jason, I think that your results are amazing.  Do you think that the hydroponic plants can be transitioned to regular soil succesfully and easily?

[Zac in NC]

Did you get the computer fixed Jason, or are you still using the Mrs's laptop? Hope to see pics soon.

Zac

[chris.oz]

Jason,

I have masses of metallicas,  mostly females.   I am going to buy a male today.  How do I tell when the male flower is releasing pollen?

Are the male flowers always orange at anthesis and do they stay orange longer than the time during which they release pollen ??

[Zac in NC]

I have one metallica that I bought in Colorado of all places. Never seen them for sale here in North Carolina, but I was able to pick one up for about 15 USD in Boulder in a non specialty nursery/ hardware store.

Zac

[Kamipalms]

Heres a couple of pics;

photo taken mid 2005

Left is the hydro grown metallicas verses the "control" on the right

Heres an update pic taken today

and the 4 hydro grown metallicas with the control in the middle

Robert,

Metallicas are an easy one even in a cool climate. I'd definatly recomend these in a 9a/b climate and the darker yo keep the lighting the darker more metallic sheen you end up with.

Dave,

There was a lot of hoo-ha about changing back to a regular medium from hydroponics . It was the general thought that they would go into shock from the lack of nutrient availability. This is definatly not the truth. I've changed a few plants back to regular medium  with out any set backs. I had a C.frondosa ( a rather rare and expensive Chammie) and a few C.tenella's ( mini C.geonomiformis as their called now)in hydros for a year or so to see what would happen. I decided to remove these for particular reasons and you wouldn't know any differance.The planst did not show any signs of stress or any other changes.

Zac,

Can't afford to get a new PC for a while yet so I'm stuck with my wife's laptop. Stinks not having photoshop to edit my pics...but atleast I have some access to the net.

US$15.00 for a metallica sounds a bit rich unless it was a good size?

Chris,

These guys ( along with the other 4 of this subgenus) are a bit tricky in the collecting pollen department. They do not drop a powder type pollen like you may be use to but they do have a stickey, grain type which has  to be removed manually.

Whilst reading this, have a close look at the Anthesis pics on my site- HERE'S a link. (EDIT - the photo in your post Chris didn't display the first time . All photos on my site are hot link protected to save on bandwidth so they may not display for everyone) When the male reaches anthesis you will see a tiny amount of "sap" on the green centre of each flower. This indicates the point of anthesis and the time to act.

I've heard a few methods for extracting pollen and some do work but they are all time consuming methods and nothing can change this.

Going back to basics, the sap released by each flower would be there to attract the natural pollinators and thinking these insects would land on an individual flower their legs would pass through the flower petals coming in contact with the pollen in doing so, efectivly removing it. Now, for us humans to replicate this, both sex's would have to be at anthesis together for a sucessfull pollen transfer but this is not allways the case.

I've heard of a few ways to store pollen including drying flowers and colecting the pollen. I have had very low sucess with this method and usually the females reject the pollen However, using a freezer is one method that does work very well.......

hope this helps,

Jason

[Zac in NC]

Jason- It is about 18 inches tall overall. I may have gotten screwed, but its too late now. I am not in Colorado anymore. They had 3 plants and they were labeled Fishtail Dracaena I believe, but I knew exactly what they were.

How often are you watering them in that medium? I am just curious as to what your hydroponics setup looks like, since you pictured them not in a watery environment.

Zac

[DoomsDave]

Metallicas are SLOW, at least in my experience.  If hydro's a way to get more speed, I'm all for that.

I don't know how old this one is, but it was old when I got it:

[Jeff zone 8 N.C.]

Jason, your website is awesome. You have some of the best detailed pictures I have ever seen. I am very glad to see that someone is passionate enough to do the work you are doing. You mention very good success with freezer storage of pollen. Can you give details of pollen preparation and storage method? Thanks for your reply, Jeff.

[Kamipalms]

Zac,

Heres an older pic of the set up;

It a flood and drain system cycling 3 times a day throughout the year.

Dave,

Your right about metallicas being slow and hydroponics do speed things up but this is not the case for C.er-nasty augustii. My hydro  er-nasty's do not grow any faster than regularly grown er-nasty's. Everything else in the hydro set has exploded with growth except for these guys.

Jason, your website is awesome. You have some of the best detailed pictures I have ever seen. I am very glad to see that someone is passionate enough to do the work you are doing.

Thank you Jeff.

It's allways nice to hear someone appreciates what I do and with the down fall of Chamaedorea in regards to availability and interest this motivates me to keep things going.

Ok, details of pollen preperation and freezer storage;

Its quite technical so I'll be as specific as possible to help with understanding my method:

1. Cut the entire male inflorescence

2. Stuff in freezer bag

3. Open freezer door

4. Stuff in freezer

5. Close freezer door

6. Leave frozen till required

Preparing pollen for use:

1.Defrost

2.Remove pollen with a fine paintbrush and apply to female flowers at anthesis

Hopefully this method is easy to follow  

Jason.

[Zac in NC]

Thanks for sharing that setup Jason. so Er-nasties aren't faster in Hydro. Interesting.

Also interesting is your pollen storage method. You mean you don't lose viability of pollen and/or seeds by this method? Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!

Zac