Unicarina Grandidieri

[mike-coral gables]

My unicarina Is thriving in my hot, humid  9b  lakefront Z . Burned back quite a bit in Jan 2018 but came roaring back. Just bought seeds on eBay of a Unicarina stelluifera  ( looks like grandidieri but with pink flowers)  and wanting help from you guys on how best to germinate. Any help/advise is appreciated .

[Silas_Sancona]

6 minutes ago, mike-coral gables said:

My unicarina Is thriving in my hot, humid  9b  lakefront Z . Burned back quite a bit in Jan 2018 but came roaring back. Just bought seeds on eBay of a Unicarina stelluifera  ( looks like grandidieri but with pink flowers)  and wanting help from you guys on how best to germinate. Any help/advise is appreciated .

Nice specimen Mike.. 

 Have this sp. and a couple others myself. My largest, U. peltata, is about a week out from the first flowers of the year.  Grew from a 1' tall plant to over 5' while there in FL. Has handled the heat here in the Desert well as long as i move it into more shade to keep the sun from burning the trunk through the hottest part of our summers. Surprisingly, no damage from the handful of days i hit 26-28F at the house this winter.. Does defoliate every year though. Is now over 6' in height. Too big to bring inside. Other two are still small atm.

As for germinating seeds? " Heat and moisture, though not too much moisture or the seedlings can rot "..  is what i have been told from those i know who propagate them  regularly.. Think of Uncarina the same way you would stuff that grows during the warm season.  I myself would use a gritty soil mix with little or no Organic components, esp. Peat Moss. 

Let us know how they do.  Been on the hunt for U. stelluifera myself for awhile.. Supposedly, there's also an elusive, white flowering sp. out there i'd like to find someday..

[mike-coral gables]

8 minutes ago, Silas_Sancona said:

Nice specimen Mike.. 

 Have this sp. and a couple others myself. My largest, U. peltata, is about a week out from the first flowers of the year.  Grew from a 1' tall plant to over 5' while there in FL. Has handled the heat here in the Desert well as long as i move it into more shade to keep the sun from burning the trunk through the hottest part of our summers. Surprisingly, no damage from the handful of days i hit 26-28F at the house this winter.. Does defoliate every year though. Is now over 6' in height. Too big to bring inside. Other two are still small atm.

As for germinating seeds? " Heat and moisture, though not too much moisture or the seedlings can rot "..  is what i have been told from those i know who propagate them  regularly.. Think of Uncarina the same way you would stuff that grows during the warm season.  I myself would use a gritty soil mix with little or no Organic components, esp. Peat Moss. 

Let us know how they do.  Been on the hunt for U. stelluifera myself for awhile.. Supposedly, there's also an elusive, white flowering sp. out there i'd like to find someday..

Thank you Silas , do you think moistened sand with perlite then covered with plastic wrap would work ?

[Silas_Sancona]

29 minutes ago, mike-coral gables said:

Thank you Silas , do you think moistened sand with perlite then covered with plastic wrap would work ?

Yea, that would work, would use a coarse grained sand vs. stuff from the yard though.. It ( normal FL. sand ) might be too small and retain too much moisture for too long.

If you can find it, highly recommend adding Turface to the soil mix also.. While you'll likely have plenty left over ( sold in 50lb bags,  at any of the landscape supply places that also deal with Baseball turf / field  management ), you can use it when potting / re-potting pretty much anything else you might have.  Really helps with  aeration of the soil mix, keeping enough moisture in it, and draining away excess water.  And it won't try floating away / up out of the soil mix like perlite can.

If you cover the seeds w/ plastic, keep an eye on it and remove once the seeds starts germinating.  Lack of air movement under the plastic combined with hot / moist conditions can rot the seedlings also. I'd also keep them out of direct sun. The heat / humidity there this time of year should be enough to get them going.

Edited April 14, 2019 by Silas_Sancona
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