Tropicals & Tender Perennials: A few questions, 1 by GordonHawk

GordonHawk wrote:
ALOHA...
Well thanks Pam.. for letting me know they were kicking off a plumeria group.. I'd heard on tropicals they were thinking of it...
Yes.. I grow the plumerias in NYC... a bit on the cool side for them in the winter ..
I grow m plumerias ..and everything else on my roof top there... abut as much as I can get to grow together in 1500 sq. ft . the home takes the over flow.. as does the street trees and a planter on the sidewalk.. and the hallway...
I have as Pam mentioned taken a seed to a flowering plumeria in about 9 months... this tree is now about 21/2 and stands 8' tall.. and hangs over the dinning room table now.. awaiting a trip upstairs in another month or more..
In my limited space on the roof I have a multitude of diverse and extreame microclimates I use for diffrent plants.. in diffrent was and times... first I grow mostly right on the roof surface... a black rubber membrane which early last summer when the air temps 15' off the roof were at 11 am about 80* F .. the roof surface was as measured by my 16" mercury cordon blu cooking thermometer was 145* F.. this gives my area a zone 4 through and including zone 14 .. as I don't know where has a growing temp of 145* to check this.. and i use the areas in front of the skylight glass for some plants ..that allows sun from the front and reflected from the back at the same time.. so there are quite favorable varrying conditions up there.. full sun on the entire place is from 6 am through 8 pm in the summer
I feed all of the time .. bloomboosters... supplemented with applications of SPRAY-N-GROW .. which I've been useing for over 25 years.. .. I foliar spray the ferts.. Bills perfect.. the s-n-g with a seaweed concentrate called MaxiCrop.. and their wetting agent..along with other ferts and additives I find about.. at diffrent times .. it's all they can do not to flower all of ther time.. why they don't is a mystery to me... Plumerias can tollerate a high root zone temps... but not as high on the leaves and limbs.. particularly.. a high greenhouse temperature is not quite as welcome.. but bottom heat hotter than one might imagine if quite welcome.. putting them on such a hot surface will indeed get them to grow and flower... potted and placed on a hot driveway is a real help to them..
I water through a drip irrigation system.. 4-5 times a day... they do dry out quite fast for me.. and they cycle through wet to dry a few times a day... so it's in a way like condencing time for them.. they get a few days of cycleing in to a few each day.. I water as much to lower the temperatures as to provide moisture.. my soil mix is mostly a bunch of diffrent potting soils.. with some compost and loam and perhaps a heavier wetter mix than most would recomend.. but again a real unique bunch of extream microclimes I work up there.. oh I do have a high wind problem...[ a high evaporation rate off the soil and through the transporation ] but it's helpful to have in other ways
I could never understand why the others I'd hear of were having so much trouble... withthe plumerias.. getting them to root.. grow .. flower .. and where they were getting their rot and other problems from.. It became apparent that it was the high bottom heat I was able to provide... which at first I was working to minimise .. in my growing.. but now try and use to my further advantage.. so my advice is to keep the rooot zone as hot as possible.. the tops cool ... and feed all ofthe time... and there will be fewer problems and greater growth...
Oh first winters... I bring my plumerias and other tropicals inside about Thanksgiveing.. and they stay in my house with me till about tax day.. of shortly after .. inside is warm and I'm unable to get them to go tooo dormant there... so I keep them alive and perhaps flowering all year long... they do loose their leaves on being brought in and going out.. as the light levels are so diffrent in the diffrent laces .. I've had them growing and flowering nicely for years with no detrimental effect of this... I'd like to have a cool greenhouse or a basement... [ ours is hotter with two furnaces and three water heaters going all of the wintertime] to let them do dormant.. if just to relieve me of the spydermite battles and watering considerations.. but I don't.. but do benefit from plumeria flowers in January when there is snow outside the windows... I do supplemeent light ... alll of the regular house lightiong is 7 color corrected spots... made in Finland ...Chromolux.. [ used there to combat cabin fever during their long winters ] 150w. spots... and there are 7 additional 150w. spots of the same type above some of the luckier ones.. and a new 6 bulb bank of the new T-5 type grow florescents above the sprouting bench... [ my 1000 w metal halide/HPS is too much to live with.. but the best for a dedicated growing area..]
well thoes are the conditions here... OK a picture to start off with.. I've inflos now but no plumerias blooming inside just now.. so a general picture from last year..... hope this has been of some help.. I took the time to write it last evening about 3 am.. but lost it trying to get a picture so I've tried again today .. hope I can get the picture in without loosing it like before ... guesss I should save it before I try to go further