During the Summer of 2007 I decided to give some newly hatched cycads a good soaking of heat in the greenhouse to try and encourage them to grow a new leaf. Some decided to respond. However mealy bugs decided they liked the taste of a particular species – Cycas Panzihuaensis – they quickly consumed the new emerging leaf before i even noticed they were there. The mealies didn’t bother the other cycads for some reason? Anyway, about 5 days later i saw that the same cycad had decided to put another leaf out!!!! Well this was a real surprise to me. I checked it for mealies and none seemed to be around. Well, within the next couple of days i went in there and saw the leaf had been chewed up yet again. This time however I thought to myself... “hmmm maybe it will grow another one?”... guess what... about 5 or so days later a third attempt emerged. This time the Cycad stayed with me wherever I went :D
This little escapade did get me thinking though... what would happen if i chopped emerging leaves off? I intend to try it out this Summer. I guess it will either stress the cycad out or... hopefully... make it grow faster. I know i can encourage new leaf production by defoliating grown cycads, but it never occurred to me that perhaps the same is true for baby ones too??? I’ll keep you posted.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment