October 27th, 2012

Its always distressing to watch my trees go through transplant shock. However, I bet its not as shocking as it is to the trees themselves. Here are pics of my two Maha Chanoks.

MC "B" is holding onto more leaves than "A" which I am guessing is due to the sun expose in the greenhouse. Unfortunately, I can't locate a space that's shadier. Its just too crowded. The gritty mix was really dry.

MC "A" is down to three leaves. Oh boy, I really hope it pulls through. I noticed that there was some dead tissue just below the first node above the graft. I'm guessing its sun-scald or cold damage from when it was young. the gritty mix was surprisingly dry. I'm a little worried about the watering needs.

Spirit of '76 is pushing out a whole bunch of new leaves. I keep looking at it with the desire to chop to half its current height but I should really wait till the roots are established. Forgive the photo, the greenhouse was very humid; causing my lens to fog up.

Update, October 18th, 2012

Maha Chanok A & B

Transplant shock is fully underway for both Maha Chanoks. :-(

Maha "A" is showing signs of leaf browning. However, the humidity is keeping the other leaves relatively green and still attached. a few more days will tell if he survives.

Maha "B" is looking better but showing signs of shriveling too now. Leaves are looking good still.

Spirit of '76

After loosing almost all its leaves, its now growing new ones.

I wish I had more seedlings to graft Spirit onto.

Update, October 16th, 2012

Julie #4

Nice flush of growth plus flowers.

Lemon Zest

is still growing.

Grafted LZ & CC

Julie #1

Little fruits are getting bigger.

 

Pickering

Young/Tebow A

Poor guy is trying to push new growth.

Maha Chanok A

Day 3 and its showing signs of shriveling. Hoping for new roots soon.

 

Maha Chanok B

Day 2 and so far looking good.

 

Coconut Cream & Spirit of '76

Repotting Maha Chanok "B"

Maha Chanok "B" gets bare-rooted.

 MC "B" has a root system slightly bigger than "A" but its still small.

 Into the gritty mix it goes.

 And then into the greenhouse it goes. The next two weeks will tell if both Maha's establishes in the new medium.

Et voilá.

MC "A" gets repotted into gritty mix.

I started the repotting late in the day, around 5:30pm; because I needed to get my car maintained.

Bare-rooting was simple. It didn't have much of a root system. It pretty much fell out of the wet soggy soil it was in. I'm tempted to repot my other MC on Sunday.

I was fascinated by the figure "8" created b the tap-root. Maybe an infinity symbol!

So here it is, in a 5 gallon GroPot with gritty mix. I'm a little worried that it might prove too dry but time will tell.

Here it is, in the greenhouse.

Et voilá.

Welcome Maha Chanok A & B

My two new Maha Chanok arrived three full days ahead of schedule.  So I get to plant one of them into my gritty mix this weekend.

(Thanks George!!)

The plants were tightly packed in the box.

Relatively small whips compared to what the other gardenweb posters got from Plantogram. However, I'm not complaining, just surprised. I love them! The one pictured below, I am calling "Maha Chanok A."

This one I'm calling "Maha Chanok B." I'm going to leave this one in its nursery pot until I see how "MC A" fairs in its new potting medium.

Will post more after the transplant.

October 11th, 2012

Coconut Cream still alive and holding onto more leaves than any tree I've had after transplant shock. ST Maui too is doing great (no pictures yet).

 Spirit of '76 lost almost all its leaves but its pushing new growth and the twigs are still plump and not shriveled.

 My grafted Spirit is pushing growth.

 My 30 day old grafted Glenn is still alive.

 My grafted Coconut Cream is two weeks old.

 This too.

 I grafted a CC onto my Lemon Zest graft. I think I did a crappy job; I don't know if it'll work. I really want to make a cocktail tree out of this plant. I'm thinking of chip budding a Maui onto it?

Hmmm.

Gritty Mix and Heat.

Today, I mixed up a batch of "Gritty Mix" that I learned on Gardenweb forums.

I used 1 part Floor-Dry (from Napa Auto Parts), 1 part 1/8" crushed granite (from Lyngso; called Desert Gold) and 1 part Perlite (Foxfarms Big & Chunky). I also added CaMag and KLN hormone into  the mix and watered it through.

I decided not to use bark; which was called for in the original recipe because the only suitable bark I could find was Repti Bark; which was expensive. However, according to what I read in the forums, its okay to go the inorganic route. Eventually these Gro Pots will be for my Maha Chanoks.

I went to the office today to work and noticed that the extra heat in the corner where Julie #4 and my two Lemon Zests has caused it to go into another growth flush. I was really excited. I'm gonna have to make sure my greenhouse is going to be hot.

 Julie #4 is also flowering; happy but I rather it grow leaves.

 My Lemon Zest graft is pushing out two new shoots. The MC chip bud died and turned black. I'm thinking of perhaps attempting to graft Coconut Cream onto it, so I can try to make a cocktail tree.

Et voilá.

Oh, and Julie #1's little fruits are getting bigger.