Department: Glass
Brushing up, clearing and watering Dave's area Top Terrace area in Temperate Display especially the stag ferns around fountain.
Watered & fed everything in the arid house in preparation for the weekend - Plectranthus were watered more then necessary so they don't have to be touched over the weekend.
More info on plants in Arid:
- Plectranthus baskets are propped in March for Autumn display. Shrub types are propped in Jan & in June also for autumn. Last year they did a specific Plectranthus display using the stock plants as well, but they are not usually used. Ones like P. lucidus and P. ernstii are early flowerers.
- Kalanchoe are June flowering and are displayed in Dec - Jan
- Protea - can be propagated by tip cutting and kept moist but not wet.
- Mimetes cucullatus are the only Protaceae that grow from rootstock after fire.
- When deciduous succulents die back - they do not need watering.
- Crassula and Sedum like lots of light in particular.
- Nematode, Pyrethrum 5EC, Attractor and Savona are also used for pest control. Algaecide is also used for cleaning the algae that builds up on the floors. They do also do bio control and use Koppert biological systems. They don't really get any leaf miner - vine weevil is more the problem in Arid. They sometimes get a caterpillar that has black dot on its head from a common house, small & brown moth with 2 dots on its shoulders - these occur more on mature plants e.g. Tillandsia kurt-hortsii and Colocasia, burying into bark. They use a little less pest monitors than Tropical - these are recorded every Tues. Sandra goes round house and looks at actual plants too and make a note of anomalies like - mottling on leaves, leaf curl etc. A type of mite also occurs on their impatiens which make their leaves crinkle, the edges of them go brown and to drop.
- Min. temp in the house 15°C
- The water here is overly alkali (too much bicarbonate) but they can't acidify water too much other it would start to erode the PVC joints, so the soil is becoming more alkali.
- Glasshouse team file has things like spraying/ monitor sheets and research on plants.
The Lachenalia are starting to grow.