Posted by Tom Broome on 3/21/2007, 9:53 pm, in reply to "Re: Increasing Cycad Growth Rates by Removing Leaves" --Previous Message-- I do not say that in my article, so you must be talking about advice I gave someone on this forum. I can't find offhand where I said that, but assuming I did say that, I will explain myself. This article was to tell people about my observations because I thought it was interesting and it shows a little more perspective on how cycads work. Some people think after they read the article that they should go out and cut off all their leaves on their sagos. I don't suggest that. When I performed my experiments, these plants were fully rooted in, they were growing in my soil mix, I water every other day, and I am using the best fertilizer I can find. The plants reacted the best anyone would hope for, except for people who live in Hawaii, who can kick my butt on how fast their cycads grow. When people on the forum ask me simple questions about their sagos I try to think about their particular situation and what is going on with their plants. If for any reason, their sago is weak, be it Asian scale, not using a good fertilizer, etc. Cutting leaves can be more risky. Even if you cut some of the leaves on a weak plant it could hurt the plant a bit. So, for the average person asking a question, I would tell them to keep their good leaves on. For an advanced person wanting to try something new that might speed up the plants growth, then try what I mention in my article. Most of my articles are for basic information. This article, along with a couple of others, is more of an advanced method type of article. I have so many other advanced things that work that I haven't even written an article about yet, because many times something that advanced in the hands of the average person might cause problems. : Second... To the extent you could :
205.188.116.136
: Tom:
: I would also add that your Article
: seems to conflict with your advice,
: given below, that you would
: "never cut off leaves unless
: they need to be cut off. Cutting off
: good looking leaves just reduces the
: enrgy in the plant."
:
: Doesn't this conflict with the
: observations, in your article, that
: REMOVING good looking leaves, say
: 20-50%, actually promotes a growth
: response in most (but not all)
: cycads?
:
: Regards,
:
: Glenn
: Miami, FL
As examples, I haven't mentioned my experiments on changing the sex of cycads, and I haven't talked about drilling holes in seeds or totally removing the hard shells to speed up germination because in the wrong hands, they might just kill plants and seeds. I've also totally cured Asian scale and made cycas plants totally immune to scale predation without using chemicals, but am still performing many experiments to make sure of my results before I write something about it. I am thinking about writing an "advanced cycad cultivation" book anyway, where I can talk about the general cultivation subjects and then add advanced methods that I haven't told anyone about yet, for those people who want to try some of the radical things I experiment with.
:
: --Previous Message--
: Thank you for your article
: "Increasing the Growth Rate of
: Plants and Offsets by Removing
: Leaves" I would appreciate some
: clarifications.
:
: What approach would you take to
: pruning if my goal is to increase
: growth WITHOUT increasing the number
: of offsets.
:
Producing more offsets was a byproduct of the increase of leaves and stem size. It was not really part of what I was trying to accomplish, but it was intewresting to see that more offsets were produced. I would still do it the same way if you are not looking to increase offset numbers.
: add a list of genera/species that
: are affected by pruning, it would be
: interesting to see that appended to
: your article.
This is what it says in my article, what more are you looking for? Remember, I only tried it on about 50 species.
"I have tried this procedure on fifty species, with mixed results. Most all Zamia, Ceratozamia, and Bowenia species reacted well to this procedure. Cycas and Dioon had mixed results, and, for some reason, the Encephalartos species did not work very well. I have observed that the shorter the stem, the better this procedure works. Subterranean species worked the best out of all the plants. It appears that the farther the apex is to the base of the plant, the less the offsets are affected by this procedure."
: Regards,
:
: Glenn,
: Miami
:
:
:
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