One month after this video progress update :- • Guava growing UK, very...
You may have seen my video a couple of weeks ago where I talked about my rapidly deteriorating guava and the initial steps I took to see if it would show any improvement. Needless to say there has been no sign of any change and the green growth buds have just been turning brown. So I've decided that I had to take drastic action to see if anything could be done.
If the problem is root related rather than a disease the only action I can take without the use of a heated greenhouse is to remove the plant from the pot, inspect the root ball and in this case completely wash away all the old compost and start again. Its crucial you use luke warm water to do this, icy cold water from the tap would definitely shock the roots and surely kill off any slim chance of saving the plant.
The main enemies of tropical fruit plants in this country are cold and wet, things that invariably occur together in our winter, even when they are brought indoors. Guavas are drought tolerant ( if planted in ground ) but are also very thirsty plants do it's easy to get it wrong as I seem to have done.
I would NEVER recommend anyone trying to bareroot a tropical evergreen plant, it just isn't likely to turn out well as this kind of treatment only really suits dormant deciduous trees, but I felt I had no other option but to give it a go.
The mix I used to keep it extremely well aerated and quick draining is
1 part coconut coir fibre
1 part composted bark
1 part orchid bark mix
1 part citrus compost
2 parts perlite
Sorry but I missed a small part of the middle of the video out where I showed the roots mostly
washed clean of the old soil, the video was getting too long.
Finally I've enclosed the plant in a polythene 'tent' to increase humidity and stabilise the temperature and moved it to a shadier but warmer location in my house.
I will do an update in a few weeks regardless of whether the plant dies or starts to recover.
Thanks for watching !
14 мар 2020
