Jerry has returned to the home of plant collectors Jazmin Edwards and Jacob Wood in Caboolture, where care for more than 600 plants, including some of the most obscure and sought-after varieties around. Subscribe 🔔 ab.co/GA-subscribe
Jazmin and Jacob construct custom “grow poles” to train their climbing aroids up. “They’re the type of plant that wants to grow on a surface. They go nuts when they go on a pole they think they’re growing on a tree. Philodendron means ‘tree hugger’ ”.
Many growers will use sphagnum moss to construct these poles, but it comes with significant environmental concerns. Jaz and Jacob came up with an alternative that they feel also performs better.
To construct an aroid grow pole you will need:
- A power drill and a bit that will make a hole around 30mm in diameter
- Hydroponic felt
- Glue
- PVC or poly pipe in 90mm diameter and 1-meter lengths
- Cypress chips (available in bulk at landscaping yards as mulch)
- Sandpaper
- Gloves
- Tape measure
- Scissors
- Brush
What you do:
- Pre-cut your felt so it will wrap around the exterior of the pole with around 10cm overhang
- Use the drill to make holes at around 10cm intervals on 2 sides of the pipe
- Lightly sand the exterior of the pipe to provide a better surface for glue adhesion
- Use the brush to apply glue all over the outside of the drilled pipe
- Lay the felt on the ground, and carefully place the pipe on one end so it lines up
- Roll the pipe up in the felt and trim the excess
- Fill the interior of the pipe with cypress chip. You can also use orchid bark, but Jacob says “this is way cheaper and they like the acidity”.
The bark on the inside acts as a slow-release water reservoir, and eventually, the plant’s aerial roots will grow through the anchoring felt and find their way inside the pole. Expanding your pole is simply a matter of making another and connecting the pipe top of the last.
Once the glue is dry, you’re ready to install your pole and put a plant in! Jaz and Jacob recommend installing a thin layer of rocks at the bottom of the pot before putting the pole in, to keep it clear of the drainage hole.
CUSTOM AROID MIX:
Jazmin and Jacob also blend their own custom potting mix to get the best results out of their aroids. “We realised pretty quickly that regular potting mix wasn’t going to work,” says Jacob. “The best advice we got was ‘keep it chunky’.
“Aroids grow in leaf litter, so you want to mimic that natural environment”.
Their mix recipe:
- 40% coarse-grade perlite
- 20% large-grade vermiculite
- 10% coir chip
- 10% chicken manure
- 20% chipped cypress
The resulting mix is coarse, open and resistant to breakdown. “It doesn’t go solid like a rock and resist water over time. We do about 100 Litres at a time and use a cement mixer to mix it!”
Featured plants:
Philodendron tenue
Filmed on Kabi Kabi Country | Caboolture, Qld
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28 июл 2024
