I planted a couple of Jacaranda seeds from a pod from a tree in my neighborhood in new potting soil from Home Depot in a clear plastic cup. After a week a little seedling appeared. It continued to grow for about a week or two getting slightly bigger each day. That was some time around July, IIRC. It's now late September, and it hasn't grown since. It's still green, and doesn't look sick or wilting, though it's sagged very slightly, but it's just been the same every day for months now. It's very tiny still, maybe 1/2" tall. I have it in a room where sun rakes across it for maybe an hour or two a day, and it's ambiently quite bright much of the rest. The room is comfortably warm. I keep the soil moist, giving it a small shot of water every week or so, which drains out of holes in the bottom, though the potting soil tends to stay fairly moist through to the next watering. Has it gone dormant? What would keep it from growing in any way for months? I pushed a half stick of miracle grow into the soil about 1/4" away from it and watered it again a few days ago - no change. Now I'm wondering if that stick could cause problems, like root rot (been reading around, trying to solve this). I'd like to see this little guy take off and put him in bigger and bigger pots. Any ideas? pH? Supplements? More sun? Less water? Different soil? My blood? Thanks!
The adult trees do have a dormant period. I think ours are getting ready to flower and we are in early spring. Maybe yr seedlings are getting ready for the dry season (winter) given they are tropical trees. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacaranda Liz
Thanks, Liz. Our Jacs bloomed many months ago and lost their petals probably 2 months ago. You know, I learned in school - and it's always made sense - that the southern half of the planet has seasons at opposing times of the year. I never really thought it through, though. It feels very strange now that I have to imagine December as a warm month, and July as the cold time of the year. I figured I was a fool for never really noticing this, but when I asked around, friends, family, and coworkers here in the US hadn't thought it out, either. They were as surprised to imagine this as I was. I set up a little starter tray with peat discs and planted 2 each of the 12 with the 6 different seeds I had on hand, gathered from around my area of LA: Blue Passion Flower (Passiflora caerulea), American Sweet Gum (Liquidambar styraciflua), Gold Medallion Tree (Cassia leptophylla), Purple Orchid Tree (Bauhinia variegata), and Blue Jacaranda (J. mimosifolia). That was almost a week ago. Sometime between yesterday and today, 4 have poked through - the orchid trees and the jacs. One of the former must have been coiling up below the surface, as it exploded to over 1" high from nothing yesterday, and it's thick and hearty. Nothing from the other guys, yet, and the passion flower peat pods are all mold. I think it was the sugary goo all around them (got them out of the one fruit that appeared this year). I'll have to see what these 2 new jacs do. If they stop after the first little leaves appear, I'll know there's something going on in my environment, as most other variables have changed. If they keep growing, something's wrong with that first seedling, or its different soil/container/watering conditions. Thanks!
