Welcome to FluffMuffin's Garden!

The plants featuring in this garden include psychotria, kanna, kratom, salvia, acacia acuminata, cacti, banisteriopsis caapi, and anadenanthera columbrina (yopo), among others.

Initially, this log will be focusing on documenting psychotria. This is because there seems to be a lack of photos on the internet showing the early stages of growing psychotria, and info about germination rates and times can be hard to find.


Seeds were soaked in a dilute bleach solution (10%) for 15 minutes. Plastic sauce containers were disinfected and prepared with moist tissue paper. Some containers were filled with moist coco peat instead. Multiple containers were used to mitigate cross-contamination of any mold.

Seeds used:

Psychotria carthagenensis
Psychotria viridis (Shipibo cultivar)
Psychotria viridis (UDV cultivar)

All were obtained from a reputable, knowledgeable source.

Day 25 (3 weeks, 4 days) – The first seed to show signs of germination was a carthagenensis. The plants are labelled with a letter corresponding to the plant and an identification number.

C means Psychotria carthagenensis (amyruca)
S means Psychotria viridis (Shipibo cultivar) (chacruna)
U means Psychotria viridis (UDV cultivar) (chacruna)

Numbers follow a loose linear order, with some aberrations.

Environment

Emergent sprouts were planted in solo cups filled with a 70/30 Coco coir/perlite mix. This is the mix used for all these plants, except the kratom seedling, which is growing in 100% coco coir.

These were placed by a large north-facing window, which gets 0-5 hours of direct sun, and bright shade otherwise.

Humidity in the room is 40-50%, and some humidity domes were used sporadically, especially on the viridis plants. However, the domes were often removed from the viridis for weeks at a time. This wasn't an ideal approach. It's preferable to change humidity levels slowly.

The viridis seemed to grow faster in high humidity. Carthagenensis didn't seem to mind low humidity, but it made the leaves lose some saturation and softness.

The ambient temperature is usually 78.8-84.2 F (26-29 °C).

For reference, the average annual temperature in the Amazon rain-forest is 80.8 F (27.1 °C). The temperature in the Amazon hardly fluctuates throughout the year.

The kratom seedling is currently being grown under a 80watt 5500k CFL at a distance of 20cm, providing 9,000-10,000 lux to the top of the humidity dome, which further reduces the intensity because it is diffused, translucent plastic. The leaves are 1cm away from this plastic ceiling. Reflectors surround the dome. The humidity inside the kratom dome is probably about 60-75%, though it varies due to manual misting and the presence of gaps for air flow.

The amount of light was increased slowly over time so the seedling could adjust. In its early stages, it was originally kept under a 45watt 5500k CFL at a distance of 17cm. Probably not ideal, but it worked.

The kratom is hotter than the ambient room temperature due to the CFL and humidity dome. It was kept on a heating pad (25°C) for the first few weeks. It was grown very conservatively for the first month or two, and locked in a container to prevent disturbance, stress and contaminants. Retrospectively, this treatment was a bit ridiculous, but it did survive.

Watering

All plants are watered with quarter-strength Coco nutrients in an A+B formulation, PHed to 5.8-6. Calmag is added to each watering. Runoff of the nutrient solution is maintained at 10 percent or higher, even in the cups.

The kratom "soil" is kept wet. It was originally fertilized with quarter strength Coco nutrients for a while. It is currently watered every 2 days or so, and fertilized with half-strength each time. Hydrogen peroxide is added sometimes at 1ml-2ml per liter.

The other plants were watered in a lazy, conservative fashion, which isn't ideal in coco-coir/perlite unless one is trying to stretch the roots down or avoid pests and other dampness issues. The psychotria seemed drought-resilient, but care must be taken to not rot the seeds or dry them out before the cotyledons emerge. These seeds suffered from both of these issues. They naturally grow slowly, and multiple issues arose during the long sprouting process. A total lack of experience growing psychotria resulted in many lost plants.

Germination times and germination rates for psychotria

3 weeks, 2 days - first carthagenensis germination
2 months, 1 day - first viridis (shipibo) germination
2 months, 10 days - first viridis (UDV) germination

Germination rates measured from the first batch of psychotria seeds partway through:

15 carthagenensis seeds were sown. 14 germinated. Germination rate = 93%
58 viridis (Shipibo) seeds were sown. 32 germinated. Germination rate = 55.1%
20 viridis (UDV) seeds were sown. 11 germinated. Germination rate = 55%

In contrast with the carthagenensis, the viridis roots usually emerged from the blunt ends of the seeds. However, this was probably coincidental. Twins emerging from a single seed were common. There was also a triplet (see picture). The twins were separated (with limited success).

1cm-long leaves, which were turning yellow, were taken from a few plants to make leaf cuttings and hopefully preserve dying or stunted plants. There's a photo of one below. Some leaf cuttings of cotyledons were also taken and will root soon if they are successful. They're growing so slowly (even more than usual for this species), and the leaf cuttings will probably outgrow the parent plants quickly.

A second batch of psychotria seeds was also planted, with a good germ rate. Keep in mind that a lot of the psychotria plants died. There's only ~20 left! Luckily, specimens from all varieties survived.

The biggest problem was lack of experience with coco-coir/perlite and with growing these species in general. A nasty fungal infection was also problematic, stunting and deforming new growth. This can be seen on the leaves. There is excessive bubbling on some of the plants, and some curling and yellowing, with tips suffering minor fungal necrosis. Multiple products had been tested to no avail, but the latest one seems promising (branded copper oxychloride and lime-sulfur foliar spray).

A contamination problem with bad fungi and mycelium in the medium was also a insistent issue that has steadfastly resisted treatment.

Today is day 198. More info and updates to come later!

Very cool post, very detailed log. Thank you for this contribution.

Absolutely amazing work. I will be referring back to this or you for questions when I get into some growing next summer. Thanks so much FluffMuffin!

Thanks for the kind words! Here's a quick update:

The fungal issue has gotten worse on the stem of one Psychotria viridis (Shipibo cultivar). However, the fungicide has helped a lot of the other plants.

The yopo (Anadenanthera colubrina) is recovering very well, sending out vigorous new growth. All new growth was dying and stunted, until the copper oxychloride and lime-sulfur foliar spray was applied. Things are now looking promising!

Also, a lot of kratom seeds have germinated. Here is the history of the seeds

Kratom

The seeds were about 3 months old before they were sown.

The seeds were sprinkled on the surface of a 70/30 coco-coir / perlite mix. A humidity dome was added. Bottom heat of 25°C (77F) was maintained. The seedling tray was placed into medium shade.

The surface of the mix was drying out too often, because the humidity covering was inadequate. The tray was becoming awkward. No germination yet.

Things weren't looking promising. Most of the seeds were transferred into a plastic container lined with tissue paper. The same bottom heat was added. They were moved into a brighter position (700 lux, bright shade). Humidity is now ~100%, which is higher than the tray.

About 3 weeks after the re-homing, the first germination was noticed, which was 2 months and 15 days after initially sowing the seeds into the tray. Over the next 4 days, a lot more kratom seeds sprouted. The germination rate was 30.3% at this point in time.

This is notable, because the viability of kratom seeds is a hot topic.

It's hard to know what triggered the germination, but changing their environment seemed to do help.

The large, established kratom plant is still doing well, and growing very quickly under the lighting setup mentioned in the previous post. Here are pictures!