This thread is to log my mimosa hostilis grow and for others to log they're grows/post pics/discuss the growing of mimosa etc..

Here are some pictures of my 2 biggest jurema trees..I have 13 of them going but these ones are the largest..they are about 3 months old now and I have them in a mixture of half organic tropical soil and half perlite..I water them with spring water when the soil starts to feel dry and have 1 grow light from home depot above them that gives off the sunlight spectrum. For ferts I gave them some organic fish fertilizer once so far. They are growing in the window cill and are just beginning to close up for the night in these pics.

Very nice! Do you plan on growing them indoors mostly or outdoors later on ?

I am in the PNW..so they will stay in large pots..giant pots eventually for tons of root space..maybe outside durring summer but indoors all winter..eventually I want to have a solarium for plants of the tropics to grow inside of all year..I plan on having at least 20 big(well big for a house plant) mimosa trees around my house indoors when I actaully get a house..

People have been asking me about how I germinated them..they are so easy to germinate I find. What I do is I nick the seeds and then soak them overnight in spring water..I then plant them in a thin layer of tropical garden soil in a small container, covered with plastic for humidity..and I poke a few holes in the plastic so it can breath..then I open it once or twice a day and spray it all down so its nice a wet and stays humid..they germinate in 1-3 days in my experience and within a week I take off the humidity tent and pot them. I germinate them without a light but once you see leaves popping up stick a light over them.

I will germinate one this week and take pictures as I go along for this thread.

great work fractal. they're beautiful

awesome, a real inspiration for me to get some myself . thank you .

Beautiful! would love to grow some of these myself one day, good work Frac

Beautiful i have a mimosa verrucosa its gotta be taller than me 6 1/2 maybe 7 feet.

Yeah Fractal I still can't get any to germinate! I'll try again but I'm about to be moving up your way, well not so far north but to the PNW. So I don't wanna start more plants than I already have, the move won't be fun for them.
Anyway, you probably know this but you can put them in the ground once they get to a substantial size and even if it does freeze a little, which I don't think it does in your neck of the woods too much, they should be fine. (or so I've read)

Beautiful little babies though! Nice work

Fractal, i was wondering, what will you do if your plants grow way too tall later on ? Thats the thing that scares me since i couldnt put my future mimosas outside ,we get -40 celcius here!

I plan on letting them get as large and bushy as possible in my apartment..if they get way to big as in past ceiling height I guess I will have to cut them back..but I plan to eventaully live somewhere where I can build a heated greenhouse year round or a solarium..

I am confident I can grow enough to produce at the very least 100g of rootbark a year without doing harm to the trees, with 12-20 trees...but that wont be for a few years I am guessing.

It is mild here and the climate is temperate..but I cant grow them outside all winter here..it is just a bit too cold at times for that. Last year we had one night where it went down to -17 with a wind chill..of course that is not the norm where I am and usually it stays above freezing even in the winter-but we do get cold fronts come in and they would kill mimosa trees.

Fract,

Maybe I missed this, but how long do you expect to have to grow them to get roots large enough to have a perpetual harvest?

BTW I also share your goal of a solarium.

Peace

^ I would guess 5 years or so..I have heard 3 years but I dunno about that. Even if it takes me 10 years for roots to develope enough I dont mind.

I have a pair of mimosa just a few weeks older than these, and one is doing much better than the other due solely to a larger pot.

Both plants were potted on about 2 weeks ago, one to a 12" diameter plastic pot and the other to a 8" terracotta (they were both identical at that time; same watering schedule, same full-sun indoor location, same peat-free compost & fresh worm castings mix). The one transplanted to the larger pot has really bolted ahead and has developed a clear 8" height advantage over it's twin and visibly fuller fronds. So don't skimp on pot capacity as these ladies like a lot of legroom.

Where do you find the seeds?

Neat, they look a bit different than the 2 types of plants i have growing from seed labeled hostilis...
I want to bonsai mine.

Botanical spirit.

if you haven't already, then also check out: http://www.exoticearthexchange.com/index.php !! seeds/botanicals available for free and for trade.
<3

This plant is tough. That's all i can say about them. Mine survived typhoons after typhoons starting when she was 6-8 inches tall! Pretty remarkable!
My only mistake was placing them in clay pots as it's very difficult to repot them when they get root bound. Nevertheless this plant is easy to grow

I'm considering whether or not to prune my mimosa. They're both 6ft tall now and, being very well-fed indoor plants, they're quite leggy and unstable and need to be kept caned. This doesn't seem to be the way to grow any kind of sturdy tree. I suppose if they were raised exposed to wind they'd have had their tops snapped off a few times and would be much tougher for it.

I'll chop the top 2ft off one of them and see how it responds.

^sounds like not enough light. Apparently they grow leggy if they dont have alot of light. I would prune the top to promote some sideways growth..and save the branches and leaves..there is still some DMT in there-waste not want not..

Or do an experminet for us and see if you can root a small growth tip...