Ive just recieved a couple of miracle fruit trees, about 3 1/2 foot tall, both not sent in pots, but packed with dampish compost, the roots all look fine, leaves look quite healthy, the plants are far healthyer than i thought they would be having ben posted from malaysia to the UK

Has anyone got one growing, looking for tips on growing them!

Ive just potted them up in coconut fiber chips, i oaked them and broke them up to about 50% fibers and chunks, the compost they were in is mixed in around the root ball the roots i sort of spread out, but didnt want to mess with them too much

After killing a good few spiders.......i didint fancy malaysian spiders running round! ,i planted them, ive since misted them with water mainly to clean them , but it says they like it damp, and i have them behind the tomato plants with the growlights on the other side, to give them some shade , i hav the humidifyer running next to them to give high humidity

There not on the heater mat yet, im not sure how hot they like it, i cant find out the root temperature they prefer, or what fertiliser they like

The seller says use miracid to fertilise them, we dont have that here, again this is all i can find out ,are there different miracids? im wondering wether to just stick some miracle grow general purpose or citrus fertaliser on them?

Just looking for any hints on growing the plant, is it allergic to being sprayed with anything ( i sprayed sage one time with epsom salts and it died! , since finding out you cant epsom salt sage!), so i dont want to kill them yet!

They are originally from Africa & grow as a understory plant. They like a lot of humidity. Malcolm Manners has stated before that they need very acidic soil to do well. I have one that is about three feet tall. I dump my old coffee grounds on top of the soil before watering and they do really well. They are true tropicals and do not take frost at all.

thanks, After putting the coffe grounds on ( aound the edge , or accross the pot?) do you water with a fertiliser of any kind as well? or just water?
With the water do you use it cold or warm?

They seem a bit bent as they were in a shorter packing bag than they maybe needed, but the stem isnt damaged and they are slowly straightening out, theres a few discoloured leaves low down, they seem to be snapped, however one or two lower leaves have red tint around the edges, they look happyer by the minute in the steambath in shaded metal halide growlight, but again they will probably die by tomorrow from what i have read of these plants mailorder

Mine flush out their new growth in red & then turn green. I just toss a hand full of coffee grounds on top of the soil once a month. I also use Osmocote once a month. For watering I just use tap water out of the hose, which this time of year isn't very cold at all.

Ive just added some used coffee grounds to it, do they have to have been used?, can i use the coffee water as well ( when cool). I have some realy nasty coffee here so can i water with that, or is watering with coffee bad for a plant?

Foliar feeding....?, do you know if they like/ take foliar feeding with nornal fertilisers such as pottassium nitrate, or fertaliser grade urea or ready mixed fertilisers ? or should i avoid fertiliser on the leaves?

Its strange, they havent been here long and are now standing up straight, looking far more bushy than they were, just from straightening out in the damp warm conditions, its 30C / 85F in here, they seem happy enough

Yes I use the coffee left in the pot as well. I have never done foliar feeding.

As with all acid-loving plants, AVOID NITRATE! It's a deadly poison to them. Any other form of nitrogen is fine. But because nitrate does not naturally form in soils with a pH below about 5.5, plants adapted to those conditions generally lack the enzymatic machinery to deal with nitrate. Also, in general, acid-loving plants need less total fertilizer than do most other plants.

And as I've stated multiple times in the past, with all the discussion of Miracid on citrus on this forum and elsewhere, citrus is NOT an "acid-loving" plant -- it just likes a pH a bit below neutral; not strongly acidic. So if your soil is alkaline, acid-forming fertilizers are fine for citrus. But if the soil is already somewhat acidic, they are a bad idea.

Malcolm

All the leaves went brown, dried but are still on the plant, the stems are still alive/green underneath the bark,
i presume they didnt like the shipping, a couple of new leaves have grown and are nice and green at the top of the plant, so it seems to be happy, just not the leaves that were there when it was delivered

I also planted 100 seeds of the miracle fruit in some plastic boxes of erricacious compost,i cut a notch in the shell, then soaked them overnight with a solution of ga3, then planted , given a quick spray with ga3 , i think they were planted about the 10th june, kept them at 75F , i now have about 15 germinating so far, growing roots very slowly though

Be careful with the water, I have found that they damp off very easy. I germinate mine in semi shade & keep them on the dry side until they get some size to them. I'll get some photos up later of my mother plant and a seedling from it.

Mother plant about 28 inches tall.



Seedling from last fall about 6 inches tall.



The guardian...

Thats a great looking plant, and great dog as well.

My brother has one of the plants now, his has no leaves , mine has lost all of them ( i knocked them off incase they had anything on them ), but the plant has grown about 10 or so new green ones that look realy healthy for now, and theres a few new roots in the pot ( probably more in there, didnt want to mess the roots round too much)

Here is mine. I lucked out at a garden center and found it hidden among the citrus, 50% off for like $20 a year or so ago. It is planted in 75% peat moss, 25% pine bark. Mostly shade, with dappled afternoon sun. It loves our gulf coast humidity. I actually do not water it often at all....twice this year (and we have had very little rain since May). Fertilized it twice last year with Osmocote. I bring it into the garage on nights forcasted for a freeze chance in December and January. I have only gotten 4 fruits off of it, but it seems to be very healthy. It seems that as long conditions are humid, warm, and acidic soil, it is a pretty care-free plant.

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