Meat plants only grow tall and not fat
An article with detailed introduction is about the content of meat plants, which only grow tall and not fat, keep reading!
Many flower friends find that their meat plants only grow tall and not fat, which is actually the performance of the plant growing too much. The main reason for this state is insufficient light or excessive water. Once meat plants have this problem, it's hard for them to recover by themselves, only through methods such as cutting the top to change.
When meat plants grow in a weak light and relatively humid soil environment, they will have the phenomenon of overgrowth. Different plants have different overgrowth performances, but the main manifestations are the neck becoming longer and thinner, and the leaves becoming narrower and longer. Different meat plants show differently, as shown in the picture below, the plant is overgrowing tall.
If meat plants overgrow, then the only thing you can do is to increase light, control water properly, and some varieties can be controlled by cutting the top to shape the plant.
Of course, some flower friends' meat plants are not overgrown but relatively weak. Let's see how a flower friend (lof花意) fattens the meat plant.
First of all, my coordinates are in the urban area of Suzhou. Different growth environments in different regions result in different meat plants. Even in the same region, the conditions of the plants are very different, which is closely related to factors such as temperature difference, sunlight, soil matching, and watering. The following discusses personal experience from these factors.
1. Soil Matching
I think it's the most critical factor. My soil mix is peat,珍珠岩 (perlite), river sand, and vermiculite, 2:1:1:1. Of course, it's not in a specific proportion, I feel that more particles are better. Have you noticed the river sand? It's really like this. My seedlings have been using this kind of soil with a lot of particle ratio since the leaf insertion, and they really grow very slowly, only a little every month. But the meat plants grown in such soil are really plump. The river sand I mean is not the yellow used for construction materials but the white small particles with a larger size.
2. Temperature Difference
I have two small greenhouses. Under晴天 conditions, the day and night temperature difference is very large. In the sun, it's over 40 degrees during the day and a few degrees at night. Such a large temperature difference inhibits the chlorophyll in the meat plant, so the growth is slow, and various colors appear, while the leaves are shorter, rounder, and solid. It's different from the specific temperature, sunlight, and watering growth environment abroad. The meat plants there grow fast, have long leaves, and almost no state. Many people who have bought them should know this. Many people think that I have such short, round, and thick meat plants because of the greenhouse, but according to my personal experience, such temperature differences can also be achieved under open-air conditions. Before, I planted meat plants on the rooftop of the school, which is on the fifth floor. The temperature during the day is very hot, and it drops significantly at night, with a temperature difference of more than 15 degrees, which is very easy to achieve.
For many families growing meat plants, I want to say that under the condition of not pursuing growth speed, the sun can shine directly all day, and as long as it's not lower than 1 degree at night and there's no frost, it's okay. My meat plants were previously placed on the rooftop, at 1-2 degrees below zero, and there were almost no problems. Unfortunately, after a frost and temperature drop, many of the plants on the roof were frostbitten and about 50 of them died. This has a lot to do with frost. As the saying goes, frost-bitten eggplants are delicious, I wonder how the frost-bitten meat plants taste.
3. Watering
Because of the high particle ratio in my soil mix and the fast evaporation in the greenhouse, I often water my meat plants.
Previously, the ones planted in the clay pots evaporated even more, and it was not too much to water them every two or three days. Because they dried up too fast, the meat plants in the clay pots did not grow well. Later, I found a solution, which is to plant a circle of protective plants around the main plant in the pot, such as 博学万年草 (Bosai万年草) and姬星, so that the soil does not evaporate too fast. I will make a separate post about planting in clay pots later.
Talking about more particles, the water permeability is very fast. The bottom of my pot is placed with yellow sand, so the water directly penetrates the pot and flows into the yellow sand on the ground. Many plants have roots that are too developed and directly penetrate the soil, holding a lot of soil. Of course, because of this for a long time, after the roots take the first step to penetrate, the soil in the pot is prone to compaction after being watered multiple times, which requires soaking the pot every two months. Find a large container and put the whole plant into the water, the water level is slightly lower than the soil in the pot to prevent too much water from overflowing and submerging the plant. The soaking time is controlled by yourself, and it's enough when the surface particles of the pot soil are wet.
The above is [] about meat plants only growing tall and not fat, hope it helps you!