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Terminalia, now with a dash of guave

Hi all,
I've just had a thought, Terminalia might be a bit big and tropical for most of us to grow, but Guava (Psidium guajava) is easy to grow and cheap to obtain (buy a fruit from the greengrocers, sow the pips). Strawberry Guava (Psidium cattleianum) will even fruit as a house-plant.

cheers Darrel
 
dw1305 said:
Hi all,
I've just had a thought, Terminalia might be a bit big and tropical for most of us to grow, but Guava (Psidium guajava) is easy to grow and cheap to obtain (buy a fruit from the greengrocers, sow the pips). Strawberry Guava (Psidium cattleianum) will even fruit as a house-plant.

cheers Darrel
Click to expand...

OK, here's a challenge for you Darrel - I'm going over a few potential plans for the next iteration of the Bucket, and am after ideas for a small tree or other plant with sturdy, architectural roots that would grow OK indoors with it's feet in water, just supported by rocks/driftwood. Bonus points for being from South America and being able to buy in the UK already several feet tall (or more!).
 
Hi Tom,
Perfect plant would be a "Strangler Fig" like Ficus benjamina, but that is not S. American. If you could get an American one like Ficus citrifolia or F. aurea, that would tick all the boxes.

Have a look here for more pictures <Stranglers & Banyans>.
figpal4b.jpg

Psidium cattleianum is S. American and might do. Red Mangrove (Rhizophora mangle)? but possibly not if the water is too soft.

cheers Darrel
 
I.ve had the first "harvest". It dropped about 10-12 leaves. Started new buds now, repotted it and we're good for a while again. I'll take a pic this weekend.
 
Terminalia catappa looks great, there 🙂 - brings back memories, for me :happy:
Good luck in pruning it in years to come 😉 ...........I've grown this + the Ficus-types and the Psidium-types in S.A part of a Zoo exibit, showing free roaming animals and birds, years ago. They all grew like mad in summer season, needing several trimmings !!! (- and yes, the Terminalia grew in Asian part of Zoo!!)
It's a nice plant and a bit unusual as an ornamental. Quite good at long, horizontal branching, when you cut the top off.
Mick.
 
Sorry, been off for holidays.........
Pruning depends on what you want to achieve (ofcourse). Supposing you DON'T want a 20 m+. tall tree, I'd suggest removing top shoot, to force the tree into a low, horizontal crown. The nature of this tree is to grow tall fast, so it will do one or more new "top(s)", that you will have to remove too. There should be some growth on the horizontal branches too, and even more of those developing over time.
I will say, the tree is going to look strangely hammered, but it's the only way to keep it a manageble size (there's a reason it's not a common indoor ornamental plant) My impression, though, is this is not primerily ment to be a gorgeouslooking tree :lol:
 
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