At our popular displays each variety has a prominent sign detailing interesting points of each plant as well as care guidelines to keep it happy. We have condensed that information here for those of you who may have received the plant as a gift and haven’t seen the signs or need a quick reminder.
General Notes on Plant Care
Our plants are all either tropicals or are so similar as to make no difference. If you think about it, this means plants adapted to grow in the jungle… a dark, warm and humid jungle with poor soil and infrequent watering. This means that as long as they stay on our tropical island paradise even IN your home they’re…. well they’re home! Most of the climate they need is auto-provided (is that a term?) by being in Hawai`i; what little else they need is provided by you.
Which means moisture, light and food.
Moisture: Keep the soil slightly damp to the touch; not drippy. This usually means watering DEEPLY (think rain) twice per week – three times if in air conditioning. Old School folks bring the plant to the sink, fill the pot from the faucet then let it sit for a bit to drain before returning it to its spot. It’s what we do.
Light: Give it as much as you can; think duration and not intensity. Don’t confuse light with sun. You can read a book at night… but there’s no sun. Several of our plants are seeing duty on nuclear submarines where – I promise you – they get no sunlight at all. Exceptions are noted below as some plants need more energy than Edison can provide.
Food: Fertilizer. Use a time-released fertilizer with roughly even numbers. 13-13-13 60 day, 12-15-8 fill-in-the-blank day… whatever is on sale. Tropicals are like teenagers they don’t care what they’re eating as long as they’re eating. If you don’t fertilize them they just grow slower… which isn’t always a bad thing.
The best fertilizer is a gardener’s shadow
Happy Koi Nursery 