Begonia - U514 (Part 2)

INTRODUCTION:

After countless times of trial and error, I had finally managed to find a suitable and ideal place for this begonia - very much behaves like a succulent plant - it hates to move and prefer no shocking moment. 

Just the constant same boring life of few days once of watering, occasional fertilizer feeding and that's it. No moving around, no disturbance - just stay put where you are in the balcony and it have even overgrown itself from the pot and I'm not even disturbing it anymore.

Now after about 2 years - it looks very happy and had spanned out few stem - trailing rhizome everywhere possible and just as happy as it is - with its usual conditions.

So this is what I had done. 

Replant it - using coconut chips and sand with compost at the bottom of the pot for root growth development; 2-3 days once watering and often check if the leaves appears dehydrated or flat on their petiole - water it immediately and occasional foliar fertilizer - that's was the magic formula.

Been sustaining this for 2 years now.

CHARACTERISTICS:

These are some of the information from the earlier post:

This rhizome Begonia U514 was brought from Thailand by Bruce Pearson of Tropical World. The foliage appears to have a dark bronze-green coloration but changes color based on how much light it receives - more greener in shade, more bronze when exposed to very bright light. 

The foliage coloration and veins changes due to different light areas. They can be more greener in shade and more vibrantly red when in sun. The leaves are fragile and can easily snap if brushed accidentally as they are not flexible. It's best to keep them in a less movement space in the garden.

The leaf edges have different varieties - some have jagged formation and some have more rounder formation - this appearance changes as the leaf matures.

These do have beautiful tiny bells like pink flowers and may form into seedpods - I had noticed that these flowers do come to blooms when used NPK fertilizers especially for flowering type (the red colored types) However I prefer to use the foliar types instead of granules due to many bad experiences with begonias.

I must say the underside of this begonia is much interesting with the exposed like yellow veins with burgundy background - similar features like most of the black begonia colorations. It is truly pretty looking when the fan like shaped leaves arrayed itself perfectly to give a lovely feature.

GENERAL BEGONIA PLANT CARE:

Plant Care is very similar like most Rhizome Begonia Care & Cultivation Needs. This depends in different garden or indoor conditions - its all depending on getting the right balanced conditions.

Depending on the Begonia adaptation and its ability to handle hardy conditions - if the plant is stress it may drop all it's leaves before regeneration - hence more care is required to ensure the right balance of watering and humidity verse root and stem rot. 

Medium:

Fast Draining - 1/3 Compost at the bottom layered with coconut chips and sand in between the rhizome root-ball.

Watering
Water only when the Medium is Dry

Feeding
Foliar Fertilizer - Once a Week with 1/2 Dilution Strength. 

(Depending on what works best in your garden conditions - some gardeners use chicken/goat manure, coffee based fertilizer, organic fertilizer - test out and see on a trial basis to see what works best in your garden conditions)

Light

Place in Bright, Indirect Light - Shaded from direct hot sun areas - Ideal for Balcony Plants.

Do take note that this one truly hate too much water - the leaves may also change colors, especially turning pale green and the red and burgundy coloration faded. Do take note that if this happens - most likely the plant lifespan is numbered and the eventually leaf by leaf - they start dropping and the rhizome dried up or rotting and it is too late to safe the plant or rectify the problem.

Hence - do watch out on the overwatering part - the medium too play a big part on this, especially if it purchased with cocopeat planted with it - its more likely a dooms-day time clocking by the days for it to kaput.  It is much better to take the risk to replant it to a new medium and allow the plant to grow through shock and recover and safe the plant - keeping it long term for years to go by then seeing it fall apart when the cocopeat dried up together with the root-ball.

Begonia Common Names and Images

Do click on the Link Above ☝

Here is the link where I had put together a list of all the begonias that I had come across. 

A database of all the different types & their characteristics. 

Please click on the link on the title above for the post.