Optimal light/fertilizer
 

I have been looking for a comprehensive a list of neos and the growing conditions that result in optimum variegation and other physical characterizations. I use red labels for yellow tigers and others that look best with bright light, green labels for those that look best with shade, and an additional white label for the ones that show best when fertilizer is withheld. Some, such as Misukage I've been told are best grown both ways - strong light and low light.

Is there a good source for tailoring growing environments? I've probably done hundreds of searches (on and off OB) but found nothing but mention here and there.

-Keith

There is nothing comprehensive like that available even in Japanese or Korean.

You'll see individual recommendations here and there for certain varieties, and there is a list giving recommended light levels for a bunch of varieties, but none of that is meant to be read as dogma. It's expected that each grower will have to experiment and figure things out for themselves.

Playing their cards close to the vest, apparently. Me? I'm all for sharing knowledge.

I put my neofinetia into 6 groups:

• Bright
• Bright & withhold fertilizer
• Moderate light
• Moderate light withhold fertilizer.
• Shade
• Shade & withhold fertilizer

It's simpler than it sounds. One end of my bench gets a lot of light while the other gets more shade.

However...this spring I had them all in the first or second group because I was lazy about putting up my shade cloth. Benimuso (died), Misukage, Taiga, Hokage, Hisui (dropped leaves) Byakko, Karanishiki, Kishu Sekko, Kokugaku, and OKina Nishiki (died), either didn't grow new/good variegation, or sulked. I should mention that there were other variables and it is very hard to know everything that was at play

Most others grew well in the cool spring and bright light, but especially Amami, Gangyou, Kingyokubotan, Kinkabuto, Kinkojaku, Kogane Nishiki, and Raikōmaru. These either developed brighter variegation of grew like mad.

What prompted my question was the very faint green lines on Misukage. Both my Misukage have nice shima stripes except you have to look close to make them out. Is there some magic to growing this variety so the stripes show up nicely?

-Keith

It's honestly less that, and more that it's a lot more complicated than it's possible to easily put it down into writing.

Each and every variety could pretty much have a full book dedicated to how best to grow it when you take into account all of the sheer number of variables that are involved.

It's really a lot more complicated than just saying this one takes high light, this one low, or more or less fertilizer, etc. Each parameter can be dependent on other parameters, and there isn't always a single best way to grow a variety. Of course, each grower has their own ways to get the best characteristics out of each variety, but that information may or may not apply to another grower and their growing conditions.

When you go looking for that information with other Japanese or Korean growers, sure you'll find some people who are evasive and try to keep their secrets, but you'll find many more who will do everything they can to help.

It's just that to provide good advice, the advisor needs to know what the advisee is working with in fine detail. It's not possible to give another grower advice without knowing those things, and it's not something that a book or anything in writing can easily do.


All that said, there are general guidelines that are widely reiterated that can be followed as a starting point. There just hasn't been enough people to translate them into English, but I've been doing my best to relay them whenever anyone asks the questions.