If you haven’t seen the first part of this post, it is best to start at part 1 here.
Seagrape plant aka coccoloba uvifera
The seagrape is a beautiful tropical plant native to central America. When I realised that I couldn’t get one anywhere in the United Kingdom, I decided to try growing from seed. Part one of this post shows the seed planting process.
A quick recap:
The seed was planted in July 2018, into a self watering pot.
January 2020
In January 2020, I decided that it was time to repot into a larger self watering pot.
May 2020
June 2020
Just wasn’t a very good month for the little seagrape seedling. Things started off ok……
Since the seedling was showing so much growth and seemed to be enjoying the sunlight so much, I thought it was a good idea to put it outside in the direct sun for a few hours. This was a BIG mistake!
The leaves were burned by the sun! What is worth noting here, is that this plant typically suits full sun in very tropical areas. However this particular plant had never been in full sun before, as it had always been kept inside. I think what happened is the sudden, extreme change in light shocked the plant. I do believe that if I had been a bit more careful and gradually introduced direct sunlight, maybe 20 minutes per day, it would have been ok.
I must admit this was so sad to see. At this point, the plant was two years old, I had grown it from a seed, and I was so proud of it. I was so devastated that I had potentially killed the plant for one silly mistake.
After this, a few of the leaves dropped off the plant. I was sad, but was reassured that there were still some leaves which were green, so I knew the plant could still photosynthesise and grow.
August 2020
September 2020
October 2020
By the time October rolled around I knew that it was probably time to repot into a larger pot.
I decided that it was a good time to repot, before the roots became too big for the holes at the bottom of the pot.
I had been reading a lot online about Leca (clay balls) as an alternative to soil and decided that it was worth using this opportunity to give it a go with this seedling. I am going to do a more detailed post about Leca in the coming weeks, so if you are interested in knowing about Leca leave a comment below this post with any comments or questions!
Now that the plant has recovered from the sunburn, it is getting to the size where I can’t really call it a seedling anymore. It’s more than two years old after all! I will be updating this post as it continues to grow, and will update on my experience using Leca as well, so to keep up to date you can follow the progress on instagram @greengrow1687
If you are looking to buy your own seagrape, here is a link to where I regularly update sources I find online of various rare plants online, including this one.
If you liked this post, you will also like this post showing the incredibly rapid growth of the very rare (and expensive!!) variegated monstera adansonii plant.
