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Black Boy - Sick?
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Posted by yasmin_native VIC (My Page) on Mon, Jan 15, 07 at 16:52
| 12 months ago I purchased 4 Blackboys (2large, 2 small). All are doing well, infact flowering after being transplanted only 12 months ago except for one. Around about Oct one of the large Black Boys started to look like to was drying out. All its stems starting turning yellow and dropping, so I cut them back. It has remaind the same since and then the past fortnight the top is now curling and looks like it has a sticky residue on it. What is this Balck Boy doing? Is it dying off, re-stimulating itself for growth. I thought these were pretty tough plants? Can anyone provide any advice as to what is happening and what should I do - dig it out or keep it, feed it? HELP!!! |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Black Boy - Sick?
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| You don't say whether they are seed grown specimens or ones transplanted from the bush. If they have trunks they'd be transplanted ones, and you should check (by a sticker on the pot you purchased it in) that it was removed by a registered remover - they are protected plants. Those removed from the bush (development site, whatever) should be kept in the pot for 2 years before sale to the public as they can take up to 2 years to die. Also, they are not as tough as the nursery profession would have you believe, like all (or most) natives they hate root disturbance. I had one I bought from Big W and after about 18 months started to die - to do what yours is doing - so I simulated nature and burnt all the leaves off. I did this by wraping newspaper around it and setting that alight. The new growth came on green and lush, as it always does in nature, and it survived for another year or more but eventually succumbed. I suggest you dig it out and go get another to replace it, but maybe test your soil first, they like a well drained, neutral to slightly acid ph. And by the way, I reckon the seed grown look better and are much more reliable. |
RE: Black Boy - Sick?
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| I would also suspect that Xanthorrhoea australis would be more likely to do better in Victoria as opposed to the Xanthorrhoea johnsonii that are taken from the bush up in QLD. |
RE: Black Boy - Sick?
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| Yeah, I reckon you're right there, Greg. The only one's I've grown here though, in the Northern Rivers district of NSW are X. Australis (except perhaps for the potted 3 I bought from Big W, and who knows where they came from). They're beautiful plants, the seed grown ones. And, would you believe, the 3 seed grown ones I have all flowered 3 years after planting, and I dont think they were anymore than 2 years in the pot - that's what the grower told me, anyway. I've read they take 7 years or more to flower. I bought them from a grower who frequents the Byron Bay/ Potsville/ Murwillumbah 'farmers' markets. |
RE: Black Boy - Sick?
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I was wondering if I could claim a World Record for Tallest Black Boy ? I found a dried X. johnsonii flower stem today that is 3.13 metres long, with the inflorescence being the top 0.60 m.
The plant is growing on a bank close to the edge of the mangroves on the northern wetlands of Hull River, near Mission Beach in Far North Queensland. |
Here is a link that might be useful: photo tour of the area
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