Trailing ice plant profile

The Trailing ice plant, also known as Lampranthus spectabilis, is native to southern Africa. Trailing ice plant likes warm, dry and sunny environment. Trailing ice plant is drought resistance, cold resistance, fear of waterlogging, high temperature resistance. The soil is better with rich sandy loam. The temperature in winter is not lower than 10°C. Trailing ice plant is an ornamental plant of the genus Akifera and Akifera, which is native to southern Africa. Trailing ice plant leaves are fleshy, beautiful flowers, ornamental value is high. Since it does not like to be found in wet soil conditions, it is necessary to use as little water as possible in the management to ensure the best Trailing ice plant growth. Plant it in a flowerpot, hanging plant adornment effect quite beautiful on the balcony.

Trailing ice plant picture

Characteristics of Trailing ice plant 

The flowers of the trailing ice plant (Lampranthus spectabilis) are solitary, 5 cm to 7 cm in diameter, with purple, pink, yellow, orange and other colors, and metallic petals. The flowers bloom in late spring and early summer, usually open in the daytime when the weather is clear, and close in the evening, so that the day opens and the night closes. A single flower can open for 5 to 7 days, and can not open if it is overcast and rainy.

Trailing ice plant growth habit

Trailing ice plants (Lampranthus spectabilis) are native to South Africa, like warm, dry and sunny environments, avoid waterlogging, are afraid of high temperature, not cold, drought tolerance. The growing period requires sufficient illumination. If the illumination is insufficient, the enamels will be elongated, delicate and slender, and the branches and leaves will be easily lodging. Keep basin soil slightly dry at ordinary times, avoid water, otherwise it will cause Trailing ice plant root rot, every 15 to 20 days to apply a ripe thin liquid fertilizer or compound fertilizer. The fertilizer and water in the cultivation should not be too large, especially the application amount of nitrogen fertilizer should not be too much, otherwise it will cause the growth of branches and leaves and blossom of Trailing ice plant sparsely.

Trailing ice plant (Lampranthus spectabilis) is in half dormant state when summer high temperature, grow slowly or stagnate, should be put in ventilated cool place conserve, prevent strong light exposure to bask in, control water, lest cause rot root because of high temperature much wet, stop fertilizing, wait for normal management to resume after autumn cool. Winter moved to the indoor sun, the temperature is not less than 5℃, it is best to maintain the room temperature of about 10℃, reduce watering, keep the leaves from wrinkling. If the temperature is low, humidity is high, the leaves are easy to turn yellow and droop, seriously even Trailing ice plants withered and died.  

The Trailing ice plant propagation method  

Sowing and cuttings are commonly used for Trailing ice plant (Lampranthus spectabilis) propagation. Sowing Trailing ice plant in the spring, using indoor pot sowing, sowing about 10 days after germination. Cuttage, spring, autumn can be carried out, select a full top branch, cut into 6-8 cm long, even leaves inserted into the sand bed, soil should not be too wet, after inserting 15-20 days to take root, and then another week can be potted.

For tender cuttings, in late spring to early autumn plant growth exuberant, choose that year's sturdy branches as cuttings. After cutting off the Trailing ice plant branches, select the strong parts and cut them into sections 5 to 15 centimeters long, with more than 3 leaf segments in each section. When cutting, it should be noted that the upper cutting mouth is about 1 cm at the top of the top leaf section, and the lower cutting mouth is about 0.5 cm at the bottom of the bottom leaf section. The upper and lower cutting mouth of Trailing ice plant should be flat (the knife should be sharp). Carrying on hard cuttings, after early spring temperature rise, select last year's robust branches to do cuttings. Each cuttings usually retains 3 ~ 4 segments, and the cutting method is the same as that of shoots cutting.

The optimal rooting temperature of Trailing ice plant cuttings ranged from 20℃ to 30℃, and it was difficult and slow when the temperature was lower than 20℃. When the temperature is higher than 30℃, the upper and lower Trailing ice plant cuttings are susceptible to pathogen infection and rot, and the higher the temperature is, the greater the proportion of rot. Cutting after low temperature, insulation measures are mainly used to use the film to cuttage pot or container wrapped up; Cuttings after the temperature is too high temperature, cooling measures are mainly to shade cuttings, to cover 50 ~ 80% of the sun, at the same time, to spray cuttings, 3 ~ 5 times a day, the number of sunny day higher spray is more, rainy day temperature lower temperature is larger, the number of spray is less or not spray.

The relative humidity of air for Trailing ice plant must be maintained at 75 ~ 85% after Trailing ice plant cutting. The basic requirement for the rooting of cuttings is to ensure that the cuttings are fresh and can be photocopulatively used to produce the rooting material before they are rooting. But not rooting cuttings is unable to absorb enough water to maintain the water balance in the body, therefore, must be to reduce the cutting by spray evaporation: under the condition of a shade, spray to the cuttings, 3 ~ 5 times a day, sunny day temperature, the higher the injection, the more spray rainy day temperature, the lower the number of less or not. But if sprayed too much, the cuttings are susceptible to disease and rot, because many kinds of bacteria are present in water.