Dreadlocks fall color

[Crotonologist]

Brought indoors Nov 4 for a cold spell...
one of my favorites

 

[Moose]

Looks way better than mine. I think someone has been loving their crotons with water soluble fertilizer.

 

[ScotTi]

Looks way better than mine. I think someone has been loving their crotons with water soluble fertilizer.

Don't we all?

 

[Crotonologist]

Looks way better than mine. I think someone has been loving their crotons with water soluble fertilizer.

Actually it was a cheap slow release from the bigboxstore that I sprinkled on top of the soil when I repotted from the nursery pot back in September...
http://www.homedepot.com/Outdoors-G...splay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

 

[Moose]

There have been some rumors that Dreadlocks will soon not be available in the "Big Box Stores" any longer. The source of Dreadlocks was from the mass cuttings propagation that was happening in Costa Rica. Local growers were then acquiring these rooted cuttings and growing them to a three gallon size to sell to the "Big Box Stores".

It appears that there was not much profit on Dreadlocks as it is a slower grower than the other cultivars being massed produced for the "Big Box Stores". The Costa Rican growers have scaled back their cultivation of Dreadlocks since the demand has dropped off. Has anyone seen a Dreadlocks in a "Big Box Store" lately? As stocks are being depleted, getting a Dreadlocks for $8.95 may be a thing of the past.

 

[Crazy for Crotons]

Wow Peyton, as Paris Hilton would say "That's Hot".

 

[junglegal]

I guess I better take better care of mine then. It survives but never looks that great. I am ashamed to admit that I paid 40 for it at a Fairchild sale 6 yrs back. At the time it was a gorgous 5 gal. Now I have 2 sad sprigs left.

 

[Crazy for Crotons]

Don't be ashamed Bren. Six years ago, Dreadlocks was rare. Ahh the magic of tissue culture.

 

[Jeff Searle]

Don't be ashamed Bren. Six years ago, Dreadlocks was rare. Ahh the magic of tissue culture.

Ray,

These were never produced in the lab. Their start was down on the farms in Costa Rica and were massed marketed for finished production here in South Florida. I'm assuming that because they were generally slower to grow, growers were more inclined to move on and grow a faster croton. I checked with my supplier about a month ago and he told me he had no source for Dreadlock cuttings, none. There seems to be no farms that have this now in production.

 

[Phil Stager]

How many, if any, crotons have been produced by tissue culture? Seems like a very nice trick given the inherent genetic instability of the plant. ...or does one get any genetic drift at all?

 

[Phil Stager]

..and if you need some Dreads, Lowe's at 22n d Ave.,N here in St. Pete had about two dozen in stock today.

 

[Crotonologist]

How many, if any, crotons have been produced by tissue culture? Seems like a very nice trick given the inherent genetic instability of the plant. ...or does one get any genetic drift at all?

I would have thought that crotons would be difficult to produce true to type from tissue culture, but apparently some are being grown from TC:
http://www.ag3inc.com/AboutUs.asp
http://www.ag3inc.com/PlantResults.asp?SW=croton&SF=PlantName&Submit=Go

 

[Phil Stager]

Verrrrry interesting... Also interesting that the firm uses a Linnaean name for most everthing except crotons. Now how would one like to get the genetic material for the Dragon croton from Indonesia (as pictured by Sergei in another thread) and put that baby into TC - or some of the domestic rarities like Pucinni, or - pick your favorite...

Anyone have anorder of magnitude guesstimate on cost?

 

[Crotonologist]

It can actually be done rather inexpensively at home, with a basic TC kit starting at under $100...
http://www.hometissueculture.org/catalogkits.htm
http://www.kitchenculturekit.com/index.htm

 

[Phil Stager]

It can actually be done rather inexpensively at home, with a basic TC kit starting at under $100...
http://www.hometissueculture.org/catalogkits.htm
http://www.kitchenculturekit.com/index.htm

I also recall someone in FL offering a course with supplies for a few hundred bucks. Any budding Luther Burbanks out there?

 

[Moose]

I think Chris (pocomo) was looking to attend a tissue culture class.

Here are some links to companies who will do the tissue culture and crank out how many plants you desire:

The last link is a paper on tissue culture. Warning - it is 102 pages long.

http://www.biocraftindia.com/products.htm

http://www.tissuecultureplant.com/Company_Profile.html

http://www.avtbiotech.com/

www-pub.iaea.org/mtcd/publications/pdf/te_1384_web.pdf

 

[Moose]

This Dreadlocks was seen at the Bullwinkle Ranch Estate this afternoon. In perfect shape and very nicely colored.

This 2nd Photo is (left to right) a large Queen of Siam, The Moose acting like an Idiot, Spindle Palm (Hyophorbe verschaffeltii), Mike (Bullwinkle) and Dreadlocks.
[Photo Credit: Mike Harris]

 

[Moose]

Peyton - its almost 1 year later. How is your Dreadlocks looking this year?

 

[ScotTi]

Here is my Dreadlocks with the great fall colors on a part of it.

 

[Crotonologist]

Peyton - its almost 1 year later. How is your Dreadlocks looking this year?

Not nearly as nice as last year, mainly due to neglect on my part - been very dry here, I've been very busy, so the crotons have suffered a little from getting too dry a few times and not enough fertilizer...
I'll try to get a fresh pic soon...

 

[Crotonologist]

Like I said, not so nice looking now, lots of leaf drop recently...
Though there is some good color on the remaining leaves.
Only fed it one time this year, and it dried out a lot in this pot...
Definitely needs a little more TLC next year...
BTW there were plenty of Dreadlocks at the bigboxstores here this fall.