Not a happy report this month. The perennial peanut has passed away and the mimosa strigulosa took a dive but appears to be coming back. The bulbine looks a little stunted but has several blooms.
Why did the perennial peanut and mimosa perish? What could have caused so much damage after not only surviving, but thriving through two months of brutal heat? There was plenty of rain so it couldn’t have been drought. We checked to make sure that the drainage was working and it is, so they didn’t drown. The perennial peanut is supposed to fix its own nitrogen so it couldn’t have been a nutritional deficiency. There are two possible problems that I can determine. Please write in if you think it is or isn’t one of these factors.
Even though both perennial peanut and mimosa strigulosa live in cooler areas than here, we had a record low in October. Unfortunately, we didn’t check the temperature on the roof, but the ground temperature was in the 40’s. While both plants should have survived 40 degrees, maybe the planting media (lava rock and peat) is unable to hold any heat and the low temperatures were cold enough to damage the plants. The perennial peanut and the mimosa were planted on the ends of the strip so it may have been colder than the middle location where the bulbine is.
The only other possible causes that I can think of could have to do with the test strip construction (the sides ended being slanted as the pond liner shrunk a bit, or, there could be some type of nutritional dysfunction because of the planting media we picked.
This leads to a thousand other test strips that we would like and should try, if only we had time and money. Any leads on grants? Testing different planting media, planting media depths, and more plants, especially native ones, would help to ensure that we could reap the many benefits of green roofs in South Florida.
Why did the perennial peanut and mimosa perish? What could have caused so much damage after not only surviving, but thriving through two months of brutal heat? There was plenty of rain so it couldn’t have been drought. We checked to make sure that the drainage was working and it is, so they didn’t drown. The perennial peanut is supposed to fix its own nitrogen so it couldn’t have been a nutritional deficiency. There are two possible problems that I can determine. Please write in if you think it is or isn’t one of these factors.
Even though both perennial peanut and mimosa strigulosa live in cooler areas than here, we had a record low in October. Unfortunately, we didn’t check the temperature on the roof, but the ground temperature was in the 40’s. While both plants should have survived 40 degrees, maybe the planting media (lava rock and peat) is unable to hold any heat and the low temperatures were cold enough to damage the plants. The perennial peanut and the mimosa were planted on the ends of the strip so it may have been colder than the middle location where the bulbine is.
The only other possible causes that I can think of could have to do with the test strip construction (the sides ended being slanted as the pond liner shrunk a bit, or, there could be some type of nutritional dysfunction because of the planting media we picked.
This leads to a thousand other test strips that we would like and should try, if only we had time and money. Any leads on grants? Testing different planting media, planting media depths, and more plants, especially native ones, would help to ensure that we could reap the many benefits of green roofs in South Florida.
2 comments:
We grow the perennial peanut and I don't beleive it was the cold. We're in Jacksonville FL. If it stayed too wet the rhizomes may have rotted...but you said it had adequate drainage. If you want to do more tests, we can donate some plant material. Let me know. Thanks! Patti
Thanks for your comment Patti. I was wondering if the roots got cold because of the planting media. We planted in a 50/50 mix of black lava rock and peat. Could there be voids in the lava rock that could have made the roots cold? We had more rain the month before and it was thriving. Any thoughts you have would be greatly appreciated. We would love some plants for more test strips. Would you recommend one variety over another for this application? Thanks for your help.
Connie
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