Soil Mix For Plumeria Cuttings

So, you spent hours searching for the perfect Plumeria tree. You found the perfect color and made sure it has just the kind of scent you will love. Don’t make the mistake that so many people are doing every day. What is that? Sticking that expensive little cutting in a pot of dirt! Plumeria are very sensitive to water when they are newly planted cuttings. Some may say, ‘well they are a tropical plant, so they should love lots of water, right?’ Not really, in fact a newly planted cutting is very susceptible to stem rot. Stem rot is caused when the Plumeria cutting is in constant contact with wet soil. It’s not that watering the little guy is necessarily a problem, the problem is watering it in soil that does not drain well. Regular potting soil from the store or dirt from the back yard usually stays much too wet for the likes of a Plumeria cutting.

So here is what you need to do. The best mix I have found is very simple to make and inexpensive to get. Just find or buy some sand as your first ingredient. Then go to the nursery or Wal-Mart and get some perlite and composted bark. Mix one third of each ingredient in a 1 or 2 gallon plastic pot. If you are really in a pinch 50% sand and 50% soil will also work. The key is getting a porous soil that will only hold moisture but not be saturated with water. Go ahead and soak the soil mix to prepare it for the plant. Notice how quickly the water passes through the soil. From this point on do not water the cutting except when the soil has become completely dry.

Congratulations, you now have a happy little Plumeria cutting that is well on its way to becoming a beautiful flowering tree. For more information on how to care for your plumeria visit www.Hawaii-Top-Ten.com

This entry was posted on Friday, December 12th, 2008 at 9:29 pm and is filed under Plumeria Care. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.