Monday, March 31, 2014

Top 8 Lessons Learned From Growing Lavender in the Philippines


As some of you are aware, I usually post about my experiment on lavender growing in the Philippines in my main blog: http://www.purpleowyn.blogspot.com/. But I thought of summarizing what I learned so far about raising lavenders here especially as one of my two french lavenders died this week. As for the true lavenders, a few more wilted since I did an update. It can be a little frustrating but I'm charging it to experience in the hopes of finding the right formula that will enable me to grow them well in the future.

True lavender thriving in the cool February weather. There's only about half left since summer started.

So here goes, my top 8 lessons learned so far:
1) Water only every 2-3 days.
2) Use a water sprayer and water them lightly at the base. Never over water or else they'll die.I can't highlight this enough.
3) Water early in the morning to give their roots a chance to dry throughout the day. Never in the late afternoon or evening If you skipped it, then just water the next morning.
4) The soil should have good drainage. I bought Folia Tropica potting mix from Ace Hardware. It has a good mix of sand, compost and coconut coir. I had the mistake of using leftover seed growing mix in the past and the ones I planted with those died because the mix is designed to retain water which is important for seeds to germinate but causes root rot for lavender.
5) Put some pebbles at the bottom of the pot before putting soil for better drainage.
6) Fertilize at least once a month.
7) Cut dead leaves as close to the stem as possible because that's where new leaves/branches sprout.
8) When transplanting lavender, take it as is and don't attempt to loosen the roots because they are super sensitive they'll die.

7 comments:

  1. Pano Niyo Po DinidiLigan Yung Lavender Seeds Niyo ?

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  2. Hi Amber! :-) I use a sprayer nung seeds and nung maliliit pa sila. Ideally spray spray lang sa base ng plant kase ayaw nila na basa ang roots nila. If seeds pa or seedlings pa, water everyday pero very light,basta lang moist yung soil but not soggy. Magsi-6 months na mga baby lavender ko in 3 days. :-) let me know if successful ka sa attempt mo mag grow ha? :-) good luck and hope this helps.

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  3. hi! This is really inspiring. How are your plants now? Did they all survive?
    I'm trying to keep my store bought lavender alive for 2 months now. When you water every 2-3 days, how much water do you use??

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  4. I'm learning so much from your blog. It's so difficult to get information specific not only to our tropics but to our quirky climate-changed rainy weather. Especially that you've tried to grow them without too much pampering to see how they really fare in our climate. Thanks!

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  5. 17-years in Arizona and still they die. What am doing wrong. I've followed all instructions and nothing works. Different types and dead in 3-months. I really want to grow lavender.

    Also can you suggest if i can grow lavender in grow tent? If yes which grow will be the best grow tent for lavender.

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  6. Hi! Can I just asked what kind of lavender do you plant?

    ReplyDelete