Rainbow Sherbet

[Doll]

This is my first RS bloom. What a beauty. The colors are so vivid on this variety.

[TXplantlover]

WOW! How gorgeous is this Rainbow Sherbert!

[blupit007]

I agree, what a looker!

[farmer d]

I thought I would post some pics here of the Rainbow Sherbet bush.  Charlie had mentioned in the Miss Congeniality post that this CV needs pruning to branch more fully.  I'm sure he is right - nobody knows their hib stuff better!!!

My experiment this year thanks to David in Vietnam is to spray my bushes with SuperNova all season long before any pruning to see if this will trigger new branch growth.  I can say without a doubt this has been a tremendous success with Rainbow Sherbet as it is turning into a monster bush of around 4' tall in it's 2nd year of life (got it as 4" last April).

Note on the pics below that there is an area that was cut back in winter due to dieback disease so we can see what this plant does when pruned and compare it to the rest of the bush which was only sprayed.

This plant has a lot of blooms but many fall off and I suspect it is being over-watered by me and also my sprinklers.  Will be working to fix that going forward.

Farmer D

[davidwood]

You know Darren I cant take any credit about the idea of spraying with SuperNova before pruning as that is not what I meant. What I meant and have had success with is spaying with SN before actually pruning, I do it for about 2 or 3 weeks before pruning and then continually spraying the dry bark for a few weeks after , there by keeping any new shoots moist and getting them all to develop into new branches, you are spraying continually instead of pruning and I have never done that. Still you are getting good results so well done and seeing the results of your Rainbow Sherbet which is fantastic I may even try your way.

Darren it would be interesting to see what happened to a cv that you did not continually spray with SN, you do seem to have near perfect growing conditions, in fact I would go as far as to say they would be still great without the SuperNova, the reason I say this is that now I have sorted out my potting mix I am getting great growth, and the only SN I use is 1 teaspoon every Sunday.

[farmer d]

David you still get all the credit because if it wasn't for your post I'd still be mixing the SN with my watering feedings and never would have thought about spraying.

After reading your post it dawned on me that if you're generating new nodes that eventually branch then let's see how far I can take it without pruning.  My goal is to get a nice full bush but with some height so not sure if pruning will hamper the height goal.

One last thought, even if I get full bushes without pruning it looks like the bud count may not come close to that of the pruned bushes.  I'll have to decide if I want to wait and see for a few years or prune down towards the end of the season.

Farmer D

[Charlie]

This is a very interesting discussion, showing we still have much to learn. Darren's situation will always be complicated by winter while David gets the benefit of year round tropical weather. Pots versus in the ground also makes a difference so as always what works for one grower in their situation may be different for someone else.

Pruning has many uses but it is hard to manage anywhere winter interrupts the growing. I ended up doing it in fall because that brought me flowers earlier the next summer than if I did it in spring. Traditionally hibiscus pruning is done in early spring just after the last threat of a freeze. In hot places with warm nights like the Gulf Coast this works well because the plants grow back so fast. Even so the spring bloom season is mostly lost for the pruned plants.

Now, if a growth stimulant like Supernova can encourage faster regrowth and even stimulate dormant shoots to grow into new branches - wow, that is a game changer! I haven't been able to test that in the greenhouse because I have to cut my plants in order to get wood to make new plants. However, I do spray the baby plants in 4 inch size with Supernova and believe I see more side branching on many of them because of it. This topic will be interesting as more people try out techniques using natural growth stimulants.

Charlie

[farmer d]

Here are some more bloom pics...

Farmer D

[davidwood]

Those are amazing pictures Darren, how often are you spraying and at what mixture rate per gallon. Also do you ever add SN when you water or do you just use as a spray. I have a young RS and I am going to follow your schedule to see if I can get something similar.

[farmer d]

Those are amazing pictures Darren, how often are you spraying and at what mixture rate per gallon. Also do you ever add SN when you water or do you just use as a spray. I have a young RS and I am going to follow your schedule to see if I can get something similar.

Hi David - to answer your question for the spraying I use a cheapo 32 ounce spray bottle with one capful of SuperNova diluted in water.  I try to spray once a day and I really soak the plants thoroughly being careful not to burn them if during mid day sunlight or leaving them wet after sunset to avoid fungal growth.

My feedings for my mature in-ground CVs is 2 scoops of HVH special blend fert & HVH booster with 2 capfuls of SN in a little over 2 gallons of water probably 3 times a week at most. 

I really alter the amount of fert water each plant gets during each feeding based on careful observation of what each tends to do best with.  It's fun keeping track with over 70 plants and I am contemplating making a spreadsheet to track all of this.

Now that would be interesting, I could track all sorts of components including weather, bud count, bud drop, yellowing leaves, growth, water meter reads, how much water (low med heavy) but I don't have time to measure all these things so I know I'll probably just ballpark it as usual.

One last thing...whenever I see more than the usual yellow leaves I don't automatically think overwatering anymore.  If I see no signs of fert or salt burn then I'm thinking this plant might be struggling to get nutrients.  The booster to me is key as it seems to open up a plant's ability to absorb nutrients much more easily thus requiring less watering over time.

Farmer D

[Charlie]

Great photos and interesting input, Farmer D!

David, for sure you can both spray the leaves or soak the soil with Supernova. Or you can do what some call "sprenching" which is spraying and drenching the soil at the same time. That is usually done by pouring the Supernova mixture over small plants and into the pot which both wets the leaves and feeds the roots.

Charlie

[davidwood]

Haha never heard of Spenching, I have always fed my plants once a week with SN at 1 spoon per gallon and up until now only sprayed when re potting, at any sign of stress and most definitely before and after pruning, I think it was my observations of the excellent results of spraying continually before and after pruning that kicked of this debate and what got Darren continually spraying as a matter of course. But now because of what Darren has observed I am also spraying much more, concentrating on the cv's that haven't been doing to well, bit early to tell but after about 3 weeks of spraying 4 times a week I am seeing better growth on my slower growers, its certainly seems noticeable on my Dragons Heart.

[farmer d]

Thought I would add that I observed during our last heat wave that Rainbow Sherbet really does well in hot temps.  The blooms seems to be at their best with the pinks and oranges expanding in size.  While many of my other hibiscus shrank in bloom size and the leaves showed some stress RS had no problems at all.  And it is in a really sunny, warm spot getting sun from 10 till 6.

Farmer D

[farmer d]

some more

Farmer D

[farmer d]

some twins shots

Farmer D