I have big problem when it comes to planting and sowing. No matter what time of the year it is I always have trust that seed/plant will grow. That was the case with papyrus. First seed was sowed indoors in December 2011. and...nothing. But I didn`t gave up, so I sowed more seed and few small and very fragile plants emerged from the soil. The mixture I used was half ordinary soil from the store/half cat litter sand. When seed starts to germinate root is very fragile so the soil must be wet and soft. Germination usually occurred within 7 to 14 days if it is kept in a warm place. Just to mention this; seed is very very tiny so be careful you don`t lose it!
I didn`t have much luck with papyrus first several months. Since it was wintertime there was very little or no sunlight, and daylight period was very
short so because of that I lost about 20 seedlings. They simply didn`t like the fact that there was no sunlight and some seedlings were eaten by worms. Later on, three small weak plants that survived long enough to welcome spring grew into beautiful big plants.
At one point I actually gave up on these 3 seedlings and planted them into my rice parcel leaving them on their own. There they had soggy soil there and a lot of direct sunlight. I simply didn`t have time to watch over them because most days of the week I was in another town attending classes. These three plants grew like crazy! Since it was beggining of the summer my guess is that it was due to the amount of the sunlight hey had.
| About cyperus papyrus taken from Wikipedia...(link)
This tall, robust, leafless aquatic plant can grow 4 to 5 m (13 to 16
ft) high. It forms a grass-like clump of triangular green stems that
rise up from thick, woody rhizomes.
Each stem is topped by a dense cluster of thin, bright green,
thread-like stems around 10 to 30 cm (4 to 10 in) in length, resembling a
feather duster when the plant is young. Greenish-brown flower clusters eventually appear at the ends of the rays, giving way to brown, nut-like fruits.[...]
Egyptians used the plant for many purposes, most famously for making papyrus paper. Its name in Greek and in English is widely believed to have come from Egyptian. Cyperus papyrus is now used mainly for decoration, as it is nearly extinct in its native habitat in the Nile Delta, where in ancient times it was widely cultivated. Theophrastus' "History of Plants" (Book iv. 10) states that it grew in Syria; and, according to Pliny's Natural History, it was also a native plant of the Niger River and the Euphrates.[...]
Aside from papyrus, several other members of the genus Cyperus
may actually have been involved in the multiple uses Egyptians found
for the plant. Its flowering heads were linked to make garlands for the
gods in gratitude. The pith of young shoots was eaten both cooked and
raw. Its woody root made bowls and other utensils and was burned for
fuel. From the stems were made reed boats (seen in bas-reliefs of the Fourth Dynasty showing men cutting papyrus to build a boat; similar boats are still made in the southern Sudan), sails, mats, cloth, cordage, and sandals.[...]
Papyrus ranges from subtropical to tropical desert to wet forests, tolerating annual temperatures of 20 °C (68 °F) to 30 °C (86 °F)
and a pH of 6.0 to 8.5. Papyrus flowers in late summer, and prefers
full sun to partly shady conditions. Like most tropical plants, it is
sensitive to frost. In the United States it has become invasive in Florida and has escaped from cultivation in Louisiana, California and Hawaii.
Papyrus sedge forms vast stands in swamps, shallow lakes, and along
stream banks throughout the wetter parts of Africa, but it has become
rare in the Nile Delta. In deeper waters it is the chief constituent of the floating, tangled masses of vegetation known as sudd. It also occurs in Madagascar, and some Mediterranean regions such as Sicily and the Levant.[...]
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Now it is time to outline the most important things when growing cyperus papyrus from seed (my experience)...
Sowing
Sowing medium can be virtually anything (soil, sand...) but try to have sterile medium. Bacterias are not the problem but worms are. Sowing medium should always be wet but not soggy. Seed should be gently placed onto the sowing medium and container should be closed and kept in a warm place...again, I kept mine in the kitchen. If seed quality is good it will germinate between 7 and 14 days and sometimes sooner.
Seedlings
Transplanting seedlings when they are about 2.5cm (1 inch) tall is good option. The best way to transplant them is to take entire seedling with some soil around it and put into new container. From my experience, papyrus seedlings are very resilient but anyhow, try to be gentle with the root. Make sure they have enough sun and that (now) soil is soggy. At this point you can pour water so that it covers soil just make sure that you do not put so much water that it covers the entire plant :).
Bigger plant
Soil in the container should always be soggy and depends of the size of the plant, make sure that there is always water surrounding the plant. As the plant grows transplant it when you see that current container is too small. When transplanting I added chicken manure (4 part ordinary garden soil, 1 part manure). Papyrus loves that combination and grows like crazy. I read somewhere that papyrus grown from seed in its first first year doesn`t grow more than 60 cm (2 feet), well mine grew up to 160 cm (5.5 feet) and it is still growing like crazy! Just make sure it has enough sun and that soil is always covered with water.
Overwintering
Overwintering is easy. The important thing is not to allow it to freeze. I kept my papyruses indoors (house attached greenhouse), in room where temperature never goes below freezing point. Growth was slow and unnoticeable but when sun showed up it just continued growing. Soil was kept wet during the entire winter. Next winter I will try putting one of them in basement to see how it will overwinter in a dark place.
Dividing papyrus
No problem with that. Use a knife to cut rhizome into smaller pieces and simply plant them. It is better if every piece has at least one healthy bud (or stem), piece of rhizome and roots. That way you can be sure it will recover and grow much faster. (there are photos of dividing it below)
Dividing papyrus
No problem with that. Use a knife to cut rhizome into smaller pieces and simply plant them. It is better if every piece has at least one healthy bud (or stem), piece of rhizome and roots. That way you can be sure it will recover and grow much faster. (there are photos of dividing it below)
Papyrus diary
09.04.2012.
These are three last seed that germinated and eventually grew into big plants. Before them I have lost a lot of seedlings and primarily because sunlight was scarce.
They grew slowly in beginning but later on it was a completely different story...
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07.07.2012.
They were placed in rice parcel because there they had direct sunlight the entire day.
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Glass containre became too small so that papyrus was transplanted to bigger one. In that container it grew up to 120cm (3.93 ft) before I transplanted it again in September.
24.07.2012.
26.07.2012.
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26.08.2012.
As I said, they grow very fast. It is probably due to the fact that I put some chicken manure into the soil when transplanting. :)
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28.08.2012.
New stems developing.
24.09.2012.
07.10.2012.
The biggest one got new container. Other two are still in their nice blue buckets :). Week after the biggest one was transplanted it started to develop new roots like crazy (they are visible because they are on the surface of the soil).
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16.12.2012.
When colder weather came I moved papyrus to the house-attached greenhouse. Temperature there never goes below 2°C (35.6°F) during the winter so they will not freeze. There is also a lot of light since the greenhouse is facing south.
Although it is much colder and there is lot less sunlight in December papyrus continues to grow nicely. For now I think it will survive the winter without any problems. Current height of the biggest stem is 190 cm (75 inches).
04.01.2013.
Papyruses have slow down with the growth. Indoors temperatures in the last 20 day had range from 6°C to 35°C (42°F to 95°F). When weather is sunny ti gets really hot in the house-attached greenhouse and the only thing I can do is to start big fan that circulates air beneath floor and cools it to some reasonable temperature. Biggest problem in this situation is big difference between night and day temperature but for now papyrus doesn't show any signs of stress although I cannot exclude the possibility that they might occur later on.Hight temperatures couse water to evaporate so I must add water every day.
Recently I repositioned them so every one of them has enough space to grow and get more sunlight.
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All 3 plants were in the house attached greenhouse but sun is strong and temperatures are getting very high in there so I decided to plant one of it outdoors into the ground. There is still possibility of frost but I will take that chance (and cover papyrus overnight).
One of the reasons for transplanting them into the ground is that containers are too small for them and they are slowly deforming and tearing them apart. New stems are growing bigger and there is simply no more space in the container. Alongside that, soil in container dries up very fast so it must be watered all the time.
So, I chose a spot that has a lot of sunlight and where soil is almost always moist. After digging up the hole I placed a nylon garbage bag at the bottom making a small container that will retain water. Just placed the bag on the bottom and lifted edges so that it can hold more water. By doing this papyrus will always have water reserve that is underground and is protected from drying out. Roots can go freely to the rest of the ground because edged of nylon is some 2-3 inches (5-7 cm) tall and it doesn`t prevent plant to progress further. Since soil is very rich in nutrients I hope this papyrus will grow very big. :)
Now the photos :)
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One plant I transplanted into the ground and the other I divided for sale.
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I`m left with biggest papyrus. It grew very fast and by now it has reached the ceiling. As soon as the windy weather passes it will go outside. It will be planted outside in a container I`ve made from two old tractor tires :). I can`t afford to buy real big container so I use what I have and at the same time give things a purpose. Tires were lying around unused for years but this way they became useful :). Investment in plastic foil was minimal.
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There was one thing that really surprised me today and that is papyrus flowering. Didn`t noticed that until it actually flowered. It is 13 month old grown from seed and it started to flower, that is very nice :).
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On 18th May I planted papyrus outside in that big container that I`ve made. Unfortunately plastic foil had a hole and water leaked. The only thing I could do is to buy another foil and transplant it. That was a messy thing to do but I had no alternative. I also used another tire because it is wider at top so there is more space for stems to grow. Since weather is windy I wrapped papyrus in cloth so that wind doesn`t break stems. For now everything is ok and the most important...there is no leaking! :)
It has been a long time since I updated this post so let`s do it today :)
After planting one papyrus into the ground and one into the container there was not much work to be done around them except watching them grow. They really did grow!
So here are the photos and description...
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After a strong summer storm papyrus in the container got a heavy beating and many stems were broken. I did tie everything up in order to make everything stronger but it did not work. Wind was so strong that it ever knocked down one of our walnuts. But since it was summer and it was warm new stems quickly replaced the old ones.
When securing papyrus use materials that will not become heavy when soaked with rain. That is especially important when stems are not strong enough to carry the weight of damp cloth or something else. Plastic garbage bags folded into broad strips are also good solution. Bottom line is that if all stems keep together they are stronger and less likely to break.
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| 14.10. |
This is it for now. Soon I will dig them up and divide in smaller pieces and plant in containers. Some will overwinter in basement, some in greenhouse, some in glasshouse and some in the living room. The ones in the glasshouse will have the best conditions but I`m interested in how will they react on not so favorable conditions when it comes to heat and light.
17.11.2013.
On the October 27th I made divisions from the papyrus planted in the ground. When making divisions I cut the pieces of papyrus in a way that it has one big stem and one small stem in development AND that it has some roots (attached or growing from the rhizome). Some average length of the rhizome of each new plant was 5-7 cm || 2-3 in. But that is something that greatly depends on the size of the container you have or size of the plant. My containers were rather small so I had to use smaller rhizome parts but if you have bigger containers cut bigger pieces because they will have more energy and grow much quickly.
Having big stem and small one ensures that new plant will have enough energy (from the big stem and rhizome) and that it will develop new growth from the leafs surrounding big ans small stem. That sounds a bit confusing but when you look at the photos you will see what I mean :). Also when papyrus starts to grow and develops new stems the old ones can be cut off. If you don`t cut it off papyrus will do it for you by discarding it.
It was very interesting to notice that papyrus rhizome has very pleasant minty scent. I read that in the ancient Egypt it was used for perfume making but also as an medicine and as food. I did try to eat small piece but taste was not very nice.
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I couldn`t find containers without holes so I used ones with holes but I inserted plastic bags in them before planting papyrus. That way there will always be some water around roots. After planting them I has problem with space in the greenhouse. 15 containers take a lot of space so I build shelf for them. That was the third time I had to more plants around and add new "inventions" to create additional space. There was also a problem with stems. They were too big so I had to cut them down from 90cm || 3ft to 30cm || 1 ft.
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3 weeks later (17.11.2013.) there is some progress. First week weather was very warm so in the greenhouse I had tropical micro climate but last two weeks we had cold temperatures so everything slowed down, including papyrus growth.
After receiving comment about papyrus growth I went to see what is happening to my plants. Some of them have new stems developing and one of them looked dead so I took it out of the soil to see what is happening and is he really dead. I was wrong.
These ones are developing new stems:
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On the photos below is stem being discarded by papyrus. It turns brown and dries off. And there is another stem that was very interesting to me because it was very flexible. I think that is one of the old stems so that is why it is so flexible. Stems that grew this year would not stand this kind of bending and they would break.
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Love your photos, and the process. I planted mine in the ground which was taken from a neighbors plant. It still had roots on it and I cut it down to the brown part. It has been in the ground for 3 weeks but it has not sprouted new growth. Hope I did not kill it by taking the tops off and cutting it down.
ReplyDeleteThanks again. Your plants look beautiful!
Thank you! :) After receiving your comment I updated the post and it seems like they need more time to grow. My cuttings are also 3 weeks old so I posted some photos where you can see what is happening. If you live in warm climate just keep them well watered so that they don`t dry out (before they grow big).
ReplyDeletethank you for you photos, and teaching.
ReplyDeletewas ready to give up on my plants because i planted them in february from some cuttins thatvmy friend gave me. they turned dry and sort of light tan color. i cut them down to the brown par and they were about 5 inches. i may have allowed them to dry out, but began to water them. now i can see a tiny green sprout coming up next to the clump i planted.it is only about 1/2 inch, but it is there. i have jumped for joy i look every day to see how it is coming along. please excuse my cap's. my keyboard is not working properly. thank you again. you have given me new hope for my papyrus.
It is always a good thing to hear that info I post is helpful. :)
ReplyDeleteNever give up on plants. Even if you plan to give up just plant it somewhere aside and if there is strength in the plant it will find the way to survive. I hate discarding plants so I plant everything and sometimes that cam be a problem :).
I am glad that your papyrus is alive and growing. Almost all of my divisions died. I was left with only one. There was a tragedy that affected my life so I forgot to water them and only one survived. That beautiful one planted outside was killed by cold. This one that survived is growing well. It will not be as big as the ones last year but it is here, live and kicking :)
When your papyrus gets bigger give his some fertilizers and he will grow like crazy.