Your Kratom Plant is on the way. Now What?
You finally did it! You bought your very own kratom tree from Magick Powers Potions! Soon it will be on its way to your house, sent USPS priority with tracking. What do you do now? How do you prepare for this beautiful green being that will soon be in your care? Like a new member of the family, this little creation is counting on you for nourishment, love and care. Here is a simple guide to preparing for your new arrival and getting her situated when she makes it to her new home.
What equipment will I need to have a successful growing experience?
If you live in a tropical climate, you are blessed to have an ideal environment provided by Mother Nature. For those living elsewhere, you can provide rich soil conditions and recreate the qualities of tropical heat and humidity to have a successful grow. If you bought the Magick Powers Potions indoor kratom grow kit, you have almost everything you need for a professional-quality grow already coming to you. But even if you got the kit, please continue reading to learn more about how you will be caring for your plant beyond just equipment.
If you didn't get the grow kit, you can find, create and assemble pretty much everything on your own. Pay close attention to the following information and let your plant live its very best life.
For maintenance you will need:
* a spray bottle
* a pH kit
* rain water or distilled water
* plant food (Our recommendations vary according to situation. Our grow consultants will help you create a custom feeding protocol.)
For health and safety you will need:
* a scope
For environment you will need:
* A light - we recommend keeping your specimen on a 24 hour light cycle for its first year of life. This significantly improves growth rate, encourages natural branching and hastens maturity. We offer several excellent targeted frequency lamps that encourage larger, broader and more colorful leaves. Ask our online grow consultants to recommend one best for your situation. Our specimens acclimate well to American humidity levels, and once you follow our acclimation and hardening off protocols, you can bring your specimen outdoors to enjoy the sunshine during the day, then back inside under the targeted frequencies at night for optimal success. After a full harvest, the plants will enjoy a photo-dark period for recuperation, and depending on your situation, you may chose to let them stay outdoors and experience the natural day/night cycle. NOTE: if you can't afford a grow light, save for one. It makes a difference. Until you have one, a bright sunny window will suffice.
* A plastic grow container and drip tray - bibits (our smallest offerings, for experienced gardeners only) should have a half gallon pot for their first container after purchase, seedlings should go into a 1-3 gallon pot, and larger specimens into larger containers, as recommended by our online grow consultants. You will graduate your specimen on multiple occasions to larger containers as needed, and for agricultural applications your specimen could potentially be filling a 55 gallon drum by the end of the first year of growth. NOTE: a lot of our clients transition over from the cannabis world where cloth pots are commonly used. We recommend against cloth pots, because they can encourage mold, bacteria and other issues. It is also important that your container has adequate drainage to eliminate the potential for standing water, which can encourage root rot, pythium, etc.
* Acidic well-draining soil - try Fox Farm's Ocean Forest for the experienced gardener, with 20% perlite added in. Specimens in Ocean Forest will have lower nutrient requirements in their feeding protocol at first, as this soil is very nutrient dense. For the less experienced gardener, a soil like Pro-Mix Potting Soil is better because it is not as easily compromised by overwatering. Fox Farm Happy Frog is another excellent soil favored by some of our agricultural clients. Keep in mind mitragyna speciosa like a pH between 5.5-6.5, with 5.8 being the magick number. Some of the Fox Farm products can run right up to the 6.5 point, which is the ceiling on this species' pH preferability. NOTE: Never put your specimen in alkaline soil. Our grow consultants will be happy to guide you in this realm.
* Warmth - Keep your plant happy by keeping her warm. Kratom loves to be warm! Although our outdoor trees hardily sustain lows in the 40s, they appreciate warmth and explode with growth when the environment is conducive. If they are too cold, they can have troubles or even die in a freeze. Although mature kratom can survive outdoors overwinter, all the leaves fall off and the tree goes dormant before new branches and leaves re-grow in the spring. Do not overwinter your young specimens or expose them to extreme cold. All temperature changes should be done gradually. If done improperly, your specimen can die. Our grow consultants can assist you with proper timing and procedure.
* Humidity - If you purchased a bibit, it will require high humidity to live, from which you will eventually acclimate it to regular humidity. For seedlings, we offer a free hardening off service where we transition your plant for you, toughening it up to lower humidity and outdoor conditions like sun, wind and rain prior to shipping it to you. This mean your specimen should thrive just fine in regular humidity levels after you follow the initial transplant and acclimation protocol. However, kratom does love humidity and will grow rapidly in a warm, bright, humid environment. If you get your specimen used these conditions, it will be difficult to move it outside. We have found the optimal balance is achieved by bringing the specimens into the sun and breezes outside on a beautiful day, and then putting them under a grow light in a humid area like our indoor grow kit or a bathroom during the night. They still receive 24 hour light this way, and they still get humidity, but the two contrasting environments provide a different type of day/night cycle for them, and they become tougher, happier, and very well acclimated to a variety of environmental conditions.
* Moisture - Your specimen will enjoy daily misting. If the soil isn't draining well or is too soggy, misting can cause issues... so be sure she is never growing in stagnant water.
* Acidic water - To maintain proper pH levels for your specimen, always water with distilled or pH adjusted water. Keep the pH between 5.5-6.5, aiming for the 5.8 sweet spot.
Some fun kratom growing trivia:
Kratom likes indirect sunlight, direct sunlight (when acclimated), direct diffused light and direct low wattage full spectrum light as well as targeted frequencies. Too hot of bulbs will burn kratom. Kratom is not like cannabis. If you apply 1000W cannabis grow lights to your kratom, you'll regret it. LESS IS MORE.
Kratom loves nutrient rich soil and needs plenty of nitrogen to stay dark green. Kratom appears in many colors and in the wild you often see light green and yellow leaves, due to lower levels of nitrogen in the soil.
Kratom changes colors. You will see many colors appear on your plant at different times. Modifying environmental conditions will likely result in a change of appearance of some kind.
Kratom has many different shaped leaves. The shape of the leaves is affected by light levels and the direction of the light source, as well as age, soil conditions and genetics of the plant.
What to do when your package arrives
As soon as your package arrives, you want to organize your planting supplies (like pot, soil, distilled or pH-adjusted water) and gently open it. Many of the kratom specimens grown at Magick Powers Potions have been on a 24 hour light cycle their entire lives. Others are on natural daylight cycles. The online grow consultant who takes your order will give you specific details related to the care of your specimen. Keep in mind that for specimens typically on 24 hour light, the extended darkness they experience during shipping chemically signals to them that the world is ending. You will be your plant's literal savior, taking her out of the darkness and into the light.
Please open the packaging very gently and carefully. Leaves and branches are wrapped in moisture barriers, and it is easy to hurt them if you are not careful removing the moist layers.
When you first remove your baby from her moisture barriers, she will be like a newborn coming out of the womb. Her leaves will generally be folded upward and she will temporarily be retaining the shape she was packed into in the box. It is important that you follow our transplant and acclimation protocol for young seedlings. It will take her 24-48 hours to perk up after initiation of this protocol.
When your plant arrives, a little baggie of mycorrhizae will be included. Mycorrhizae is a fungus that grows in association with the roots of a plant in a symbiotic or mildly pathogenic relationship. It looks like tiny little specks of gravel. Sprinkle this in the hole you make in the soil of your pot. You will then lower your plant's root ball into the hole, allowing the roots and the mycorrhizae to make contact. If you have a larger root ball with a long string of roots, stretch them out and downward. Press the soil firmly in place and give another drink of water to settle everything.
Spray your plant's leaves (again) and stem with pH 5-5-5.8 water. Give it a nice mist bath.
Then be sure to cover it with plastic as outlined in our transplant and acclimation protocol. This protocol should be followed even if you put it inside an enclosure with warmth, humidity and light. If you have a larger specimen, you can use a lightweight plastic bag to do the covering.
To really give your new addition a cushy transition indoors, you can bring her into a bathroom and run the shower and get everything hot and steamy.
Successful transitions
It will take approximately a week and a day for your plant to successfully transition. Give her love and light, and every day you will see her become happier and happier.
After a few hours to a few days, you should be able to remove the plastic as outlined in the transplant and acclimation protocol. Then you will move to the hardening off protocol to get your specimen used to the outdoors. All transitions must be done gradually.
We do provide free hardening off services to help toughen up your specimens prior to shipping. However, you will repeat the same protocols in your new environment for optimal success.
For a productive well-yielding house plant, feed lightly once a week, or a little more heavily bi-monthly (full moon and new moon are always great times). For agricultural applications, our agricultural protocols will be provided as part of your agricultural use license.
Some spiritual pointers from our hedgewitch
Plants are more than tools for our growth and health ---- they are living beings. If you are looking to develop or deepen your connection with kratom's plant spirit, we recommend you give your specimen a name. You'll want to talk to her, and a name helps. Also we suggest you give her a clear and direct mission. Plants, like animals, live for having a purpose. Tell her what her mission is. Ask for her blessing and give her your own. There is a Great Spirit in all things, and much medicine runs through the leaves of these little green beings. She will serve you for your ultimate good if you ask her to.
Join a family of kratom growers
Join the Magick Powers Potions Group on facebook to chat with other growers and ask questions. We are waiting to welcome you to the growing growing family.
Many blessings from Magick Powers Potions.
And one last thing, if you're read this far... you've found an "easter egg" which is redeemable for one entry into our current plant giveaway contest. Contact us via the website or your facebook page to claim your extra entry! Good luck and happy growing.