It's easier to grow a Kratom plant than one might think! Despite its particular growing environment, Kratom trees are very adaptable, forgiving, and fast growing!
In nature the Kratom plant grows in humid and hot climates. It's always best to try and mimic the plants natural environment for optimal growth, although kratom will grow in a wide range of humidity and temperatures once adapted to its new climate.
ACCLIMATING YOUR NEW KRATOM PLANT
It's important to note that once you receive your kratom plant in the mail it needs to be acclimated to its new home! Shipment stresses plants out! They've been in a humid, stale aired, and dark environment for several days and suddenly bringing your live kratom plant into lower humidity, intense sun, or windy conditions will dry out the leaves and cause further stress or even kill it. This is because while stressed from travel plants will not be able to soak up the water that they need fast enough to replace what is lost from perspiration.
To get the plant used to its new environment it needs to be placed in an enclosure that holds humidity well. This can be something as simple as a clear bag with a few holes in it placed over the top of your plant. Another common enclosure is a soda bottle with the bottom cut off. As long as it helps keep the humidity up and is clear. It's important to note that placing plants that have a humidity enclosure in the sun can cook them! Leave them in the shade, indoors, or under weak grow lights while it's acclimating to the open air.
Your main goal here is to slowly introduce your plant to lower and lower humidity until it is happy in the open air.
-One way to do this is to simply lift the lid off your chosen enclosure for longer and longer periods of time, keeping a close eye on it while doing so. If it starts to wilt in the slightest... mist the plant and the walls of the enclosure, fan fresh air to the plant and the inside of the humidity chamber, then finally place the lid back on.
-Another route of acclimation is to add more and more holes to the enclosure every day to decrease the humidity inside slowly.
Both of these methods together or separate work great, but as long as you are increasing fresh air while decreasing humidity at a slow pace and misting when needed you'll be good ;)
HUMIDITY
The kratom trees natural environment of southeast Asia is very humid, but will still grow well and even thrive in low humidity. Even in the second driest air in the United States kratom plants do well!! The Bounty botanicals garden resides in the heart of Arizona where our outdoor kratom thrives! Beyond adapting your plant to its new environment upon arrival working to keep the humidity high is probably more trouble than its worth, but if you would like to increase humidity for your plant a greenhouse for outdoor plants or a humidifier for indoor plants will work just fine.
TEMPERATURE
Being from a tropical environment kratom loves being warm. Temperatures of 80 to 90 degrees seem to be ideal, but it will tolerate temperatures from the low 30s to past 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Consistent temperatures below 70 degrees will not necessarily harm your plants but growth will be slowed and the plant may drop its leaves if exposed to low temperatures for an extended length of time. If the leaves do drop, don't panic! The plant has just gone dormant and will resume growing once the temperatures rise, although it is important to protect your plant from freezing temps by using a greenhouse, bringing indoors, or other means you'd like to implement.
-When growing indoors temperature shouldn't be much of a problem . If it tends to get chilly at night it's best to have the lights on during that time and off during the day.
LIGHTING
kratom trees can handle A LOT of light, but a study I read suggests a larger yield of leaves when grown under a shade cloth. For indoors H.I.D. lighting or leds will work well, but T5 or even T8 fluorescent bulbs will do for smaller plants.
SOIL
Mitragyna speciosa likes soil that is rich in nutrients to support its super fast growth, retain plenty of moisture but still drain well, contain lots of organic matter and humus, and be slightly acidic with a pH around 5.5 -6.5.
It doesn't have to be fancy specialty soil, just a soil that retains plenty of moisture, is fertile, and is slightly acidic(most pre-made soils are). I like to use a mix of Happy frog and Ocean forest. Straight Happy frog works too, but doesn't contain a lot of nutrients. With that being said I've never seen a plant not happy in Happy frog...not a sponsor(lol)
WATERING
Kratom plants enjoy plenty of water! You can water often if you like as it's hard to overdo it with kratom. Some folks even place the pots in a dish of water!
FERTILIZING
As your plants grow big they will benefit greatly from regular fertilization. Your typical potting soil only feeds plants for around a month. After this point it is a good idea to start feeding your plants a fertilizer... as long as they are actively growing. A "all purpose" plant food will do, but one geared towards vegetative growth(higher in nitrogen) is ideal. Sometimes this fertilizer is labeled as an herb fertilizer as most herbs grow fast and leaf parts in particular are desired and used just like kratom. Fish fertilizers and kelp fertilizers are amazing for kratom growth!
Don't over do it though! More does not always equal better! A common train of thought is, "Hey, if I give it more fertilizer, it'll grow faster and bigger!" Plants need fertilizer to grow, but it is not their main source of fuel or food. In reality the fertilizers are only a small fraction of what makes up a plants mass. Plants actually get their bulk Mass from carbon which they pull right from the air! That's right, most of what makes up a plant is carbon...and it's from out of thin air! Not from the soil, not from the nutrients, but from the carbon in the air! AMAZING I KNOW! Giving your plant an overdose of fertilizer will give you nothing but burnt plants and heartache!
That's about it folks! Happy gardening!
GET YOUR VERY OWN Kratom plant <<<