fun with cuttings

[johno]

I have had many failures with cuttings in the past, right up until my visit with Chad. As we stood in one of his greenhouses, I picked his brain about my misadventures in vegetative propagation. Since then I have copied his method to the "T" and so far, so good. It's fun when the cuttings don't die!

:D :p :)

[cReAtIoN gRoAnS]

Cool beans Johno! That is exciting to hear!

Feels good don't it!


Glad to be of help.




Now you can order some rare herbs and keep em going!

Chad

[TastyofHasty]

Well ... well!! Well?? So clue us in on these methods??!! :)

[johno]

Oh, okay. Chad wouldn't want it kept secret, anyway.

Actually, it's pretty simple. Cut a couple inches off a tip, slice a little way up the stem from the bottom up (not all the way through, just on one side,) dip in rooting hormone, plant in pure perlite, keep moist and in dappled light. Simple!

[TastyofHasty]

What cuttings are you rooting at this time, if we may be so blunt ... as to ask??? :cool: this is 'cause ... maybe I can do it too.

[johno]

Right now I'm growing basil and lemon verbena from cuttings, and I might try cuttings from grapes when I find out what kind they are.

I'm running out of perlite, but I spotted a ginormous bag at the feed store the other day. I think it's about $20.00 per bag...

[TastyofHasty]

oooh. lemon verbena. nice.

Now basil, for me, grows easily from seeds, which are also cheap.

Seems like perlite would be the expensive part ... that and the rooting hormone. I got some rooting hormone at a garage sale for 50 cents, haven't tried it yet ... one of these days I'm going to BUY a little rosemary plant & try growing it. It grew well in Louisiana, next to cement foundations of houses. Hey ... I've got a nice fat lavender bush that might well be conducive to cuttings!

Thanks, Johno (and Chad)! Another EXPERIMENT ...

[Joan]

Hey I wonder if that would work on hydrangea? People tell me it is easy to start but I've never succeeded. This is something I heard if you want to try instead of buying rooting hormone which is the expensive part. Get clippings from willow trees and soak in water, I don't know if you put your cuttings in this tho or poor over growing medium but it is supposed to be tried and true, guess I wasn't much help after all.

[johno]

I keep kicking myself for not having any willow trees...

[Soapymomma]

ive tried the willow trees, they didnt work for me ....

[zebraman]

Hey Joan and Soapymomma;You need to use liguid hormone.www.dipngrow.com
Works on Hydrangea's and hardwood cuttings.Hydrangeas take a month or two.All of mine are from cuttings.I am currently rooting Black Night Butterflybushes,Abbra Cadabbra roses,and a shrub called Cat Whiskers.-

[Joan]

Hey thanks zebraman! Now I guess I have to wait for next spring.
BTW my grandma use to cut a piece of rose, stick it in the ground and cover it with a mayonnaise jar. She got more rose plants that way and I don't think she ever heard of root tone at that time!

[zebraman]

Hey Joan;She was rooting original strains of Roses and not hybrid Tea's.Wild rose bushes root the same way.-

[justdoit]

Check out my method for dormant cuttings on the General Digging forum under a heading about rooting Rose of Sharon... afraid I got a bit long winded. groan! And, if you get really serious, we can talk about a hillbilly mist system that has worked well for me as long as you can stay home to turn it on in the morning and off at late evening. LOL

[johno]

I took some more cuttings yesterday. rosemary, thyme, lavender, stevia, genovese basil, lemon basil, forget what else... hope they live!

[redbrick]

I might try cuttings from grapes when I find out what kind they are.

Johno, grapes are super easy to root! At least, viniferas are, I don't know about labruscas (Muscadines) as they won't grow this far north. All you need to do is take some dormant cuttings about a foot long from new wood. Make sure there are about four or five buds, and that you mark which end is up (VERY important!). Plant them where up to just under the top bud, where you want them to stay. You really don't want to have to transplant them. Their roots go exceptionally deep (measured in feet) and don't like to be disturbed. Also, don't plant them until you have the trellis in place, so you don't damage the roots. One other thing, cage them with chicken wire or hardware cloth to protect them from deer and other varmints The final thing you need to do is to walk away and forget about them until they sprout.

[TastyofHasty]

Now in the midst of winter would be the hardest time to tell if they're "making it," or not. What're you doing with the cuttings you started now, Johno? Keep 'em inside or out?

[johno]

I keep them inside. They are still in perlite, but growing like gangbusters - the ones that lived, anyway... I had the best luck with Genovese basil and stevia.

[Heirloom Seed Shop]

The huge rosemary that is in front of the seed shop came from a plant that I have at home. I cut a newly sprouted stem off about 5 inches from the top of the plant at an angle, stripped the leaves off about 1 inch, dipped it in the powdered root hormone, and stuck it in a pot of mulched soil mixed with rabbit manure. Did wonderful.

[flowerpower]

I keep them inside. They are still in perlite, but growing like gangbusters - the ones that lived, anyway... I had the best luck with Genovese basil and stevia.

I saw that Stevia for sale. It was pricey. I tasted a leaf and I couldn't believe how sweet it was. Glad to know I can easily root a piece.

[Vera_EWASH]

Exactly the way I learned in school (Greenhouse/Nursery Mngmt.) and I've none it that way at home every since. It has never failed me yet! The only difference is that we only used rooting hormone for those difficult to root cuttings. Also at home (indoors) I insert pot/plant into a ziplock to provide a little humidity and open it up a little more each day....Lavender and thyme were the exception. If I'm doing this outdoors I just situate in a protected location out of hot afternoon sun minus the baggie. In the greenhouse we has a seperate area for all the cuttings situated on a side wall length bench with a long plastic curtain and a mist system.

Happy propagating :D

Vera

[Vera_EWASH]

Just wanted to add that Basil, Lavender, Rosemary, Thyme and Lemon Balm don't require hormone to root...they are quick to root.
Most plants in the Lamiaceae family are :D

Vera

[johno]

Harumph... I neglected my cuttings a little too long... I transplanted three Genovese basils that had good roots. Anything else that had a little green left went into one pot just for the heck of it, but they dried up... I think maybe one oregano might make it...

[strong eagle]

Lowes seem to have the cheapest price on rooting hormone, and the small container goes a long way. If you weant to try the "Willow" method, grab a handfull of the "tips" off any Will;ow, [or Poplar] and throw them in a blender, for a few seconds with a quart of water, strain, then set your cuttings to be rooted in about an inch of the "willow water" and soake for about an hour, then take out of water and place in a "gritty" soil mix, like sand and perlite, or just very coarse sand. I grew up on the Columbia River, in Wash. and learned from the Rhododendrum growers how to do this. Never too old to learn tho, so I'm trying the "split stem" method for herbal cuttings. Thanks for that tip! strong

[Heirloom Seed Shop]

I was at the seed shop yesterday and was snipping the dead off of an Oregano plant which is next to an Arp Rosemary. Rosemary being one of my favorite aromas, I was rubbing the scent onto my hands and pinched off a few sprigs. I have a half plastic barrel filled with some good soil, so I just stuck a few sprigs into it and a sprig into a flower bed next to the building. Just an experiment. We'll see!

[TastyofHasty]

Harumph... I neglected my cuttings a little too long...

That is too bad, Johno! I have been reading Plants-A-Plenty, Chapter 2 (about cuttings). Catharine Osgood Foster (the author) says:

Preventing Early Budding
Whether you take cuttings to root in summer or over the winter, one thing to watch out for is developing buds. Unless you keep your hardwood and semi-hardwood cuttings at a constant temperature of 40F, they may begin to send out new shoots. Do not allow this to occur, because cuttings will die if they develop shoots before they have a chance to send down roots. You may not see the consequences right away, but after planting out the cuttings in the soil you will see that they will die. (When you do put them out, see that the cuttings are not molested by rodents or by weeds.)

. . . she suggests re-potting hardwood cuttings several times before planting outside so they will develop "a good mass of fibrous roots."

But as to what to do with your cuttings once you have some roots ...

Making Effective Rooting and Potting Mixtures
... all you need to do is keep an eye on the cuttings and pot them up in a fertile medium (as opposed to the rooting medium which has no nutrition in it - my added note --TOH) as soon as you see that they have roots 1 to 1-1/2 inches long.

Since you don't want to subject the plant to too much of a shock in transition, it is wise to move from a mixture of equal parts of two materials to a mixture containing three, or from three to four parts, by adding loam. For example, you can add 1 part of rich loam to 1 part each of peat moss and sand; or add 1 part of rich loam to equal parts of vermiculite, peat moss, and sand. If you are taking cuttings from acid-loving plants, use equal parts of sand, acid peat, leaf mold, and Michigan peat.
As an aid in putting together your rooting and potting mixtures for stem cuttings, keep in mind that:

SAND -- is clean, easily sterilized, and capable of holding some water, especially if it's somewhat fine. Coarse builder's sand is best to use, however, because the main function of this medium is to assist drainage. Though sand is a good rooting medium, roots growing in pure sand sometimes get long and unbranched. If this happens, begin to add soil.

PEAT MOSS -- should be used in combination with some other medium. Its main virtue is its water-holding capacity. Peat has a few nutrients, but not many. When misting cuttings, beware of using more than 1 part of peat moss to 2 or 3 parts of a less porous medium, or your mixture will get too soggy. Imported peat is acid; Michigan peat is not.

SPAGHNUM MOSS -- is natural acid bog moss. It is almost sterile and reportedly somewhat antibiotic. This medium is very good at holding water, as it does in nature. It is usually shredded, but not necessarily. Its pH of 3.5 inhibits the damping-off fungus.

VERMICULITE -- comes from a mica-like mioneral that has been expanded by heat. It has a pH of about 7. Very water-absorbent, it can hold nutrients in reserve by slow release. It will provide plants with the magnesium and potassium they need while rooting. Vermiculite is completely sterile because it has been heated to 2,000F during the expansion process. Use #2 for cuttings; but for seeds use #4.

PERLITE -- will hold water up to 3 times its weight. It also is sterile, but has no nutrients. Of volcanic origin, it is heated to 1,400F for expansion.

COMPOST -- offers many recycled trace elements and an advantageous carbon/nitrogen ratio. Because it contains mellow humus, it holds water well. Compose is usually mixed with soil, but since the compost is already pasteurized during the hot period of the composting process, the pathogens are probably gone.

SAWDUST, SHREDDED BARK, etc. -- are usually from conifers such as pines, firs, cedars, and redwoods. These materials all hold water, decay slowly, and need supplementing with a high-nitrogen material such as blood meal, soy meal, cottonseed meal, alfalfa meal or the like if the cuttings are to stay in the material for very long.

SOIL -- is composed of many things in gaseous and liquid, as well as solid, states. It contains both inorganic and organic substances. The latter can be alive or dead and in some stage of decaying into humus. Textures of the component mineral parts vary from pebbles and gravel to sand and silt and very fine particles of clay. The organic parts may be sticky, prickly, hard, or soft. Soil is a rich, normal, and indispensable medium for plant growth. But when used for cuttings which have not yet rooted or for roots not yet sprouted, it may cause difficulties unless it is pasteurized. Unusually hard-to-root materials are benefitted by being rooted in soil; this is especially true of stem (and root) cuttings of deciduous hardwoods. Use sandy loam for these hardwood cuttings. With softwood cuttings, use twice as much sand as soil in the mixture.

Great book!

[wilderness1989]

Thanks TastyofHasty I ordered Plants-A-Plenty tonight.

[TastyofHasty]

Wilderness, I hope you like it!

I'm starting some "semi-hardwood cuttings" now, even though this is January. (In the book, she suggests starting the cuttings in "late winter," through December.) Junipers. One batch from an "upright" juniper; another batch from some beautiful mostly horizontal-growing junipers in front of the house. We shall see. Roses are also "semi-hardwood," and yews.

[GreenZone]

I had fun with cuttings very recently...I had a few very scraggly tomato plants last summer that never made it out of their pots. I've had 'em in the greenhouse since the end of summer. The only thing good to say for 'em is they stayed alive, poor things. And that they were the very last of their varieties in my collection. And one Argentina, is pretty hard to find.

Last saturday I cut them up to try to root them as cuttings. The part that already had roots I replanted as a cutting also. Yesterday, precisely one week later, I unpotted them and guess what? Every last cutting is rooting! Even the one rootless, leafless stem about as thick as a pencil, has roots and is throwing a new growth out of one of the former leaf axils.

Some might find this story dreary, but I think there are those here that will appreciate the moral of the story: tomato plants are VERY easy to grow from cuttings!

Randel

[TastyofHasty]

Randel, once they have about 1-1/2" roots, do you then transplant them into a medium that has loam in it? (what did you root them in, BTW?) And then do you transplant them again into higher and higher percentage of DIRT?

[Heirloom Seed Shop]

Update: From the post on Jan. 6 - Rosemary. Checked on the sprigs today and they are still green, even some new growth. Amazing. :) We've had lots of rain and freezing temps which caused the ground to freeze several times. I'll keep you posted!

[Rockhound]

I root tomatoes every year, cuttings from the ones planted out in April. I take them from the best plants in about the first week of July, and they make tomatoes at the last gasp of summer. I pick a lot of green ones too, just when the frost threatens. I put these cuttings in wherever there's a blank spot in the garden by then.

[GreenZone]

Tasty, I just used my standard mix, 2 parts peat moss to one part mushroom compost. I should add, these plants had been exposed to cool temps--it actually frosted in one corner of the greenhouse during the FIRST ice storm in December; also, other cuttings, taken from new growth with flower buds on it, did NOT root, or at least hadn't the day after I posted this. So maybe it's not always so easy.

But it does beg the question--might it be worthwhile to vegetatively propagate superior specimens of tomatoes, like we do with fruit trees et al?

Randel

[TastyofHasty]

That is an interesting question about tomatoes, GreenZone. Unfortunately, I am not a tomato expert, so can't answer it. It would be too bad if we started only growing cuttings, though ... but that is just IMHO!!! ... like apples, we could end up with only a few out of thousands of "cultivars" being grown by the majority of people!

But I did want to ask you, what is "mushroom compost?"

[hortlady]

Dear Tasty, Mushroom Compost, or spent mushroom compost is the medium in which mushrooms are cultivated at the factory. Once the "soil" is spent of its nutrients for growing the button mushroom it is marketed as mushroom compost. And what a wonderfully light, fluffy soil amendment it is. If there is a mushroom grower nearby you, you may purchase it for 1/2 the cost of your retailer. Any good garden center should carry it. Hortlady.

[TastyofHasty]

On the subject of cuttings, here are a couple pics of end result of taking cuttings in late fall/early winter, burying them 1 foot deep underground, digging up in early spring, (when "callus" has been formed on bottom of cutting), and planting in plain "potting soil" from Wally-World, with just the top of the cutting out of the soil. I now have (at least) 25 baby fig trees! And chopped some dormant tiny branches off my one surviving "Chinese Edible Hawthorn;" but didn't "bundle them" when burying them ... when I dug up the cuttings I only found ONE Chinese Edible Hawthorn branch ... which got just stuck in the dirt ... it's putting out a leaf on top (see pic) ... next fall, will definitely take more cuttings of it!

First pic is some of the baby fig trees from cuttings ...
Second pic is baby Chinese Edible Hawthorn.

[TastyofHasty]

One helpful thing about fig cuttings ... after planting them in dirt, I covered them over with clear plastic garbage bags for a couple of weeks, seemed to make the leaves pop out much faster this year than they did last year without the garbage bags.

[johno]

-might it be worthwhile to vegetatively propagate superior specimens of tomatoes, like we do with fruit trees et al?

Randel

Short answer: yes.

Long answer: Like Tasty suggested, it is simply cloning, and no progress in the strain is being made. I would say that cloning a superior specimen for the purpose of breeding stock would be the best use of the idea.

I read somewhere that there are parts of Central Ammerica where it never occurred to the tomato growers to start plants from seed (I know, sounds far-fetched...) They supposedly had been propagating their plants from cuttings for generations.

[Joan]

johno, one thing I may have missed, did you cover the plant tips or just put in medium?
Lots of wonderful info in this thread. Thanks

[Sandbar]

I read somewhere that there are parts of Central Ammerica where it never occurred to the tomato growers to start plants from seed (I know, sounds far-fetched...) They supposedly had been propagating their plants from cuttings for generations.You know, that would sure keep a strain pure, wouldn't it? No more worries about cross-pollination ...

Anyone ever tried to root pepper cuttings? I'm thinking I'm seeing a potential fix for my pepper isolation problems ... :D

[zebraman]

Hey Sandbar;Pepper plants are perennials.Here in SUNNY CA. we don't get a frost and my pepper plants "over-winter" and continue to grow next year.You could use a greenhouse or heated sun porch.Tomatoes don't really produce the same quality of fruit the second year.I am sure the wild types in S. America probably do.I get a much bigger crop the second year on the peppers.The ones I kept from last year are the Mulatto Pablano and Relleno's.Cuttings would also work but having a mature root system is better.-

[Pharmerphil]

If using a commercially available rooting compound, be sure to use the type that you need, there are compounds for hardwood cuttings, and softwood cuttings.
Humidity is the key, which the vermiculite would supply, as well as a good rooting medium.
I place cuttings, done as johno described, in peat pellets, then sit them in one of those domed rotisserie(sp) chicken containers you get at the market, (you don't have to buy the chicken, I purchased 12 unused containers from the store for a dime apiece!) the bottom I cover with vermiculite and dampen to provide the hunidity, and a place for the roots to grow into, if they grow out of there pellet.
the high clear top has openings that can be bent open a tad if needed, and the cuttings will root nicely in less than two weeks.

[strong eagle]

Thanks for the tip on how to get those great cutting "humidors" Phil! I hate the greasy chicken inside them, but never thought of just asking if I could buy the containers. They are fantastic for cuttings of tempermental plants like basil , which wanta rot before they root. Also for tiny seeds that need light and moisture to germinate. Strong

[Sandbar]

Hey Sandbar;Pepper plants are perennials. ... I get a much bigger crop the second year on the peppers.The ones I kept from last year are the Mulatto Pablano and Relleno's.Cuttings would also work but having a mature root system is better.-Zman, I did remember that peppers were perennials, but wondered how big the plants would be the second year ... do you have problems with them getting busted up by the wind simply because they are so large? That's why I was thinking in the direction of cuttings.

[zebraman]

Hey Sandbar;They don't really get that big.I do usually have to stake the Pablano's .The second season's fruit is smaller that the first year's.I would also think with All your Tool's you would want to build "Isolation Cages".I use the 3D geometric box design (Geometry 101)with row cover sides and top,with the bottom open to go over the plants.Also in the heat of summer the row cover keeps the interior cooler which allows the flowers to continue to pollinate.Pepper flowers have a tendency to abort just like tomatoes in hot weather.Too bad this doesn't happen in Trailer Parks.
The only reason I have the plants is because I'm lazy and just leave them unless I need the room.New seeds and Isolation cages are the way to go.-

[Sandbar]

Thanks, Z.

[flowerpower]

.Pepper flowers have a tendency to abort just like tomatoes in hot weather.Too bad this doesn't happen in Trailer Parks.

:confused: Family friendly?

[bunkie]

great idea for the containers phil!

i have started pepper plant from cuttings also and they have always produced well. i also have and do overwinter pepper plants as house plants in the cabin in a window. they tend to grow very slow during the winter and pick up fast in the spring, when more sun comes in.

i tend to root a lot of plants with cuttings in water also, however, someone told me that there was a difference in 'water' roots and 'dirt' roots. has anyone else heard anything about this. peace, bunkie.

[TastyofHasty]

(bump!)

Started some cuttings yesterday from lavender and wolfberry.

Thought this thread might be bumped up considering now's a good time for taking cuttings(?) Johno says "dappled light." How do I get "dappled light" in wintertime, inside?

[Rainbow Hadedah]

It's a bit scary seeing Zebraman on this thread - I know it goes back a bit. He just couldn't refrain from the sarcastic remark.

[EdlinUser]

It's a bit scary seeing Zebraman on this thread - I know it goes back a bit. He just couldn't refrain from the sarcastic remark.

Seeing him again just made me feel sad; there was so much to like about him. But like you say he just couldn't refrain from the [cruel] sarcastic remark.

[Blanesgarden]

(bump!)

Started some cuttings yesterday from lavender and wolfberry.

Thought this thread might be bumped up considering now's a good time for taking cuttings(?) Johno says "dappled light." How do I get "dappled light" in wintertime, inside?

Comon guys.....I believe Tasty has the field here......
Lets help him out......;)

[TastyofHasty]

er ... I'm a her!:cool:

Zebraman was a movie title apparently about somebody who pretended to be what he was not ... (just as an aside). See:
http://www.headinjurytheater.com/article50.htm
OUR Zebraman wasn't pretending about his knowledge about plants, though. He was spot-on lots of times with useful info. A ZEBRA has stripes, BLACK, and WHITE. That could be taken as two extremes that could be extremes of various things, ... who knows? But ... back to the subject ...

I have two six-packs of cuttings, six lavender and six wolfberry. I didn't split the bottoms, and I didn't dip in rooting powder (I forgot to!); but did strip off all leaves on about the bottom 1-1/2" to 2" of each cutting, filled up the six-packs with all the perlite in my possession(!), put about 1/2" of vermiculite in the bottom of a plastic meat tray and soaked it in water, put the six-packs with cuttings and watered perlite on top, wrapped the whole thing in a translucent plastic garbage bag, set in a dark room for one day and night (to avoid stress on the "babies" while they adjust to being cut from their parent plant and having to start life on their own), then yesterday brought them out and set them in a (sometimes) sunny, south-facing window.

So far, they aren't drooping or dropping any of their leaves, which is a good sign.

[Blanesgarden]

help her out.....her....my bad:o

[TastyofHasty]

Oh NO! Used up ALL my perlite on those cuttings, so went to buy more at Wally-World yesterday. THEY'RE OUT OF GARDENING STUFF till around January ... the garden section is filled with Christmas stuff. Sigh.

Well, will have to plant naranjilla seed in sand & peat(?) (?)

[TennOC]

They will be "Out of gardening stuff" till after Valentine's Day. At least around where I've been, the garden part is all Christmas now, then valentine crap, THEN garden stuff till around thanksgiving, at which time it turns into christmas stuff again. I know they are just playing the numbers game, but it would be nice if somebody had garden stuff available all year.

[flora26]

Hi guys-so I have a question-:rolleyes:
We have huge amounts of tree damage here in OK due to that crazy storm and I basically lost my Tulip Tree-can I take cuttings from the the fallen limbs? or is it too late now (it's been around a week) The fallen branches are still covered with huge buds so I'm figuring that's a good sign that they aren't completely dried up. What do you guys think?

[bunkie]

i don't know what a Tulip Tree is flora, but if there are green leaves on it and buds, i would say it would be possible to make cuttings. sometimes in the winter, i'll bring in some fruit tree branches and put them in water and they blossom, and sometimes root!

[TastyofHasty]

I googled it; check here:
http://www.wildwnc.org/education/trees/tulip-tree-liriodendron-tulipifera-magnoliaceae-magnolia-family

A number of investigators have attempted to root yellow-poplar cuttings, but most early attempts were not successful. In a more recent study, cuttings were rooted successfully after they were dipped in dolebutyric acid and a mist of water was sprayed over the propagation bed (6). It is not known, however, whether these rooted cuttings would have successfully survived outplanting. Yellow-poplar has been successfully rooted from stump sprouts of 7-year-old trees; soft-tissue cuttings placed in a mist bed began rooting in 4 weeks and successfully survived transplanting. A system of splitting seedlings longitudinally and then propagating the halves was also highly successful. However, splitting seedlings provides only one additional new plant from the ortet, while rooting stump sprouts provides several.

If the tree was knocked over, you may get sprouts growing up out of the stump, which have a better chance of surviving, from what the article says.

So far, my cuttings in wet perlite are still looking healthy. Haven't checked to see if they're getting any roots, yet.

[TennOC]

Some times on Tulip poplar you will see a few clusters of seeds hanging on, have you looked for those? They look individually like maple seeds a little, (except that maples seeds are double)all fastened together for a cone-like appearance at the tip of the branches.

[ovenbird]

Go for it, flora, Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Woody plants are tough and I have seen a lot of buds develop on branches I have trimmed out of trees. They just keep trying to live.

[LuvsToPlant]

Tasty we keep a shade cloth over are cuttings till new growth appears. (or out of direct sunlight)

[TastyofHasty]

Thanks, Luvs. I'm also wondering WHEN to start adding nutrients to the plain perlite?? The six cuttings are looking pretty good; I took the plastic bag off yesterday, but put it back on for night. I was wondering if I could just make a "foliar spray" with some Miracle Gro, or water them a bit with some Miracle Gro solution? Or maybe mix up some dirt and water and water with that, so the dirt will start filling up the spaces in the perlite?

BTW, Home Depot in our town had perlite still available.:rolleyes:

[LuvsToPlant]

Taste wanted to mention our shade cloth is white like remay or frost cloth as some may call it.

We do not fertilize till a root system has started...you can tell when you slightly pull on the plug and it resists.
(The roots have anchored down) A half soultion of your favorite liquid fertilizer is good till it is ready ( good established roots)to be transplanted into a soiless mix. Then continue fertilizing as recomended on the fertilzer dicrections.

It was hard for me to understand what you were using for containers for your cuttings.
You do have good drainage..yes?

[TastyofHasty]

Luvs, they are in two re-used six-packs (they've been re-used several times, by now, and are getting rather shaky). Six-packs have cuttings in them, with damp perlite filling about halfway up the six-pack. The six-packs are sitting on about 3/8" of vermiculite in a bin tray, which is water-soaked. Whole thing, tray and all, is inside a large translucent garbage bag in a sunny south-facing window (which only really gets sun late morning to early afternoon). I think the perlite in the six-packs affords quite a bit of drainage.

[flora26]

Tenn-I haven't seen any seeds on the broken branches, but it would be great if there were some :D I have more luck with seeds-that's half the reason I started reading this thread. Great info. here guys!

[TastyofHasty]

Pic of cuttings as of now is attached. I think it's been about 3 weeks since I cut 'em off the original plants & poured on all my perlite. One of the wolfberry cuttings turned black & died; but the rest are still green! Can't tell about the lavender, except there's a bit of green in the blue-grey color of its leaves that seems to look alive.

Question now:

We do not fertilize till a root system has started...you can tell when you slightly pull on the plug and it resists.
(The roots have anchored down) A half soultion of your favorite liquid fertilizer is good till it is ready ( good established roots)to be transplanted into a soiless mix. Then continue fertilizing as recomended on the fertilzer dicrections.

When I slightly pull on the cuttings, they resist. So now water with liquid fertilizer, right? And next ... transplant to a SOIL-LESS mix??? They're already in soil-less medium (plain perlite) ... start by adding ... maybe ... a little vermiculite?

[LuvsToPlant]

Taste HI! I believe that was my quote...
Your cuttings look great! Yes start with a diluted amount of fertilizer. They are just taking root now if you can feel a resist when pulling. Wait another week or two when you can pull the entire plug out and see a good share of roots. You then can transplant the whole plug with medium attached into a soiless mix such as:
A pro mix a garden center. I make my own at home The recipe is 80% milled peat moss, 10 %perlite, 10% vermiculite. I add about a teaspoon of lime for every gallon I make of the mix.
Now that it has started a root system you can start introducing it to more sunlight.
Good job!

[TastyofHasty]

Luvs, thanks! I made up some blue liquid fertilizer (got at a garage sale), sprayed some on the leaves, then got a tiny sauce boat with a spout that I can just drip small amounts of the liquid fertilizer out of onto the perlite around the cuttings. Will wait awhile longer, as you say.:)

[TastyofHasty]

Right now, I am sterilizing some of my garden soil in the oven. Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!!! Makes me feel like "mad scientist!":D

Just took a couple of 9"x13" baking pans out to the garden, dug up some dirt (LOTS of worms! tried to get all of THEM out of the soil, so as not to be a worm murderer!), put dirt in the pans, covered pans tight with aluminum foil, set oven to 180F, put meat thermometer through the foil into the dirt, they're in the oven now. End result will, hopefully, be STERILIZED SOIL. Intended for future use ... for the cuttings.

[bunkie]

i have sterilized soil in my oven before too tasty! but, i read somewhere to keep all doors and windows open cause the baking soil will emit a gas! haven't done any research on this. anyone else know?

[TastyofHasty]

Hi Bunkie! The page I got the info from about sterilizing soil just said the baking soil would be very STINKY ... so keep well ventilated. I didn't, and it wasn't bad at all (had a pork tenderloin cooking in the crockpot that was giving off quite a lot of aroma at the same time, couldn't smell anything over that!)

I did set up one of my big double-glass panels from a sliding glass door on a slant outside one south-facing section of our bay window; covered it with plastic to keep the heated air inside it; opened the bay window just a few inches to let the sun-heated air in ... did that yesterday, also. Maybe that fresh air helped(?) We're heating the house with our woodstove; seemed to me, a warm source of fresh air is a wonderful, valuable thing!

[ovenbird]

My rooting experiment is working!


http://idigmygarden.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5851&highlight=predictions

[TastyofHasty]

That's cool, Ovenbird! Enriched damp coir ... whoooo ... ANOTHER thing I've never worked with. Pretty soon, you're going to be in the same boat I am ... now they are putting out roots in soilless medium ... what and when do you transplant into? (but I plant stuff "by the moon," and the next good day for "above-ground" plants is (as I recall) Jan. 16th, so I'll do some of them THEN.)

[ovenbird]

Tasty, I enriched my coir this way: I used an organic herbal fertilizer blend ( sorry, the label fell off and I don't remember where in cyberspace I got it). I made a tea of the fertilizer. I used this tea to moisten a brick of coir. I put the damp coir into a plastic disposable food container(which I had pierced all over)and just nestled the crowns into the coir. I put the pierced lid on the container until I checked this morning. The spinach was pushing the lid off of the container.

I used coir cubes last year and they transplant very well into the garden. I don't think I'll have any trouble with the loose coir.

Where can I learn more about "by the moon"? The moon last night looked like a golden bowl. Pretty!

[redcairo]

Speaking of cuttings. Several years ago I got 'rooted cuttings' of double trailing(either petunia or begonia I forget which) and wandering jew (a beautiful if nonflowering foliage trailing plant). It was surprising how much it changed the aesthetic of every environment when there were a few lovely plants around.

I just found the place I used again finally (NC Farms (http://ncfarmsinc.com/store/index.php)). They sell 'unrooted cuttings' for small nurseries. They say most home users would kill these but nurseries have the whole root-hormone/heatmat/lights setup to handle starting them -- but it occurs to me, you know, most serious gardeners have that too! And, right about now many of them are dying to GROW something and it's too cold or too soon.

You can get like 100 unrooted cuttings of all kinds of diff stuff, for $15 each. Even if I killed half of them, that would still result in tons of beautiful container plants for me, both my neighbors, and my stepmom, all for half what I'd pay to buy a single 10" pot of most good plants in my local nursery.

For those who have a seed starting setup (and a little bottle of rooting hormone) and at least a couple weeks of unused heat mat and some extra lights -- this would be "ahead of" the veggie seedling cycle basically -- it's a neat idea.

PJ

[TastyofHasty]

Ovenbird, this is my favorite link for "by the moon;" ...
http://www.farmersalmanac.com/home_garden/gardening

Somebody on here said "just think of it as a Time Management tool," and it sort of works like that. I've got most of my seeds sorted into envelopes as either "roots" or "above-ground" ...

[TastyofHasty]

Just wanted to post that the wolfberry cuttings are coming along nicely; I took some pics but will have to wait till I can get them into my 'puter to post 'em.

I took the rooted cuttings growing in straight perlite, mixed up some more perlite with BAKED, sterilized dirt from the garden; transplanted each little plant into its own square pot (the next larger size after the six-pack, about 2" on a side) in the mixed perlite-baked dirt, watered, left them sitting in the bin on top of 3/8" of wet vermiculite on the bin bottom, left the plastic bag around the whole thing, sprayed occasionally with about 50% "miracle gro" solution, they are doing well! Plastic bag is now down.

Lavender cuttings, though, appear to be dead. They never rooted at all, although given the exact same treatment as the wolfberry cuttings.

[tashak]

RedCairo, ncfarms looks like a lovely site, but practical only for those closer geographically to it. I was all excited about trying to grow the 100 assorted unrooted herb cuttings for the community garage sale until I got to the checkout site and saw $32 for the FedEx shipping.
Sigh--another pipedream bubble burst.
But it should be great for someone closer to that region.

[redbrick]

Tasty, I'm sorry to hear about your lavender starts. Out of six French Fringed lavender cuttings that I took before last frost, three are actively growing, and three are ganging on, not doing much of anything. All I did was take six inch cuttings, stripping the bottom three inches of leaves. Then I dipped them in rooting hormone amd stuck them in a six pack of potting soil. I set them inside a mini Rubbermaid tub and covered it with a sheet of cling wrap with a few vents punched into it. I took the cover off about a month ago, and they're still plugging along.

[redcairo]

tashak - I didn't know about the shipping. Holy cats.


OK apparently everybody on this thread knows this but me, so I will be the clueless one:

Say I have a young tomato plant. It's been planted-out about 2-3 weeks.

Exactly how do I get a cutting off it? I mean, what am I looking for, where do I cut?

PJ

[TennOC]

Red, usually with tomatoes you would plant "suckers". These are found growing out of the axil or the fork where a main branch of the plant leaves the stem. I just twist them out and root in water a few days, then plant in the ground when they have some roots. Plants as young as 2 weeks transplanted might not have any suckers, I would be surprised if they did. There may be others that have a different opinion.

[bunkie]

i've used any branch of the tomato plant and stuck it in water or in potting soil, leaving just a couple tiny leaves on it and it has always taken root. it has to have a node or joint clean of leaves below the surface of the soil or water...that's where the root forms.

[tuk50]

Have any of you guys or gals tried cuttings of pyracantha? I've tried them twice over the last few years and had no luck. We want to put a couple dozen plants along a fence row and I need some detail as to how long to cut the cuttings, if there is a good time like now while still dormant or after spring growth starts etc.. Would appreciate any comments.... thanks John. :cool:

[redbrick]

I haven't tried them, but give this a go. Take some footlong cuttings of straight tip-wood while they're dormant, and stick them in a nursery bed. Make sure they're upright, with about three quarters of their length in the soil, and forget about them until spring. It works on a lot of hardwood shrubs, so maybe it'll work for them.

[tuk50]

Thanks, I haven't tried outside yet, so it certainally sounds like it is worth a try. I'll get some started today.:cool:

[duke]

does any one have fruit trees are they hard to grow? I was thinking about getting a couple of apple trees

[tuk50]

I just cut a couple dozen 4in tips and a couple doz 12in tips, I'm trying the long ones like suggested in the garden and the short ones under a dome inside. My son said they tried them when he was in FFA about 15 years ago and they left three leaves on top and dipped in hormone then soaked in transplant solution for a couple days then put in cells and had about 50percent success, so between the two ways hopefully we can get a few plants going. Thanks redbrick, these guys seem like they are picky so maybe numbers is what it takes.:cool:

[TastyofHasty]

Tuk50, kudos to you, for stepping onto "the learning curve." :rolleyes: I'll be interested to see if your pyracantha cuttings survive.

I'm going to try with mulberry cuttings. I have ONE about 4-1/2' tall mulberry tree I planted a couple of years ago; I love mulberries, so want to start a few little trees from cuttings.

The thing about apple trees is, most of the existing ones are grafted. If you took cuttings from above the graft, they might root, but the root would (I guess) be for a full-size tree, and might not be as strong as the grafted root the tree is growing on now. Actually, that sounds like an interesting proposition. I mean, what's wrong with an apple growing on its own roots?

[redbrick]

Apples are notoriously hard to root as cuttings, bordering on impossible. The only accounts of actually rooting apple cuttings that I have seen are when they were grafted onto other rootstocks (just like regular grafting), and the graft union was then buried when the new tree was planted. I haven't even heard of having success with air-layering apples, though the principle seems like it would be sound. Tasty, the only "problem" with with having an apple tree on its own roots is that the tree will be about thirty five feet tall, and the apples will be hard to pick. Most people want a smaller tree that's easier to maintain.

[tuk50]

ToH, you bet! I will try and keep'em posted. We are in in Las Cruces this week and I pruned my sons peach tree after googleing how to. It looks like the finished picture on the web now, but my DIL about killed me. I cut a lot of wood out of it, since they have had it two years and never pruned it. We had a mulberry tree in our back yard for about 20 years till we recently moved and the kids called it the purple plague.... every summr it turned the ground around it purple and attracted bees, flies, and ants... from all the fruit, here in Tucson they are such a good shade tree that many were planted till the county passed a law that you can only plant sterile ones now because of the pollen, seems a lot of people have an allergy to them along with olive trees. I'm sorry we don't still live there or I could send you a bunch of baby mulberry trees, they reseeded every year and were like weeds every spring when they got about 4 or 5 inches tall. Another tree called calif. pepper tree is planted around here and it is terrible for seeding the lawn with tiny pepper trees every year. A trick I learned about tree seeds is put the seeds, beans or whatever comes from them and put it in the compost pile and the following year put an inch of the composte over the corner of your garden area and the tree seeds sprout very well. We used to get mesquite trees this way. :cool:

[sacratamato]

Hey tuk50,

Are you sure you want to plant pyracantha?

I mean the red berries look cool and all, around Xmas time, but the downside is buddy (based on my experience) after the birds eat them, they fly up to the trees and poop all over the trucks below.
Also had one fly right into my sliding glass door!
Yanked them all the following Spring.
Just my $.02 worth.
sacratamato
:cool:

[moonlilyhead]

But the little white flowers sure are perty.:) I like how straggly they look, they don't conform at all.

[TastyofHasty]

(bump!)

Following Johno's (& Chad's) advice about just putting cuttings in pure perlite, I've just left a tupperware container with straight perlite in it in a plastic meat tray on some shelves in what is mostly shade on the back deck. It gets rained on when it rains, and when I go out to water deck plants, I water it. Whenever I have a cutting to try, I just stick it in the perlite container. It's been working out pretty handy and nice and simple method. When things are well rooted, they get transplanted (I need to transplant the wolfberry in there to a pot). Here's a pic:
http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb300/buckette/CuttingsinPerliteLR.jpg