Propagation: part XII based on my own experience

Evelyn, I was a bit intimidated too, I just came here and was directed to do so, because I can't root anything to save my life. I AM NO EXPERT OR NOVICE. I did not leave because they are all so nice and helpful, despite the fact that I may have high Jacked the thread in other directions all together, nobody snapped at me, like they do on some threads, that do have the experts that only want to deal with experts.

Oddly my cloner was a home made one we bought on Ebay, it came with this great rooting gel and a phone number if I had questions. My first and only other attempt at this was last year and everything looked good and then suddenly rotted and molded, so I packed it away but decided before I did, to see if seeds would germinate in the little cups. Nope, nothing.

Now that I am trying to root rose cuttings again, some old seeds are sprouting that must have been tucked in there still.

I don't have a clue what they are. Please stay so I won't feel like the only true beginner here. We will annoy them together, until they chase us off.

Sorry, too old to be chasing anyone. Not even Dave. lol, Sorry Dave. He does have a sense of humor girls.

Helen, do you have the rose cuttings in the cloner now? I put one in mine but it doesn't look like it is going to do much. I also put a couple of things my DH brought in from outside but they don't look like they will do much either.

Dave told me they probably wouldn't because they are dormant. I tried to get them to wake up. I shook them, but they are still snoring. Oh well, I tried.

I put a couple of house plant starts in there. We'll see what they do.

Anyone use the 7" high plastic dome propagator covers? I am thinking of getting some as the little 2" ones only last about a week once the seedlings start popping up. Since all seeds don't pop at the same time then I have to decide whether to uncover to prevent the seedlings from bending or taking the chance of the drying out the ones that haven't popped up yet. I'm just concerned that they might not provide enough humidity from being so high, thus having to spray everything so much more.

Anyone heard from JB lately? Haven't seen her in almost two weeks now. I sent her an D-mail just to make sure everything is okay.

Last Saturday she was on wondering whether to send plants south or west because of the weather. I got a Dmail from her since then. I think she really is busy, as she said watching the weather trying to decide whether to or not to send plants.

Howdy: I know JB said something to the effect of her family helps with fire and rescue so they me going door to door helping folks out (just a guess) I do know she cooks for them.
Has anyone tried using the plastic covers that come on cakes and other bakery item for humitity domes. I use some of them for that and water retention for pots in the garage. Just a cheap idea. I did it on a bigger scale in south florida at the nursery. I managed to get 1000 Peter Pan agapanthus to sprout and grow up into nice 1 gallon plants.
The cuttings I did the photo gernal of earlier are starting to take root. I did the tug test and some are showing resistence while a few did not. I am happy as every one seems to be doing well and even showing some new growth on the verbena.
Its a stay down day as for some reason the weather is hitting me kinda hard.
My Brother in law is putting in the veggie beds out back as I type this.2 - 4x8 raised beds12" raised in height. we ordered a 5yrd mix of garden soil which has leaf compost composted mushroom soil sandy loam as well as a bit of this and that( i can't remember the other stuff) I ordered my cucumber seeds as well as early girl and a grape tomato seeds. They are proud of the grape tomato seeds it was 4 bucks for 15 seeds. I know I will be researching how to collect and seperate the seeds from the pulp in the seeds.
Dave

Where do you get your seeds Dave? I got Early Girl, Tomatoberry, Cabernet, San Marzano, I think that is all the tomatoes, and then a slicer cuke, and the Burning Bush hybrid pepper, a new one, all from Totally Tomatoes.

I have a lot of seeds in milk jugs etc. outside that I winter sowed. My first try at it. Am anxious to see how they do. It froze pretty good a few nights ago, and then we are expecting 50 degrees the end of next week. LOL, love it.

Here I am. Old, cold and suffering from cabin fever. I have been playing farmville and cafe world 0n facebok. I am about to start sgh ome seeds using the baggy or Deno Method. I can not keep the temp or huidity controllled in the GH untill this stupid weather settles, so this method will have to do. I have cutting starting t0 rroot but again, the GH is the problem. The sun is very warm and oometimes the temp goes over 100 with the heaters turned down.
That is my story. Thank you for asking about me.I have just lerking. I am going t watch the Olympics this week and try and think happy th0ughts. It is to sn0w agan M0nday and Tuesday. #$@#*&*& and I mean all th0se BAD WORDS SO I D0. hUGS jb

Jeanette:
I bought my seeds from hirts garden on ebay. They are one of the seed sellers I use for a lot of my ebay seed buying.
http://myworld.ebay.com/hirtsgardens/

I am trying the grape tomato's because they are so tasty. I also have some thai pepers...they are suposed to be one of the top 3 as far as hotness goes.

JB think warm thoughts. coco lots of coco....
Dave

Glad to hear from you JB, keep warm and let someone else shovel.

I've heard of farmville, not cafe world, but heard that when you get hooked you are stuck. Hope jb quits for spring. And, she isn't kidding me any. She wants to play her games so she is happy it is snowing.

JB if you come up for air, check on the winter sowing thead. I have over 20 milk jugs and other containers full of seeds planted already. This is my first year doing this. So, we'll see. If it works it should be pretty cool.

My sister has 7 more fruit juice containers for me so guess what I am going to be doing tomorrow. Yup, planting away.

JB, did you say you have cuttings rooting? If so, what are they, and are they getting roots? I have a cloner that DH made for me. Actually, he made 3 for me the other day. But, don't know if my plants will root since they are dormant. Dave & I decided they may not since the sap is down in the roots this time of year. I tried to wake them up, but it didn't work.

I could not help but giggle when I read the post I did on my little Sony Notebook. I use that tocarry around the farm when I do not feel like using the PC on my desk, or this laptop I use when I watch the Olympics or some other after dinner shows. The keyboard is small and you need to push the keys very hard to make them print and obviously some of the posts do not go thru like they do on the bigger machines. I am surprised. I paid quite alot for that stupid little thing just so I could take it with me around the farm, in the greenhouse, etc. to make notes, check emails in bed, take orders, and I am not sure it will do the job. Maybe if my fingers were not so full of arthritis it would do better, We will see.
My friend gave me a handfull of small leafed Christmas Cactus and I was not sure they wouldroot because they were cut in December. They are starting., The black pussy willow are rooting, some gardenias and antherium. Another week I will need to plant them. I just must do seeds tomorrow. I will look at that thread if I can find it.
I just had the best broiled scallops..yummy....I took my daughter and SIL out for dinner tonight for Valentine. They have been working very hard with their jobs and the volunteer work they do. Now I am full and sleepy. Feel fat and sassy.
We have piles of snow higher than the truck here in the barnyard. Everyone is so tired they are silly. LOL The snow actually started to melt for about an hour, then the winds picked up again and the clouds rolled in and now it is icey. Now after two feet the first storm, another foot or more this week, now they are calling for a substancial amount of snow starting Monday afternoon, then all day Tuesday stopping Wednesday. Can you believe that crap? That is all for now. I must roll myself into bed before I fall asleep sitting here. I do appreciate you thinking about me. You are all very special to me.
I just do not like to interrupt when you are doing something special, so I lurk and learn
when I have time. Hugs to all and thanks again for missing me. JB

I can imagine what you wrote JB. I am constantly having to go back and correct what I wrote. You know JB years ago one time I was in the hospital and another gal in there had all her knuckles in her fingers replaced. Joints. Another lady had both wrists done. That was a long time ago. Wonder if they still do that.

Cripe I can't even grow gardenias with roots. I have tried several times in my lifetime and they always die on me. Was it a woody stem? Didn't you say you have a cloner? do you use any Rootone or anything? Oh, wait a minute. You said you use the Dip n Grow didn't you? I went back to find what you had said about growing the plants and I couldn't find it.

Scallops sound so good. How were they fixed JB? Oh wow that sounds sooooo good. You can tell I haven't had any dinner yet. That was nice of you.

Your snow sounds like what we had last year. I was so sick of it. Our winter was 6 months long. This year is wonderful. Hopefully you will get this next year. But, please don't send yours my way.

Have a good sleep and dream of scallops.

Jeanette, try using Clonex or Biogel or Olivia's Cloning gel and Clonex or another type of cloning solution to put in your tank. I let the cutting sit in the gel for a few minutes while I make a tag for the cutting, before I put it in the machine. I am cheap, so I don't change the water in the reservoir very often. Petunias root so quickly in the machine.
Here is the products that I use. I am using Clonex gel right now instead of the Biogel.

Here are some of my pretty little roots last September in the cloner.

Lynn, are you saying that you don't use the same product for dipping the stem in and putting in the water? Where do you get them? Those sure are pretty roots.


What is the label maker you have Lynn? It would be nice to have a good one.

This message was edited Feb 13, 2010 10:09 PM

I want to get some gel root starter too, it stick better. I don't like the powder. I found that some of my little cuttings that I put in a raised planter in the fall, rooted, but they were rooting in a bad area that I did not realize had a 1 gallon pot to fill up the planter bed to lessen the amount of soil I needed but this pot was right under it, so I pulled it out and hope that I did not make it go into shock while doing it. It is still somewhat dormant so maybe not.

I do have rose cuttings in the cloner and I took them outside to get more light today since it was warm, but they looked sad when I brought them back in. I don't see much going on with them either. If Dave said they won't root more than likely they won't, I may just take them outside and try to root them in a pot outside then.

They are trying to leaf out in the closer but they have no roots so I don't think that will be good for them to keep on going that way.

Those sure did root well btw.

I like FarmTown better than Farm Ville.

Well then let me find out from Lynn where to get it Helen.

Jnette, I can not find the winter thread............where is it? I will send you a gardenia if you want one. When the weather warms up because I need to send it bareroot to you. Look on the Market Place and look at the Aimee picture. The babies are about six to 8 inches tall already and some have buds. I am so excited with them I would love to share them.

Helin, I love Farm Town but my PC kept freezing up. Maybe I will try it again. It was so much nicer and more fun than Farmville.
I do not use anything except water and sometimes peroxide for rooting my cuttings, but I only do Tropicals. I am lost when you all talk about your garden plants since I have so few here on the farm. The fields are all planted in Christmas Trees and my little space for a garden is full of Iris, black and regular pussy willow and holly, plus peony trees. Not a planned garden at all. Things I sell. of course the rows and rows of daffodils. My hosta is growing but I do not sell garden plants at all except for those listed above.

I do not use a cloner, in fact I do not know what that is. I got busy when Dave started to tell how to make one and lost track. Never went back to read about them.
Someone ask about using those taller plastic domes to start cuttings. I use them. It limits your space at times and they are a Pain in the butt when you have to water, etc. but they work.
Off to work awhile. I had broiled scallops in wine sauce....no butter or grease. They were soooooo good. I'll obe back later.

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/coldsow/all/

Try that JB. If that doesn't work, you can go into the list of the forums under "communities", and in the first row on the left, alphabetically, all the way to the bottom is Winter Sowing.

I would absolutely love to have one of your gardenias. JB, do your Peony Trees grow there in the ground? Year around? I know they are good to zone 3, but I had one in a planter and thought that since it was zone hardy to 3 and I am 5 that it would be ok. But it froze. Do you sell those?

When you send me a gardenia, would you please send me some unrooted cuttings of your pussy willows, both the regular and black? That is, if you can without disfiguring the plants. I would love to try to root them in my cloner.

Do you agree with Dave and I about the dormant plants not rooting in the cloners now since the sap is down? Or are we wrong? Very interested in your ideas on it. Dh made 3 cloners last week. He made one following instructions from one of the other DGers, then did some research on google and made me 2 out of 5 gallon buckets. They are really cool. If you are interested I will try to post the pictures of each thing. So easy he made the last one in an hour. The most time taken is getting the parts. But, there aren't tht many. Besides the bucket there are about 5 other parts is all.

The scallops sound soooooo good.

You guys are making me hungry for scallops!

I use the gel on the cuttings, and the bottle of Clonex goes in the water reservoir. Remember, mine is the HUGE 120 site cloner, so it does take most of the bottle. But like I said before, I am cheap, so I don't change out the water as often as is recommended.

As for labels and the label maker, I have a P Touch, but I haven't used it very much. I bought a bunch of the Eon plant markers last year from the coop, and the printed labels look much nicer than my writing. The paint pens that I got from Eon just didn't flow very well.

I have been making labels for my seeds (collection) that I store in my binder. I thought I would get a head start on labels for next year's Piggy Swap.

I will be glad to send you anything you want if I have it. I have seeds for the Jap. Peony Trees that I am testing now. If they are o.k. I will send you a couple. Don't you remember, Dave told me to use all my nylon knee highs to collect the seeds last year. I ended up wanting some stockings to wear to Church weeks after I put all mine on the plants and I had none. I laughed outloud all by myself thinking about my nylons on those plants and me with none to wear.
Then, when I collected them I dropped seeds and mixed them up and I do not know what color these are I have. I am such a mess when it comes to seeds. I can do nothing right.
Gmail me privately a mailing address and I will put you in the order to fill file.
Going to watch the Olympics now. Hugs.

I never used those lids and am not sure if I know what they are but I can envision them. We have too much wind to use something like that outside which is where I rather WS. You know this year I think I may keep my seedlings in containers until they are larger because the last 3 years I lose a lot of them in the ground to gophers digging and burying the little seedlings after all the work and sacrifice I put into them. It is ridiculous.

JB, I wasn't hinting that I wanted your plants or seeds. What do you mean that you are testing? How are you doing that? That is so funny about the nylons and the seeds. I thought you were going to tell us that you wore some with seeds in them. That would have been so funny. It was funny without that ending tho. How long does it take to grow a peony tree from seeds? How long do they take to germinate?

Very interesting. Tell you what, you send me a couple of seeds and I will send you a pair of knee his. LOL, size and color preference please. Sure don't want you blame us for missing church, or worse yet, not looking presentable when you do go.

Lynn, I keep meaning to ask you why your cloner takes so much water? Wouldn't there be enough in your pipes if you just cover the pump like mine?

JB, Aimee is beautiful. I will buy one from you. my zip is 99139. I have to wait for several months tho, so let me know the total cost and then put me in you fill file or whatever you call it. Thanks. Jeanette

I just go by what I had read on the EZ Clone website. I thought that was way too much water. One idea might be that the water doesn't get too warm with the greater volume. The guy that I bought it from said he had more troubles keeping the water cooler, rather than warmer. In fact he said he ended up buying a cooling unit for it. I don't have a clue what that is, though!

Really! Well I wonder where he had it? Where did he live? You have it in your greenhouse don't you? I have that small one in my kitchen and my house is very warm. But, when I take something out of a hole without pulling the plug, it sprays wantter all over me and it isn't warm. Maybe, just guessing, I would say 75 or so. Probably room temp.

I wondered where he had them, too. I have a little thermometer in mine, and I think it is around 72-74.
How do you make the degree symbol?

LOL, I don't think we have any. That and the cents sign.

You have to copy and past it from Wing Dings, I think. At work when I worked for a contractor at NASA, it used to turn into a weird symbol that I did not know what it was, when I copied it, and printed it. It copied and pasted right, but printed some other thing.

I start a new job tomorrow, so I may not post as much but may still lurk. I put up some rabbit fencing today and am hoping to propagate more now, with all your tips, now that rabbits won't be able to get all the little cuttings.

Good luck on the new job. I hope this an exciting adventure for you. My ez clone is still in the box but is on my list for this week. It was a Christmas present. The bushes and trees are just starting their push on new growth. I already have permission for taking cuttings of several neighbors trees and bushes. My worms are growing like rabbits so I have another bin just about ready. I also bought a small garbage can on wheels today to deposit my leaves with molasses, alfalfa pellets, and some water and then live it standing in the heat. Last week I did a small bucket full and it was total slime within 4 days. I am having so much fun with the prorogation/worms/slim/worm castings that my family is again ready to call the white coats. LOL. Have a great day tomorrow. I will be gardening all day. We are suppose to be 68 tomorrow.

Good for you !! Where are you working? Good luck in your new job.

Jeanette

Well Sharon, at least you waited for your plants to get going before sticking sticks in your cloner. LOL, I put sticks in my cloner even tho I am sure they won't root. They don't have any sap in them. With our good winter weather tho, maybe it won't be long.

I made some of that slime last year and boy does it ever stink. Why not just throw some of the alfalfa with the molasses on your plants and dig them in? Then water. You can always add compost.

What do you do with the worms, use castings? For your houseplants, or conainers? What do you mean you almost have another bin about ready to go? Are you making your own? I think I saw the instructions for doing that one time. Do you use the red wrigglers?

Yes, I have red wigglers and I use the large Rubbermaid storage units. I fill the bottom 1/3 with shredded paper to absorb moisture. The rest is 24 hour soaked peat moss layers with frozen scraps, thawed and then coffee grounds and a little molasses dried. I could not find the Black Strap Molasses but am still trying. I am using the dried molasses but docpipe says I am wasting my money but the worms are happy. They do not know I am wasting my money they just like the sugar. I am growing red wigglers for worm casting. I have three outside compost piles in two different raised gardens and they are totally inundated with regular worms. I am growing worms for my property and to enhance the soil with worm casting tea. It is saving me money, not this year. Am I having fun. YES.....Very much so. I will take a photo tomorrow and show you all my babies. Both inside and out.

The reason I was using the slim as I have read they do not eat the scraps but the bacteria. So I was trying to speed up the process. I am one of those individuals when I get on a plane I want to be there. I would have never made it across the plains in a station wagon. Are we there yet????? Have a great day tomorrow. I will be gardening all day and getting a whole bunch of maintenance caught up. See you tomorrow night. My DH keeps coming over to my side of the couch to see what I am so into. Still surprises him every day that it is DG.

Sharon, all you have to do is google blackstrap molasses. There are plenty of places to buy them. They are pretty expensive to be feeding to worms tho.

Jeanette

I think I read somewhere that its one of the prefered foods for compost. Its a memory so I could have it all bass ackward.... worm tea yummy. I am a bit behind on that stuff but come summer we will be looking into a composter that I can handle as well as other needed things...toys lots and lots of toys..... It ws a balmy 38 degrees yesterday and we are suposed to be below the 40's all week. I think I will just keep my jammies on and put on my fluffy house shoes to keep my tootsies warm.
I noticed the coleus cuttings are growing as well as a lot of my seeds are sprouting. royal emeress tree's, pampas grass, spurred snapdragon's, cherry tomatoes (planted 3 days ago (no sprouts) .
I promise pics tomorrow of our garden beds. One is finished and the other is waiting soil. It was just way too cold sunday to work outside.
Anyone have a recomendation on garden plants that covers the when to plant when to start transplants etc?
stay warm

Some of you have been asking me questions about my method of taking cuttings and my success, etc. When I first started I bought a book calleed Gardening Indoors with Cuttings by George F. Van Patten and Alyssa F. Bust. This has been my bible over the years. If you would like, and enough of you are interested, I will be happy to condense the information and pass it on to you. He talks first about the Environment, which includes Lighting, Humidity and Temperature; Nutritient Solutions; Rooting Mediums; Rooting Hormones and finally, The steps in taking cuttings which includes Equipment, Choosing a Mother Plant, Taking Stem Cuttings Step pby Step, Semi-hardwood and Hardwood Cuttings, Leaf Cuttings, Root Cuttings, Division, Layering, Air Layering, Offsets, Cuttings in Water and Grafting.
If you can get the little book it is money well spent. You can order from VanPatten Publishing in Washougal, WA. 360-837-3018. Hope this helps some of you. Let me know if I can pass info on to any of you who are not interested in the entire book.

It stopped snowing.....another 2 inches. It snowed and blowed all day and now it is cloudy and hopefully getting warmer. it is actually 40 deg. on the North side of the house. I hope this keeps up so I can ship next week. YAHOO!

Hi:
Amazon has it for as little as $7.63 Follow the link below. Look at the used ones also. could find a diamond in the rough. Dave

http://www.amazon.com/Gardening-Indoors-Cuttings-George-Patten/dp/1878823205/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266356703&sr=8-1