Success on leaf rooting

I was so crushed last fall when I ordered 20 plants and perhaps 5 kept their leaves. I tried doing some wedge leaf rooting in perlite but all the wedges dried out or got PM. I really thought I lost the other 15 plants but then it happened.
One huge leaf rooted! Yeah! Many of the other rhizomes started growing mini leaves too.
Anyone else care to share their success stories? Do people treat the leaves to be rooted with neem or another antifungal before they place the leaves on the growth medium?

I don't treat my cuttings with anything (I've tried rooting hormones and didn't see any huge difference so I stopped using it on begonias). If you start off with a healthy, mature leaf (not old but not real young either) then your chances of success are a lot better.

The conditions you grow in has a huge impact - warmth, light, humidity, etc. A grower friend of mine says that it is a leap of faith on some cuttings he has done but he makes it look easy. I never had luck with boliviensis and he routinely does them.

Celebrate your successes and learn from your failures.

Way to go!! I have never had luck with the whole leaf--usually do wedges on paper towels--but am going to try it again.

I have found that big leaves (12 inches or bigger) need cutting down for best results. If the leaf is very succulent it may benefit by having the cut end callous over before planting.

Last year when I trimmed the outer 2 to 3 inches of Art Hodes leaves, instead of discarding them I planted them on edge - out of 4 leaves 3 took and made babies. My observation on this was:
1) a stem cutting gave me a good sized plant in no time
2) the leaf with the petiole made babies faster than the outer timmed edge did
3) after a summer of growing you couldn't tell the difference in all 3 different rooted cuttings

I haven't had a lot of luck with the paper towel method because of neglect on my part more than likely - if the leaf roots then I either keep it too wet which can lead to rot or it dries out completely quickly killing the roots and plant. Paper towels also seem to be more prone to mold. Is there anything you add to keep the mold at bay?

I wash my containers (usually fast food containers with clear lids) in hot soapy water and then rinse them in bleach water. I also use distilled water on the paper towels initially. If I add water to the paper towels I use a dilution of neem powder in distilled water. I have had the problems you mention too, this though is probably what makes the difference for me--as soon as the cutting has nice roots, I remove it (along with a piece of the paper towel if nececessary) and set it on top of the soil in a pot, usually a solo cup. I dribble a little soil over the top of the roots/paper towel and then water with distilled water and keep it in a terrarium type environment while the babies grow, watering it when it dries out. I guess mold probably isn't a problem since I don't really leave them on the paper towel all that long. I have mentioned before that I go vist the C of O GH-- there they stick the whole leaf, just pushing the petiole into vermiculite and get tons of babies per leaf--they have an awesome Gh and mist system set up tho. I take them plants on a regular basis--not sure what they do ---but the ones I give them make the ones I keep look like waifs.

I spray used pots/cups/pans/etc with Clorox (or Lysol with bleach) disinfectant but for new pots/pans/cups I use them as they are. Perlite I never treat and although I have seen algae growing in some potting mixes I don't treat that either. I typically have good results just dabbling. A lot of times I just push leaves into neighboring pots where most times they root. My philosophy is if it roots then that is good and if it doesn't that is okay too. Once I have at least two of the same plant then I really don't need more (unless it is something I really like in which case I might have four clones of it).

Yep, a commercial greenhouse can grow some big plants in no time.

LOL-- if I had someone paying for heat along with student labor I could probaly have big plants too! I am with you-- if it roots awesome--if not--try try again. I wish I had room for 2 of each plant-- once I have more than one-- I seem to either trade it off or give it away. gotta have room for new and different.

You could do like a Dutch grower did - set up greenhouses in Kenya - cheap labor and free heat (all that you want). I think he does like 700,000 begonias a year - maybe more. I'm surprised Mexico doesn't have some large begonia nurseries (maybe they do but they don't advertise on line).

I gave some begonias away yesterday so now I have some shelf space to start or buy some more. Hmm, who is having a sale?

Hi Hillbilly_ Gran, can you post pix of your paper towel method.
How long did it take for your leaves to root?
It seems like it took mine 2 months before I saw anyroot. And now the leaf with root is in potting soil but I see no mini babies yet.

As for Butch same question, when you say "fast" are we talking weeks or months?

Tru,

"Fast" is an oxymoron when it comes to propagation. For stem cuttings, you can have a nice sized plant (six inch pot) in a couple of months. A commercial grower can have a six inch pot from a leaf cutting in the same time probably.

Here is a picture for comparison between stem cuttings and leaf cuttings for Art Hodes. The big one was from stem cuttings and the smaller one from leaf cuttings. I think I started the stem cutting a couple of weeks earlier so it isn't a great experiment. The leaf cutting was started in October and this photo was in Jan (last year). So if you want a "faster" way to get a nice sized plant then do stem cuttings but if you have a few months it makes no difference because they will attain the same size during one growing season.

The funny thing is I can get new plants off a leaf of Art Hodes but not for Orococo (at least this is what an expert said it is - I bought it as Morocco from GHW which it isn't).

Art Hodes and Orococo look similar but you can tell the differences when you have them.

Anyway here is the mother and daughter of Orococo (from stem cuttings). This begonia is almost weedy like Grey Feather and peltata (the one I bought may not be peltata - again from GHW).