Personal breakthroughs with propagation

I am pretty new to all of this, so my breakthoughs may be old news to most of you!
I have for a few years done alot of seed starting underneath grow lights with a heat mat underneath. I have had pretty good succes. This year I read in a book the technique of covering your seed pots with a fine layer of grit. This helps combat the soil crust that develops that makes it hard for seeds to pop up through, and helps maintain an even moisture level at the soil line. I couldn't find any grit small enough at any of the nursuries so I just used chick grit from the feed store, washed and bleached to be safe.
Huge success! I even covered seeds that had instructions to not cover (like penstemon) and those sprouted reliably. I did one half of the pot with grit, and one half bare and with no exception had better luck with the fine grit. Even older seeds that I haven't had much luck with have done amazing!

The other breakthrough I have had is in cuttings. I have had poor success with cuttings due to impatience and moisture balance. My impatience caused me to dig down to "just peek!" to see if roots were starting to form. The other problem was walking the fine line of having the cuttings not dry out or having them just rot.
The gel medium I found (root 2 gel is the name) is the perfect answer for me! You fill clear containers with it, stick the cutting in there and then you can see your roots grow and it provides the right moisture (it also has rooting hormone in it). I have roots growing on all but one thing I have tried! I have flowering currant, gaura, angelica (this one I just cut off leaves!), and blue mist spirea. The only thing that hasn't rooted yet is winter honeysuckle, but my cutting selection wasn't very good.
Anyway, those are 2 techniques that are working great for me and I thought I would share!

Interesting information,thanks and congrads,Edge

Yes, thank you for sharing...please do not get discouraged if it seems as no one is responding to your posts, as for most, it is the busy time of year.

I'm going to give rooting gel a try - it sounds very convenient... and I have that peeking problem too... ;)

Great Share!

Thanks for everyone's concern about not many people responding. Don't worry about it though, I don't mind. I just really wanted to let people know what is working for me. I have been so excited with this year's success!

It was really good info on the rooting gel, as I am sure that many find some cuttings more challenging than others.

One question about the rooting gel......can you reuse the gel? Would it spread any infections along to the next cuttings? Thank you for taking the time to share. I can use all the help I can get!

Thanks, very good info. Where can I find root 2 gel. I live in the Columbus oh area. Please, please keep us posted on the progress of your rootings.
thanks again
confussedlady

I found the gel at Portland nursery, so I would start by looking at your local nursery. If you can't find it I am sure you could order it online since they have a website. Just google Root 2 Gel. I am unsure if you can reuse the gel. I had the same thought! I might try it and let you know how it goes.
As far as the progress of my cuttings.... I have potted up both the Gaura and the Flowering Currant and both are doing great with new growth. The Blue mist spirea is still in the gel and doing well but is much slower than the other 2. The winter honey suckle never rooted and the angelica only grew a few roots and then died. Not sure what I did wrong. Anyway I have a new batch of samples from my garden in gel right now and I will let you know how they do!
As far as my seedlings go..... I might have been over successful. Not sure where I am going to fit the 100 or so perennials that I have grown!!! I have a feeling my friends that garden are going to be receiving some new additions.

This message was edited May 30, 2010 10:49 AM

Rockgardner- The grit is just very small rock. A little bit smaller then a grain of rice. The book that I was reading that talked about using grit was "Success with seeds" by Chris Wheeler. He talked about using big grit on big seeds, small grit on small seeds. I didn't want to buy 5 bags of grit so I just went with a small size. I of course couldn't find grit that small at any of the nurseries though (and I went to 5 of them!) So that is why I bought chicken grit at the feed store. I found that the grit for baby chicks was just about perfect size and super cheap!
I don't think that the heat mat and lights would make any difference on whether or not grit helped. Before I used lights and heat I still struggled with keeping the very top of the soil perfectly balanced between too dry and too wet. This was frustrating especially for those seeds that you aren't supposed to cover.
Another note on taking cuttings for the gel.... I have always poked fun at gardeners who wiped there shears with bleach. I honestly thought it was "over the top paranoid". I still don't do it when I am going around deadheading and prunning. BUT, you really have to do it when taking cuttings. I have found it makes a huge difference on keeping the cutting tips clean and non mushy in the gel.

This message was edited May 30, 2010 10:49 AM

I did a search and came up with:

http://www.abundantlifeseeds.com/product/834

They said it can be reused up to 3 times. Hope that helps.

Evelyn

This message was edited May 30, 2010 10:50 AM

Even though it is Gel 2 Root, the search works better with root 2 gel, for some reason?? Do the search and see what you find..then post the best price, and we will all buy some...see if they take volume discounts...LOL! ☺

Sorry! I don't know how these duplicate posts are getting here....

This message was edited May 2, 2010 7:55 AM

This message was edited May 30, 2010 10:50 AM

Uggh, sorry for my mix up guys. It is gel2root, not root2gel!
Anyway..... I saw the individual cells for sale and they were WAY too expensive. I bought the 1 litre bottle and poured it into small containers (3 oz dixie cups actually) I have tried very small containers (because I am cheap) and they were about the size of a test tube. My cheapness did not pay off and it was much too small and the gel dried out quickly.
If you make sure and put your cups with cuttings into a container with saran wrap over it, then it helps keep it humid so you don't have to top off the gel as much. I am using a clear rubbermaid container with sticks taped to each corner and then saran wrap over the sticks. Wow, kinda embarrassing on how high tech my operation is! Dixie cups and saran wrap:)

This message was edited May 30, 2010 10:51 AM

I found mine in a Hydroponic store. I do not remember the price but it was a larger bottle. But they had 4 different sizes.

This message was edited May 30, 2010 10:51 AM

Let your fingers do the walking.

Been propagating for years, successfully & quickly, in Vermiculite,
I tried gel recently but have gone back to Vermiculite.
A little tug on a stem will tell one if roots have formed yet.
JDG in Central California

JDG--Do you also use root tone powder before you insert into vermiculite? I have had success with the gentle tug, also. Resistance tells you there are roots. I have never used straight vermiculite but rather a seed starting mix plus the root tone powder.

Great thread! Thanks for all the ideas!

I am a newbie (sort of) to cuttings. I just took several from my garden today: milkweeds, cupheas, honeysuckles, campanulas, fuschias, salvias and agastaches. Got a couple of plastic shoeboxes (like my garden magazine instructed), cut my stems just so, dipped them into 'roottone' and got ready to place them into the 'perlite'.

But then a question?! Do I wet down the perlite? And how wet do I make it? Soaked? Mmmmm... ? The instructions didn't say anything about H2O.

Well, I wet it down, and then I thought, why not just use a glass of water for the cuttings and be done with it?!

So many questions! And thanks for answering some of them in this thread! (-:

I will be interested to hear about more 'break throughs'! This could be fun!

This message was edited May 30, 2010 10:52 AM

LOL thanks rockgardner. I added water to the perlite and all my cuttings look happy. I don't exactly know what the perlite does, but it must be something good!

This message was edited May 30, 2010 10:53 AM

tabasco, plants/roots need both water and oxygen. Although water does contain dissolved oxygen, it needs to be changed often to keep the "supply" up, I think. And, some things will just rot if put in water, before they ever grow roots.
I've been told, although I never confirmed (? anybody want to chime in?) that the type of root that grows in water is actually different than that grown in a planting media, and although they help the plant survive when transplanted, the plant has to grow the "other" kind of roots anyway, expending extra energy... I don't know, but I'd like to hear from other's about this fact/myth?

Just found this on another site...

"Rooting in Water - Though roots form readily and often seemingly more quickly on many plants propagated in water, the roots produced are quite different from those produced in a soil-like or highly aerated medium (perlite - vermiculite - seed starting mix, e.g.). Physiologically, you will find these roots to be much more brittle than normal roots due to a much higher percentage of aerenchyma (a tissue with a greater percentage of intercellular air spaces than normal parenchyma). If you wish to eventually plant your rooted cuttings in soil, it is probably best not to root them in water because of the frequent difficulty in transplanting them to soil. The "water-formed" roots often break during transplant & those that don't break are very poor at water absorption and often die. The effect is equivalent to beginning the cutting process over again with a cutting in which vitality has likely been reduced.

If you do a side by side comparison of cuttings rooted in water & cuttings rooted in soil, the cuttings in soil will always (for an extremely high percentage of plants) have a leg up in development on those moved from water to a soil medium for the reasons outlined above."

Interesting. I don't recall ever reading about the two different kinds of roots. I do remember rooting a begonia in water and it was never a very good plant. Maybe that's why.

Thanks for all the detail on rooting with water/perlite. Very interesting. You all are very kind to share all the tips. You really got me going on this!

Didn't know that about Perlite. I thought it was some kind of plastic product. Oh, well....

But I think I put too much water in my perlite pot. I just read in 'The American Hort. Society Plant Propagation' book that it should be 'moist' but mine is drenched. Not so good although the cuttings look healthy.

By the way, there is a lot of good in depth detail in the Hort Prop book if anybody is interested. Learning propagation could really be fun!

Here's the Amazon link to the book: http://www.amazon.com/American-Horticultural-Society-Propagation-Plant/dp/0789441160/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275072938&sr=8-1-spell

Cuttings from an unusual buxus - Harlandii - which were given to me, did very well in perlite & water alone. I put
clear plastic bags over each container last fall and all showed vigorous roots in April. Of three false yew sprigs -
harringtonia - only one has rooted so far. None of the Japanese false cypress have rooted. The rooted ones
are now in potting soil. I am keeping the ones that haven't rooted moist but have removed the plastic. Did I
do something wrong with the cypress? Anyone know?

All I've found on the false cypress says to start from semi-hard cuttings in early fall, treat with rooting hormone #3. Did you use any rooting hormone? If not, it might help next time. Also I've heard that the hormone does not have a long shelf life, so possibly it was too old? Just guessing, I really don't have much cutting experience...