well, i finally had success using mark terrill's bag rooting method. thanks mark!!! one of the cuttings that i recently bagged pushed out roots in 9 days. woo hoo! i let the cuts callus first "on the shelf" before bagging them. these were cuttings that i got back in october. they have been sitting in a garbage can in a pre-rooting medium of dry vermiculite. that way i could pull them out and check the cuts for callus tissue. i could have easily laid them on the shelf, but i wanted to make sure they were upright. once there is callus, roots follow very quickly. i like this method that mark came up with because there is almost zero chance of losing them to rot during the callusing process. then, 1-2 two weeks with just a handful of soil w/ no moisture added except what's already in the soil and you have roots.
bag rooting method
I will have to give it a go once the weather warms up Mr D.
let me know how it works for you. i was pleasantly surprised at the result this winter. now they will be ready to go in the spring when the temps are not at harsh.
i should be in yuma in april.
Could you post the 'bag method' in this thread - sounds interesting!
kay - are you on facebook?
No, I am not on Facebook.
d-mail me. i'll have mark send you info.
I would also love to have this information - I have a few cuttings to root, I'm just waiting for warmer weather...
i will post the gist of it here. i had wanted you all to hear it from the horse's mouth. LOL i guess mark is really busy right now. i will have to check on my computer to see if instructions.
the idea behind this method is to let the cutting produce callus tissue while "on the shelf" and not in a growing medium. this took about three months for some aztec gold cuttings that i got back in october and kept in the house since then. then, i placed some soil in a baggy w/ no extra moisture added. all the moisture you need is already in the soil when you take from the bag. here is a cutting and Day 11 after being placed in the baggy.
this is only way way of rooting. i find this better because i would have driven myself crazy if i had potted up the cuttings in october and had to baby them until now. plus, there is a chance i could have rotted them or burned them up from the heat mat. LOL i'll try and lay out what i did. it is just a few simple steps.
1) i chose DRY vermiculite as the pre-rooting medium. notice that i did not wet the vermiculite. the pre-rooting medium was only used to hold the cuttings upright in a garbage can. the nice thing about the pre-rooting medium is that you can easily remove and re-insert the cutting w/o damaging the callus tissue as it forms. please not that you might experience some shriveling if your climate is drier than most. you can see some shriveling in the pic that i posted.
2) i waited until the cuttings had noticeable callus tissue formation before placing them in the bags. i scooped out some soil and put it in the bag. i did not add any extra moisture to the soil. all the moisture that is needed is right in the bag. then, i put the into the bag and pushed it into the soil. seal up the bag around the cutting so that it does not flop around. bag and cutting should move as a solid unit.
3) stand the bagged cutting up right on top of the pre-rooting medium. roots should appear very soon!
i hope this helps you all. remember, you will not get roots until the cutting has pushed out callus tissue. this method allows the cutting to callus "on the shelf" outside of moist soil to reduce the chance of rot.
let me know if there are questions.
once again, this pic shows what the roots looked like after on 11 days. woo hoo!
this is not my method. i learned it from mark terrill.
oh, one more thing! another beauty of this is that you can root tons of cuttings w/o wasting lots of soil. you can literally just put 2 heaping tbsp of soil in the bag to get roots.
Thanks for the information - I will give it a try! I have a huge bag of perilite, so will go and get a bag of vermiculite.
hi kay - the DRY perlite can serve as your pre-rooting medium that holds the cuttings upright.
here's a pic of the pre-rooting trash can. LOL just DRY vermiculite with cuttings standing upright. i could have easily used a 5-gal bucket from home depot.
let's try this again.
i give up! DG wants to rotate so let them.
Love it - thanks!
good luck Kay! looking forward to hearing about your success with this method.
Tuscon- I have read over your post a dozen times- NEVER have rooted plumerias but got 4 beautiful cuttings from occarol in California, 2 pink and 2 white. You said you left the cuttings to callus for 3 months. Was that because it was winter? These cuttings look dry and callused but I'm not sure how callused they should be. Also, can I use a seed starting mix or must it be vermiculite? Tried goggling Mark Terrill but didn't get much. Any further information you can give me would be appreciated- I really want these babies to grow. Thanks Susan
hi susan,
that is how long it took before i saw callus tissue. it probably was due to less light during winter.
cuttings get the same mix that i use for my mature plumeria. remember that the vermiculite was used as a pre-rooting medium and it was dry. i sat the cutting in the bin and propped them up in the vermiculite. then, i could pull them out and check them whenever. however, they are bagged with the mix used for the large plumies.
take a pic of the cut ends and post them. we can gauge the amount of callus that way. do you know how long they had been cut from the mother tree before you recv'd them?
Tuscon, here is a picture of the ends. Occarol d-mailed me on the 21st April that she mailed them. She mentioned that maybe they would be callused by the time I recieved them, which was the 26th. She wrapped them in newspaper and I have left them wrapped. So you use the vermiculite to store ends in till they callus- then what do you use in the bags to root?
Here is a picture of the cuttings
yeah, i do not see any callus tissue. you could let them sit around a big longer and let the cuts heal better and produce callus tissue.
i use eath-gro potting soil straight out of the bag.
they look nice, healthy and fresh!
I appreciate all your info. Susan
you are welcome. i hope that they root for you. btw, what varieties are they?
Occarol said they were un-named but there are 2 white and 2 pink. If this works for me I'd like to get an aztec gold. From what I have read they are beautiful. I have them in dry seed starting mix in my plant room to callus a bit more-should be able to compare from the picture.
For the uninitiated, could someone post a picture of an end view of cuttings with an appropriate amount of callus tissue and ready to bag? I'd love that! Or at least ones getting the callus -- so I can see what you are talking about and be patient enough to wait long enough? (lol) I don't want to jump the gun!
Thanks!
Sharon
here's a pic of a plumeria branch that i left to callus while attached to the mother plant. callus is the new tissue that grows out from the cut end. i have bagged them at the first sign of callus even if i saw it inside a crevice in the cut end. make sense?
i don't think you need to wait for lots of callus. there isn't necessary a 1 to 1 correlation.
oops! here is the pic.
Thank you!
Sharon