PLANT PROPAGATION.....THE BASICS III

Last year we had no spring. It went from winter to summer. My irises bloomed in May instead of June.

Tomatoes can be covered if frost is threatened. I always did sow extras.

I don't grow them anymore but when I did I wanted them in the ground early. I used early bearing types. The days are not from sowing but from the time they are planted in the ground so size don't matter.

What good does it do to plant them in the ground if the ground is so cold they can't even stretch their roots out into the soil? If it doesn't even get up to 50 degrees they are just going to sit there. Better off to keep them in the house but they have to be potted in larger, deeper pots and that takes room.

A short time doesn't hurt, but for a whole month, that doesn't make sense to me. Maybe I am wrong?

Mine grow right away when it put them in the ground. They've been growing in the mini greenhouse for at least a couple of weeks by then. I put up the hoops and frost blanket a few days before I plant. Sometimes I out jugs of water under there too, that heat up during the day and help at night. But they do grow even though its before they are supposed to.

What do you plant them with Pam? Do you give them a shot of anything, like B12 or Superthrive?

Some plants take the lower temperatures with that technique , others will not , so ,so, many types , that's why.... Have had a few fruits as early as June Last years August was disappointing ..
Most of my cherry types like hot weather , seems so do the Beefsteak types , intermediate types seem to take that technique well , usually...

I had a plant last year that took half a dozen frosts , grew almost four feet in about three days as the temperature was preferable , still it took forever for the fruit to ripen as they set ,like six weeks or so ..

Some years I dig in manure in the fall, but this year I didn't get to it. There was a new brand last spring of a mix of compost and aged manure, I might use that, or maybe just my own compost if I have time to deal with it that early.

We have just the opposite problem here. We need to get the tomatoes in the ground early in order to get the roots down deep. We start the tomato in a deep hole and as the tomato grows taller, we fill in the hole. In the end, that helps the tomato withstand the high temperatures with the roots deep. We also use the covered hoops but that is to keep the wind off the plants. I use my own compost.








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Found journal entry for 2011:

5/13- "Tomatoes planted today, 1 shovel compost, mulch in depression around stem, plastic on top then mulch, frost blanket over hoops."

I had a little green tomato by early June that year. Last year I got a later start. Much of May was cold, night temps 30's and 40's, highs only to mid 60's, then it warmed up with a vengeance. They went in Memorial Day weekend during a heat wave.

Pics 1-3 are from 2011.

Pics 4 & 5 from last year.

.I always plant deep, stripping the lower leaves, leaving only the top tuft above ground. Last year I had manured the bed in the fall, but still added compost.





This message was edited Feb 26, 2013 11:58 PM

Use the stem and stack over method myself , Have gotten a few large tomato plants that way . This was taken 12 Feb. bigger now but it will all be underground come planting time .

blomma, are you saying that even tho the ground is cold from the ice and snow, the plants are going to grow roots in it when it is so cold? I know the tops don't do anything, but I sure didn't see anything that looked like the roots were doing anything either. Poor things looked awful and I had them in a plastic covered framework on the deck. Bigger than the 4 tier one. They sat there the whole month of June when it was so cold.

You could try the insulated electric pipe wrap around a water or oil filled pipe buried 6 or so inches deep to warm the soil
Just use a timer and allow to be on at night , That should of been heating cable , unless your pipe wrap has a manual setting it won't turn on until freezing> to late ,,
Care to guess how I learned that!lol

This message was edited Feb 27, 2013 2:08 AM

Well, I may have been exaggerating a bit, but if the temps haven't gotten any warmer than 50 degrees then the ground isn't going to get that warm either. But, I had those plants out there for a month during June, and they honestly had not done any more with their roots than when I put them out there.

Our months of June have been like that the last 2 years. I just hope it is not a trend.

I guess we all have to work with what our experience tells us about our micro climates.

Last year we had a warm winter, snow April 1, then very warm, then out of nowhere, 2 weeks with below freezing night temps at the beginning of May that killed all the buds on flowering trees. We had no apples, almost no lilacs :-(((

But after that, it got HOT!!! Go figure...

Jnette Don't forget that growing a plant in a pot is colder than in the soil. The tomato plants were protected with the milk jug. Also, I had mulch around the early planted tomato plants.

As mentioned, they did great above ground when the temp rose. I had nothing to lose, but early tomatoes to gain and I did. I always sowed more than I needed. I planted the rest end of May but they didn't produce as early as those planted earlier.

Well, I want to try planting my tomatoes in E-buckets this year. Have any of you done that? Don't know if they would be colder or not. 5 gallon??

Hi guys I've been so busy that I've been MIA. WoW! new arrivals to the thread and everyone has been busy posting pix. Love it. I have not done any winter sowing this year because I have been so busy and our weather has been weird. I hate dragging that stuff in the house, would rather wait for a warm day to do outside. Often the stuff I use have black widows under the bags and possibly eggs so I choose not to drag them in this year since I've already found that to be true this particular year.
I will probably plant my bread poppies this week here or at the other house, but I heard a hard freeze is coming again. This week is supposed to be record breaking heat though. So I am apprehensive. This is a tricky time in the high desert. If I put them in a good easy to transfer container I may have luck, just popping them in the ground as WS. POPPIES HATE TO BE DISTURBED OR MOVED.

We are all going crazy tryinig to out guess the weather. I finally got 87 cuttings from several different (about 12 to be exact) Hybrid Schlumbergera Truncata CC and I am just praying I did not get them too wet since the sun has not come out for a week to stay and dry things out, but the heat from when it did come out does dry some, to water only the dry ones is impossible so I know some are too wet. I am not watering everyday either. The humidity is holding about 35 to 40 deg. and I am just keeping my fingers crossed. I have six more plants to cut, plus the jasmine and black pussy willow but it is just too cold for the willow and the jasmine I did cut look like hell, so I am just holding off cutting anymore.

See you all later. Just wanted to drop in and say Hi. I have to feed my birds and dog. Hugs. JB

Dawn, so good to hear from you. What do you do about the BW? Those are so bad. We had tons of them in Moses Lake, the middle of the state, when my daughter was born. My husband was in the Air Force there and my mom came over from Spokane to help me when she was born. But, the day we got home from the hospital with her there was a BW on the wall above her bassinet where we were going to put her. And then the next morning there was one on the towel my mom was drying her face with, and one had a web stretched across the bathroom door I felt it in the middle of the night when I went to the bathroom. My mom freaked out and we had to take the baby and go to Spokane and stay at her house for a while. :0)

JB, is there any possible way you can put hydrogen peroxide in the water when you water them? That would take care of any excess water. Jen

Dawn, I figured you would be in Phoenix for NASCAR. So nice to have you drop in.

I have been trying to get a goldfish plant to root but it has been in the water for over a month. Still alive but no roots. I have to trim some of the existing plant tomorrow to facilitate it getting thicker. I have used hydrogen peroxide in the water and change it weekly.

I have a kentia palm indoor plant that was given to me over a year ago. It was placed into a coffee bean bag. It has grown wonderfully. It has been in the laundry room by the south facing window. Nice warm room, a small amount of humidity from the dryer and a lot of light. I want to report it and put it somewhere I will see it but I am really afraid to move it.

Have a great Sunday. I think there is a question in there somewhere. Sharon

I have put a couple of cuttings of Devil's Wing Begonia in water in the kitchen window and neither one have rooted. Maybe I need to put them in potting mix instead. Oh well. Come spring I will cut the big plant off and repot it. Should do better if I do.

Bob bought some peppermint oil to keep the mice out of the trunk of my car. It was fairly expensive 'cause it wasn't extract. It was the real thing. I am going to put some on cotton balls and put them in my houseplants to keep the cats out of them. Darned animals anyway.

Jnette<
Try putting moth flakes or moth balls on the soil to keep your cat away. Works on dogs also. May work for the mice in your trunk too.

I used to spread it around my evergreens when I lived in Massachusetts without a fence. It kept male dogs away from marking on MY territory.

Hi JB, you said some of your plants may not need more water but it was impossible to water each separately. I do not know how you water them, but just wondering if it were possible to add HP to the water when you do water them, then it wouldn't matter if you got too much water in some. Or, do you water each pot with a hose? Then the answer would not be, "No".

How many plants did you say you have? Was it 87 total? But think you said that was cuttings. Still a lot of plants.

JB, Just wondering if it were possible to put in some kind of watering system like maybe drip etc. Would be a wonderful Mother's Day gift you could hint at. It really wouldn't be that expensive if your daughter and son in law did the work, and it is not that difficult. Nor, does it take long. You could even do the cutting of the tubing. :0)

My daughter did hers on her deck. May not have had quite as many as you do, but sure did have a lot.

Jen

Now I understand Jen. I have hundreds of plants in the GH, just now there are 87 new Christmas Cactus cuttings on the one side plus the ones I did not sell that are a year old and some stock plants I am holding on to , the jasmine, and other tropicals are on the other side of the GH and they are all watered with hose. Some a lot , some not so much, but to answer your question about the peroxide, I have never thought of using that to soak up water. ????? How does that work? I put it in water when I take cuttings to keep the water clean sometimes. Or are you saying it will keep the soil from getting sour? and the plants from rotting?

All of the above except soaking up the water. No, it puts oxygen in the water. It would keep the water clean longer for your cuttings. Yes, keeps the soil cleaner also. Does a lot of things, but if you are watering with the hose I don't know how you would put it in the water when you do that. Gosh, if I had that many plants I would sure figure out an easier way of watering. Like maybe long trays and then empty them with a drain plug?

LOL, don't mind me, just letting my imagination run wild. My cat is trying to eat something in the soil of my begonia. I have to fix some cotton balls for my plants. ttyl, jen

Black Widows are a problem here, but I don't think I have had one in this house, inside, but out in the sheds and under the house, good grief, I can only imagine. If I see any more, this early I will have the house and yard sprayed this year.

You know my dogs developed a horrid reverse sneeze, that sounded like they were dying from the moth balls we put out to repel the neighbors cats from walking on our Mustang. We dug them up and it went away but one of them kept having them for a year or so after, but not nearly like they were.

I did some stuff, planted the bread poppies in Tehachapi, but not here yet? Did a lot of prep stuff and dug up my drip lines accidentally so dh has to repair them. Separated some Iris's and a few other things. I'm exhausted now.

Our next door neighbors in Tehachapi, go to our same church so we sit with them when we go out there, it is nice that we are bonding with them. They send us pictures of how bad it is when it snows, so we know not to come up.

Have you checked into that Dawn? Last I heard, there is no spray that will kill them. Many years ago my dad put one in a fruit jar and put straight 2,4,D or DDT, can't remember which, in there on it, and it knocked the spider out, but after a few hours it started moving again and woke up.

They may have something now. Let me know if you find one.

What did you dig up? The dog or the mothballs? And, if the mothballs, where did you put them in the first place that you dug them up? Are you saying they are a plant???? Seriously, you really confused me on this Dawn.

Yes, that is really nice to start out with friends at your place in Tahachapi. How thoughtful of them to send the pictures.
Sound like very nice folks.

Do not feel bad Dawn. It is not hard to confuse Jen. No sun for a long time will do that to your brain.

And I agree with Jen. You have lucked out with your new neighbors.

I had quite a few seeds left over from Evelyn that she sent when I was into blue flowers. I sowed them at the end of the summer last year. Some in pots and some just helter skelter. Should be interest to see, if anything, comes up.

I have pink oxalis blooms in two different areas and of curse, yellow is everywhere. But they die down when it gets hot so they are not really a problem.

Later, Sharon

Oh Jen for goodness sakes. I sprinkled the moth ball crystals in the ground outside of our fence but the dogs used to go within a few feet of the other side of the fence and started honking and sounding like they had kennel cough. It was the only new thing that I'd recently done new or different to have both dogs reacting. I could smell them so I know how keen their sense of smell was, so I took a little shovel in the gravel and scooped up the crystals that I could and tossed them in the trash.

Keep up with me woman.

helln zn11
Don't know why your dogs had problems from moth flakes. I used moth flakes to I train my German Shephard when she was a puppy to stay away from my houseplants that was within her reach in the house. Also used it outside to train her where I didn't want her to go, and to keep male dogs away from my evergeens.

It worked great. Didn't seem to bother her. She just stayed away where I put it.

Dawn, it sounds to me like your dog was allergic to the odor of the mothballs and that would make him/her cough.

Today I am heading for the Greenhouse to plant Jasmine cuttings and goldfish cuttings. That is it and I was hoping to cut some black pussy willow before the snow, but I doubt that will happen. It is due here tomorrow night and I have only today to work outside. The rain prior to the snow is iffy. I am just on the edge of the storm so I am not sure if I will get rain or snow.

Take care everyone. I will be back when I can. Hugs.

Sorry Dawn, I have never used Mothballs. Why didn't you say flakes. Then I would have at least known something about them. Maybe I thought you pulled the balls off of the moths. :0) TRY THAT ONE ON SHARON!! SO THERE!

Good to know Blomma. If the peppermint oil on the cottonballs don't work to keep the cats out of my houseplants, I will try them. Would much rather smell the peppermint tho, I think. I really have smelled the mothballs in woolens that my mom would put away for the summer when I was very young.

Well starting your day off with a belly laugh is a good thing. Thanks Jen. If you gets those balls off those moths, please post photos.

I had a good night sleep last night. When I woke up the inside of my mouth was actually stuck together.

I only have pain when I lay down or move quickly to the side. I finally tried sleeping with a pillow between my legs. I could sleep on the side of the injury. Sleeping on the other side, set the spasms off. Wow, what an experience this has been.

I have a board meeting tonight so I might as well get moving and do something. Have a great day. Hugs, Sharon

PS. JB, I see you are propagating gold fish plants. How do you do it? I am failing...

Sharon, I cut them when they are finished blooming and start them in water. When the roots get long enough, about an inch or more, I plant them in the regular potting soil. My plant is still blooming, but the woman that does my bird grooming brings me her cuttings she starts in water. The small plants take a lot of water. In fact, I sometimes just fill the try and let them sit in it depending on the greenhouse heat. Hope that helps. JB

Need a new thread guys.