This is the mini-green house made from a 2 liter water jug. I cut it about 3 inches from the bottom, removed the middle and used the top for a cap. I can set it on teh heat mat or move it to a cooler place. It keeps the humidity at 100% for the teeny tiny cuttings.
Great idea Cala. I've used smaller bottles, but this size is much better for several cuttings. Guess I have to start saving again. Just got through tossing everything.
We get these for the green house workers, we had been tossing them or Wally gets them and chews them up.(Wally is the dog, not DH)
I knew Wally was your dog, but not sure I remember your hubby's name.......maybe Bill? Jim (DH here) might chew on one of those if I don't keep the credit card bill from him this month. :-)
I save the containers that the cakes from the grocery store come in ,and the chicken that's pre cooked from the deli.They make great mini greenhouses
CC, I never thought of those!! I will start washing them and saving them.
All of you have great ideas. I will definitely start saving my containers.
you are toooo clever
I use the cake containers, and pastry containers.
I purposely start buying that kind of stuff about this time of year so I can start my seeds in them. And it has helped making friends in the bakery dept of our local safeway.....
Cala - you never cease to surprise me! What a great idea!
I use plastic pop bottles or any plastic container with a lid. My kids used to think I was crazy, but when they see all my plants come up they admit I have a Green Thumb.
Joydie
Those tiny cuttings I stuck in these didn't wilt even though the temp was 80 in the green house and it's been sunny every day. For starting cuttings, this is great.
Thats much better than what I have been using...trays with coat hangers bent over them and plastic wrap draped over the top. I like that Cala...mind if I steal your idea to grow a few of my plants?
Brugman, that's why I posted it. I got the idea from the flasks (actually they use baby food jars) used to tissue culture orchids. I kept looking around the green house for something I could use and still be able to get my fingers down into to plant the tiny cuttings. I saw the the top was just slightly flared and the bottom half would fit up into it, so I did a little trimming.
BTW, the cuttings are doing great, I'm going to see how it works with passion vines too. Another idea for it is when things come out of the flask from tissue culture, the humidity has to be really high and you slowly acclimate them and this should work for that too.
Cala,
Right now I have day blooming cactus growing in a similar system. I rooted them in pots sealed inside the big plastic freezer baggies. They are nicely rooted now with new leaves emerging. I have not had to water them since I first stuck the cuttings into the pots.
I looked all over for water in 2 liter bottles. We don't have it here. Guess I'll have to buy some soda just to get the bottles. I've used lots of things in my life to make humidity domes, but this looks like the best yet.
Joydie, most jungle cacti or desert cacti can simply be cut and stuck in the ground. They will form roots on their own without any watering or for that matter they will form roots if simply let alone on a wooden table for too long. You can lay many species of cacti on the side just as you do Brugmansia to propagate them as well. A light coating of sulfur on the cut end and a few weeks drying period for the cut end is ussually advised as well, but with jungle cacti one really doesn't have to bother with that generally if one simply abstains from watering too much for the first few weeks....I ramble too much sometimes, but night blooming cacti can make a beautiful addition to your Brugmansia garden.
Cala,
Now don't get me started with the "Brugman Log Method" of propagating epiphyllum. You are going to create a monster here and I have have to shut down more living space to accomodate plants. I hardly have space with what I'm growing now. Most desert cactus I just plop in soil and forget about them.
My original cactus is now 6 feet tall and was 3 feet thick. I split it into two plants and repotted them. Now they are both just as thick so this summer I will take tons of cuttings from them and pot them up. They grow miraculously fast in the south glass addition.
Gosh by the time I purchase all these propagating chemicals I'll have to have a special cupboard for all of them so I can find them when I need them. Remember I'm functionally senile...LOL.
Joydie
Well ain't I glad I didn't haul off the plastic bottles. My wife had to drink at least a gallon of water each day while she was on medication and we bought in 2 and 3 gallon sizes and I saved them just thinking now they can be used for something. I had them in a garbage bag and headed to the trash dump and then decided to hang on to them. Brought them back and started again this weekend to haul them off and didn't. Sometimes it pays to me lazy.
cALLA, iF YOU HAVE A LARGE ENOUGH PLANT TO START ANOTHER CUTTING I WILL SEND YOU WHATEVER IT WOULD COST TO ORDER IT FROM SOMEWHERE PLUS POSTAGE.
B
