I recently read on another site about rooting cuttings in ordinary Oasis Cubes cut from florist blocks you can buy in any craft department. After reading it I came here to Dave's and did a search and found several old threads about it. I went out today and bought a block of Oasis at Walmart and tonight I started two cuttings. I put the cubes in two small custard cups with just enough water to soak the cube and come about 1/2 way up the cube. I did add one drop of Superthrive to each cup. My two cuttings were one Jean Pasco cutting and one slip from Endless Summer Hydrangea.
My question is to Brugie and Poppysue and some others who I read had tried this back in Feb of 2002 (Brugie had a thread in this forum then on it). My question is - what happened? Did it work? Have you abandoned this method of starting cuttings or even seeds? If so why?
Many others have reported great sucess on many different types of hard to root cuttings. I will let you know how mine turn out - but I'm curious how yours turned out.
Diane Krny
Rooting Brugs in Oasis Cubes
Diane, I've read that the regular oasis won't work because it is too dense for the roots to work through. I've used the kind sold for rooting and seed starting and I wasn't that crazy about it because it dried out to quickly unless setting on capillary matting. Rockwool worked fairly well for me, especially for hard to root cuttings, but I just prefer to use soil. Rockwool works great for canna seeds and some brug seeds do germinate, but not as many as if started in soil. At least for me. This is another one of those things that you just have to experiment with to see what works best for you, but watch your cuttings in the oasis. It could be that it will hold too much moisture and your cuttings could rot. I don't know for sure because I've never tried it.
Diane: I don't have any experience with the Oasis, but I'll tell you what's worked fantastically for me this year:
I have used small pieces of greenwood with at least one node and laid it horzontally on top of plain old potting soil in a 4" pot, and pressed it in slightly. I dampen the soil with a mister, then put the whole container in a zipper bag and close it up. I have set these in an area that receives filtered morning sun, and I have new growth on every one I've started. I will leave them in the baggies until they have a stalk, then remove them and put them under lights for the winter. I haven't used any rooting hormone.
Just another option...
Gretchen
i have not use oasis either.
what i accidentally find is...... if u have a cutting, cut off all the bigger leaves. on the newer growth [tip of the cutting], cut off half of the leaves. soak cuttings in plain water using glass jar. within 3-4 weeks time, ur cuttings will develop roots. lenticels develop in 3-4 days depending on what part of the plant the cuttings comes from. faster rooting on side growths. this is what i told Scooterbug earlier today in email. i have made several experiments and the side shoot that are matured are the fastest to root.
perhaps i am over cautious and do not like to take risk of losing cuttings i take. i change the water once every 2-3 days. as i change the water, i wash the glass jar with soap and bleach. i rinse and wash the cuttings in warmish water. maybe others have done this before, but it is the 1st for me and it was all new to me.
i did that experiment cuz i get too impatient in waiting for a bare cutting to root. it seems it takes eternity to root them. i figured if i cut off the bigger leaves, leave the new growth leaves on and cut the leaves in half i maybe lucky to get a better result. am glad i did, cuz now i no longer have to wait very long to get roots from my cuttings. jmo.
Thanks for all your responses. Last year when I rooted my first cuttings sent to me by Wantabegardener, I just put them in a small glass jar until the little white nubs formed in the root area (2-3 days) then potted them up in clear plastic drinking cups (I burned drain holes in the bottom first) so I could see through the bottom as the roots grew and watered sparingly only when really dry. This worked well for me. Earlier this year, for fun, I rooted a small cuttings that had broken off one of my brugs in a storm by laying it down sideways in soil (the log method) - this worked too. I guess I just love experimenting with new ideas and methods - hence, when I read about this oasis method - I just had to try it. I find the hardest part of rooting cuttings, is maintaining the balance between enough moisture and too much. In the first post I read on GW site, the posters had all used ordinary, inexpensive, Oasis from craft departments to which they added just minute amounts of either rooting hormone and/or growth enhancer. They reported their sucess rate as VERY high to nearly 100%. The roots seem to have no trouble growing right through the little oasis block.
Gretchen - I think I will try the zipper bag method you mention above too. I just love trying new methods for things.
I will continue experimenting with it and post results here for you. I also want to try germinating some seeds this way - maybe datura seeds? I don't have any Brug seeds to try. I can imagine it might help to put the containers with the cubes on top of a heat mat to keep the water temp up.
I'll let you know how it works out...unless I am boring you guys and you think I should post this to the propagation forum?
Diane Krny
Why not put it there also as a lot of people that visit that forum don't visit this one.
Diane...not boring me at all!! I love to hear what people are trying and what the results are. Please continue to keep us posted ! I have some brug seeds in the refrig. if you could use some. Let me know. Margie
Gretchen, I'm going to try your rooting method. Is there a reason you are rooting now, rather than next spring?? I'm thinking limited space in GH, so I thought it would be best to wait, but now I'm not sure what I should do. TIA!!!!
Sherry -- the reason I'm doing it now is to save cuttings of plants that are in the ground, in case we would have an unusually hard winter and they don't come back. I'd hate to lose all of those, so this is just insurance. I have just started about 5 each of four seedlings, and will take cuttings from my named brugs after this flush is over.
Now...don't ask me where I'm going to fit all these in my tiny greenhouse LOL! I had 80 babies in there last winter, but also lots of other things. This year, just my tropicals and brugs, and the most of the shelving that held the babies is coming out.
Gretchen
Well, silly me, Gretchen!! I was thinking I needed really BIG cuttings, rather than small ones like you are doing. I'm going to do it just like you did on special brugs, rather than one big cutting. Did you use Hefty bags or is there another kind of bag to use or are you talking about plastic grocery bags??? Like you, space is going to be at a premium, so you way is a good option for me. How long does it take such a rooting to bloom??? Thanks ever so much!!!
The oasis cubes I got are too small for brugs. I had good luck with coleus cuttings but haven't really tried them with anything else.
Sherry: Here are some of my cuttings: I either use one-gallon Ziplock bags for two pots, or a two-gallon bag that'll hold six pots, which I then set in trays that hold 18 total, 4" pots. You can see that on some green-twig cuttings started last week, there is already new growth (there were no leaves on these twigs -- they were completely stripped).
One important thing to remember with these, is that depending on where you take your cutting (remember Tonny's great illustration?) determines the size of your mature brug. So, if you're looking for Alley Tree material, you will need to take cuttings close to the ground on trees that are already tall. Hope that makes sense...
Where's a good place to get those 4" pots? I might as well order some now.
Gretchen, you are SO together, I LOVE your collage!!! What talented girl you are, wow!! I only have one alley tree so far, an unknown and it was about 7 or 7 1/2 feet, before the Y, which has doubled, tripled, growing like a weed, nothing like Kell's, couldn't believe how tall hers is. I cut it as close to the ground as possible and it has only put leaves on the canopy, none on the trunk. I think I'm beginning to see the 'light', and for me, it means trial and error. Thanks, Gretchen, I cannot wait to start the greenwood rootings...
pins -- I buy mine from a local nursery. You could do a google search for nursery pots. There are lots of places that sell them on-line.
Sherry -- it was just easier to put all the photos together on one post... glad it was helpful :)