Ok, I'm probably getting ahead of myself here since these babies are so little but if I croak them all you will have at least seen that I did get some to come up with this method. LOL
So look at the two middle leaves, that is not perlite up against the leaves! If you look close you can see the smallest of little babies starting to pop up!!
~Brenda
I think I over crowded the box as I put down the rows of leaves and I also then put down each small end of the leave that was left over. So here is a baby also coming up in the same box from the small end of a Party Girl stem I put down!
~Brenda
A little different angle on the box. The two center leaves that are putting up babies are Inky Fingers and the two leaves in front have some roots and should send up some babies (yeah, I had to pull them out of the dirt today and check LOL) soon, they are Maasen's White. The partial leaves in back were from Party Girl and they look like they'll deteriorate away before they do anything so I'm glad I have a baby coming up from her stem. I also have the stem ends down for both Inky Fingers and Maasen's White and they are well rooted though I see no babies from them. More wait and see!!!
~Brenda
That is great, Brenda and I am happy for you.........I am trying to use leaves only..........I will let you know........if I did it this way, I know that mine would rot without a lot of perlite with our humidity.................
This is quite an event isn't it........you remind me of myself when i see a baby on its way.........(a baby plant that is)
I put down a whole bunch of leaves in straight perlite and I'm not liking it at all!! I can't tell when they need watered! I need to be able to heft the box and judge the watering needs, just my thing I guess.
With the perlite boxes I under did the water and then I over did it and now all my perlite is green on top but it's dried out again..... I'll be very very lucky if I get anything out of those three boxes. Just my own lack I'm sure, not a bad method at all.
My point, yes I have one :)))) is when I do this again I'm going to go with soil again but just a lot lighter soil mix like what your talking about Gail. Heavier on the perlite than what I did here as I think they would produce faster that way. I also learned from this box that I put the leaves too deep. I need to just get the edges under some dirt in a shallow crevice instead of burying them in a deep crevice.
All the learning is fun! I also learned I need to slow down in the leaves I'm snatching off my plants until I get this down better. Three boxes full of leaves on a new method wasn't the smartest move I've ever made!! LOL
~Brenda
Brenda, remember i don't know how to do this, but I am going to try a mixture of soil-less mix (Schultz or any av mix) and use 1/3 soil-less av mix and 2/3 perlite........or another way I have already tried on episcia stolons and it does work!!! is to layer first a layer of perlite..........then a layer of av mix with the perlite 1/2 1/2.....and on the top chopped spaghnum moss............easy to tell as you want the perlite on the bottom to always have water and the plant will pull the water up as it needs it and the moss on top just keeps the humidity high........
Congrats on those babies.. I can SEE them!!!!
I'm glad you put your stem down... I did too... I figured it couldn't hurt..lol
Mine are still just sitting there...not doing much of anything but they are still green and I've put down a few more leaves so wish me luck, too.
It's so much fun to play around with different methods and ways to do things...somewhere I saw someone growing them in plain water! If they will do that then you'd think I'd have them coming out of my ears...the way I over water everything..lol
Good for you Brenda!!
MsC
good job! I can SEE them too!!!
I see the babies too.Great growing!
Oh Wow! Great Growing Brenda! I am so happy for you! And, cute little babies you've got there too! I tried putting a couple of Strep leaves down in straight perlite but they don't look so hot. I have a feeling they aren't going to make it. I'm not gonna give up trying though ... I think next time I'm gonna try Gail's method with perlite on the bottom, then a layer of soil/perlite mix and then spagh on top to see how that works and whether I get babies that way! I am determined! I figure if I can grow African Violet babies from leaves I should be able to get Strep babies from leaves! Now ... if I could just get Chirita babies ... I have a couple of large leaves down from that Chirita 'Aiko' that was given to me by Hoya_24 ... so far so good, they haven't wilted or died, just too soon for babies to pop up yet!
It is so much fun to see everyone's pic's of how they set up their "plant baby nurseries".... and of course oh how exciting to see the babies!
i get a much bigger kick from growing than the results we have when it is all finished (LOL).....
Isn't it sooo rewarding when those babies pop their cute little heads up and start growing?! I love propagating too although I'm not as good as it as you or others, Gail. With me, it's kinda hit or miss .... sometimes it works and sometimes nothing happens! I used to get discouraged years ago, but not anymore. I figure if it doesn't happen the first time, I'll just try again! The ONLY thing I have patience with! LOL.
Working with plants is the only patience I have.......period!!!!!!!!!
I have been putting off separating all the babies from so many leaves...........tomorrow may be the day that i say, "if I fail i will learn more"..............after waiting for so long, i want to succeed so much.........
The babies are getting big and this has gone on long enough!!!!!!!!!
When I talked to the owner of the nursery of Avs in Boerne yesterday, he said that when he separates the babies he lets them kinda dry out for a while (meaning minutes, not days)........then puts each little plantlet in a solo cup with holes in the bottom, wicks the solo cup, puts perlite in the bottom 1//4 of the solo cup..........then uses av soil mix but creates a hole for the plantlet with enough room around it to add whatever medium it was propagated in (for example, vermiculite.......or vermiculite and perlite)..........then he only uses eye droppers to water them for a while before he lets the solo cup self wick........(I think he said about 2 to 3 weeks with the eye dropper)
let's all wish one another good luck..............(LOL)
Gail you are so great at propagating, I don't think you need any good luck wishes! I know you will do just great! I just need to take notes from you! Or maybe since I always forget to make note of this stuff I can just keep bugging you with questions!
Don't worry...........please keep asking me questions...........getting old enough to forget what I have read (LOL)
I see them too, Brenda! They're adorable, all lined up there. LOL It gives me hope that my leaves will eventually do something. I checked them yesterday. They're still green, but no roots, no babies, no nothin'! LOL
My strep babies are growing well and the two leaves in front have put up a few babies, nothing like the two leaves in the middle but a few little guys are popping up. I had put several leave ends cut in the "chevron" way shown in one of the stickies and out of all of them only one has popped a baby up. But so far two out of the three stem ends I put down in here have sent up babies.
This picture was taken 10 days after the first one. I cut off the rotting looking leaves and that was a mistake as when I pulled out the rotten looking halves there was some roots on them....I should have remembered jannichs post with babies coming up from the leaves that had rotted!!!
~Brenda
This message was edited Jul 16, 2007 8:16 AM
Great going, Brenda................I just try again on streps by taking the vein out..........I am patiently waiting on some seeds I planted............and I do have some leaves that I put down straight up but don't have babies yet.................
Brenda,
That is just so cool and cute and amazing. You've inspired me to make some cuttings of my own strepts. I'll see how they do. That was one late night a couple of weeks ago. I'm trying mine in horticultural vermiculite and perlite mixture (mostly vermiculite though) and so far so good. Have a great day.
Laura
Wonderful, bemedal. You are going to have lots of plantlets.
I agree Laura, they are so cute and amazing, I have had a blast doing this and now have some more leaves down a couple of different ways, including the vermeculite perlite way. Nothing yet from them but I'll just keep enjoying these for now :)))
Thank you Snowrose! Your right I'm going to have little plants coming out my ears :0) I see trades and just plain ol' giveaways in my future! LOL
I think I'll also try a multiple planting in a larger sized pot, I believe gloriag mentioned how nice those can turn out. I might as well do some experimenting.
All of this will depend on my DH keeping these alive for me when I go on vacation for a couple of weeks in early August!!!
~Brenda
This message was edited Jul 16, 2007 6:44 PM
Oh no. Two weeks? You better give him a good crash course! Have fun on your vacation.
Gloriag needs a camera so she can post photos. I put strep leaves down in straight perlite like she does several weeks ago. Planted in a shoe box sized container with drainage holes and covered in clear plastic wrap. So far, so good. Others I have in my usual wick mix.
Drainage holes you say?? The ones I put down in straight perlite are in plastic take out salad containers but no holes, no wonder my perlite is all green now, big head slap!! My leaves have roots but the whole mess of them don't look too hot. I knew it was user error but hadn't figured it out yet, now I know!!
On a side note, how to you know when to water the straight perlite?? it is so light and I just can't get a handle on it.
Snowrose did you read the article in the latest AVSA magazine about the husband left in charge of watering the wifes plants while she went into the hospital?? I still laugh every time I think about it as I can see it happening at my house while I'm gone. ROTFLOL
~Brenda
My hubby asked me to leave him instructions on watering plants when I am gone later this month. I will be going to visit one of my sisters for 8 days! I told him I don't want him to water anything inside the house! I will water all the plants inside real well before I leave and they will be fine until I get home. He said he wouldn't have time to water Everything .... I have lots of plants! So, I will water everything on my pool deck, covered deck and in the Florida room and front porch before I go too. I told him he can just water the plants on the pool deck if we don't get much rain so they don't die. I was gone this past weekend and a lot of things were wilted really bad from the sun and heat! I can't imagine being gone two straight weeks or more, leaving hubby in charge of plants! Yikes! Either everything would be dead or dry. withered and pretty near death! He does work hard at taking care of other stuff whenever I'm away though! We have four cats and he does remember to feed them! So, I can't complain.
Would love to read that article in the AVSA magazine but I'm not a member yet!
Lin check your d-mail, I'll do my best to scan and send the article, it's too funny to miss....
~Brenda
Brenda .... Just read it. Hilarious! I am still ROFL at the part about flushing the plant and it perking right up! Thank you so much for going to the trouble of scanning and pasting that for me to read! It is soooo funny! I can just picture something like that happening too!
That is a funny article in the July/August AVSA magazine! 'How to Water Your Wife's Plants'. Poor guy.
I always make drainage holes in everything. I am trying this straight perlite for the first time. With drainage holes, you avoid overwatering as all excess runs out. My container is covered in plastic so hasn't needed any additional watering. It's been over a month.
The first containers I used for propagating were ones that had had tomatoes or grapes and such in them, thus built in drainage holes and then it slipped my mind when I used the salad containers...It won't next time!!
A month with no watering after wetting the perlite and setting everything up with the plastic wrap, that makes it easy doesn't it?
Lin I'm so glad you enjoyed that article too!! Every time I start to think I'll just gather everything into one spot and water it well before I leave and then just have DH water once while I'm gone I find another certain plant or set of leaves or seedlings that are going to need their own instructions...LOL I've decided to be brave and as long as my hoya seedlings and my Fuzz make it I will be ecstatic!! All the big plants will be fine and probably even thank me for taking a vacation as I do seem to like my watering can :))) Anything else can be started over if it comes to that...
~Brenda
My thoughts exactly, Brenda! Oh and yes .... that article was hilarious! Really funny! I need to have hubby read it ... I always try to make it as easy as possible for him when I am going out of town for a few days! Some things I just don't trust him watering .... they would be floating! So, I can just have him use the hose on all my plants out on the back decks and the ones on the front porch! Everything inside I've told him he doesn't have to touch ... he is relieved!
Before I left on vacation on the first of August I took some pictures of my strep babies so that if they didn't make it through my absence I'd have on last shot of them :))) they were looking well and growing good...
~Brenda
Another angle from August first. I put three types of leaves in here. Party Girl, Maasens White and Inky Fingers and I got some of each to come up with Inky Fingers being the two middle rows with lots and lots of babies up....
Well ever since I have been back home things just haven't been looking right in the box. Everyone had lived but I don't know if they got over or under watered or what but they were just looking sadder and sadder. So yesterday i decided to pot them up in smaller pots with new dirt. Forgot to take the before picture but here is an after picture.
I realize that they were probably too small yet for this step but I felt it was their only chance. Some that were a bit bigger I did individually and some of the smallest ones I did in little rows.
The plastic baby food containers were perfect and fit so nicely into this green house set up I had....
And another angle, I'm all about the angles LOL...
And in their new home along with my four Fuzz seedlings on top of the fridge, we shall see how they do now....
Good growing and I too like those baby food containers and how neatly they line up in the rectangle tray.
Brenda ... Wonderful little nursery you have there! I'm loving it! I am looking at pictures right and left and trying to get set in my mind how to grow Strep's and Episcia's and Chirita's from leaf! AND .... have them live!
So, those are baby food containers you are using?? Wish I knew someone with a baby or two who would let me recycle their containers! LOL. Do you have holes in the bottom for drainage and is that pebbles or perlite I see in the bottom of the cups?
Please forgive all the questions, I've been asking so much of everyone on the forum about their methods and I am gonna one day real soon, sow some seeds and maybe order some leaves.
Great Growing!
Yes Susan it is so exciting to see those babies start coming up!! These were my first and I'm still so tickled with them!
As you say Snowrose the baby food containers are perfect in this rectangular set up, too bad my grand daughter is about to move on to grown up food! I need to find a new source. LOL
Lin I took my ice pick and I lit a candle and got it hot and then I put 5 holes in the bottom of each container and one hole in each side for a total of four holes in the sides. I was trying to copy something along the lines of the Texas potting method. So then I filled up to the holes with damp perlite and then put in my AV mix. I did not pull the babies off the mother leaf. I just trimmed it way down behind them and then planted them with a bit of the leaf still attached since they were still pretty small. Now it's a waiting game to see how they like it... :)))
I was finally able to get one to come up by putting the leaf down the AV way too. I took this picture last night.
~Brenda
This message was edited Aug 30, 2007 2:53 PM
On the 16th of June I put strep leaves down in straight perlite in salad containers. And I forgot to put drainage holes in the bottom! I had said I wouldn't post pictures of these as all the perlite turned green and they were so ugly but what the hay!! LOL The babies are growing good now and they would have grown much better if I had not gotten over anxious and pulled some of the leaves up to see if they had roots. They did and I could never get them buried correctly again!! So there are babies behind the leaves and a lot of them at the end of the leaves and a little bit everywhere else! I did three boxes like this and I'll post a picture of each.
On the right side of this box the two small leaves are from a young "Streaker" plant I had. I still have not gotten it to bloom but boy did those leaves throw up a ton of babies!!
Second box...
