Ok when starting New leave and you put into a container with a lid do to think it is wise to put some gravel in there and set them on top or wood that be way to much humitiy?
Dimmer
Here Is a Question
Hi Kim,
When I root AV leaves I don't put a dome on them or put them in plastic bags because we have so much humidity here in Florida that they will quickly rot. I don't think you would need to put gravel in the container because if the lid is kept closed, there should be enough moisture build up under the plastic lid for them. Hopefully some of the expert propagators will come along soon and give you some good advice!
Thats pretty good information . Well I did the streps amd it has a lid no gravel and under lites will try this way thanks
Kim
just my 2 cents worth, dimmer. I always root my av leaves with only perlite and vermiculite under a dome for at least 3 weeks until they have rooted. Then I take the top off and watch the babies come.
On strep leaves I use the same perlite and vermiculite but add a good soil less mix as in 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 and they definitely have to be domed until they get rooted or there is too much foliage exposure without any humidity.
Oh, I just learned something good here!! I have been leaving my strep leaves domed the entire time!! I think I will have stronger babies if I take the dome off (or at least prop it up) once the leaves are rooted but before the babies come up .... I'm going to give it a try with my next batch...
~Brenda
Brenda, we all are learning as we go. I just do the 'resistance' test on both av leaves and strep leaves. When I pull just a little and they resist as if the roots are formed, off come the domes for good.
Well I've got myself committed to the domes for this go around with leaves as I did them in straight perlite ....... I think it will dry out too fast without the domes. Maybe once the babies are up if I misted them daily? I'll have to try it ......
I had good success with straight perlite last year with the leaves turned lengthwise so I decided to try it again with strep leaves done AV style. It's still trial and error every time for me. I have not found my definitive way yet ..... I'm already wishing I would have put some vermeculite into this batch though to help hold some more moisture ..... oh well, there's always next time! ^_^
Here's a picture of some leaves I have down from Nancy right now...
~Brenda
Those look great, Brenda..........I heard someone else saying that they rooted streps in only perlite. I would rather it take longer and be successful than to have half of them or all of them rot. That has happened to me!
I forgot to say that I use capillary matting under both av leaves and strep leaves so the moisture is there coming up around the leaves all the time.........even when the dome comes off.........
Interesting about the capillary matting, I could try that with the perlite.....
I did the leaves from you in big community domes so I could squeeze them all in! ^_^ I went up and checked this afternoon and they are rooting!!! I didn't want to mess with them too much but I had to know. LOL It's been three weeks since I put them down, so far I've only lost two leaf end cuts and that's not surprising....
~Brenda
It's so great how we all do things differently :)
Brenda, your pictures look GREAT.
What I have learned is the best way for me is a mix of perlite/vermiculite (which has already been premoistened). I would have cut the leaves in 1/2. One half would have gone in a 1 oz solo cup (usually the bottom 1/2) and the other half would have gone into a community tray. That way I always have insurance in case something happens to one 1/2. Because I have REAL humidity issues here in Maine, I leave the babies domed until it's time for me to separate them. I separate them, dome them again for another week or two and then I start undoming them an hour at a time until I have them completely undomed. This has taken TONS of trial and error and I'm still not sure it's 100% yet. I still do follow this practice though even with the chirita. Sometimes if I try to undome things too early, I lose them VERY quickly to wilt/dampening off. Happened to 2 trays of strep babies this winter and I certainly learned from it :( In tears....literally.
Here is my Roulette (which I'm SO tickled about). These were started on 4-10 and are still domed today.
Kim
Great Growing, Ladies! Y'all have regular gessie nurseries! I wish I had the time, space and most of all patience to propagate like you all do!
So Kim would you even cut small / young leaves in half? Nancy's leaves were from young (and special) plants and I wanted to give them all the oophh I could by planting the whole things .... Gails were nice sized leaves and I think I cut every one of them at least in half if not more....
Very good idea on trying each half of a leaf a different way or in a different container, I love learning this stuff from each other!!
We too have some serious humidity issues (as in none LOL) so I'll be watching any un-doming I do very carefully! I have found that taking the babies from the dome (that has been being cracked open for awhile daily) and then into my mini greenhouse (like yours) where there is a lot more space but they are still enclosed has worked well. Then I start un-zipping the sides of the greenhouse a little at a time until they are completely unzipped and then I start lifting the flap a bit etc etc. Definitely different ways you need to go about it according to your climate, thanks for reminding me of that!!
Your Roulette babies are so impressive!! I'm going to have a leaf of Cherry Roulette from Susan51 in my mail box tomorrow! Woo Hoo!! I hope I can be even a 1/4 as successful with it as you have been with yours!!
Lin it's crazy isn't it?? ^_^ I don't even have a club or a sale or anything to grow for and if I have even a 50% success rate I'm going to have streps out my ears (actually I think I already do! LOL) but it's so fun to see those babies start to come up and it'll be at least 6 to 9 months, if not longer, before (with my conditions) I have to worry about farming the babies out. So I'll just enjoy it until then .... LOL
~Brenda
Brenda, those leaves look awesome. How high are those domes? They look taller than my black bottom plastic trays with only 3 of 4" height on the dome.
Now I want to try them just like Brenda has in that picture but I will just add a little vermiculite...........yours look better than mine do after two weeks.............so I am going to copy you.
Remember, Brenda............when the time comes and you are flooded with streps you can go to the classified ads or to the DG Marketplace. I am not going to do that even in the fall as the club is always begging for more streps for sales. Another lady and I are the only ones in the club who even grow streps but the public really wants them. We pick up new members when we have sales.
The domes are 8 inches tall! I love them, they have vent wheels in the top to allow some air flow and are big enough to get a whole strep plant under when I have one that needs some TLC after I whack it in half. LOL
I bought them in Boise at a hydroponics store and they were only around 6 bucks a piece.
Good idea with the Marketplace or Classfieds. We'll see how successful I end up being first! I have come to realize why Rob's and Gary etc ship plants on the small side, much easier to do and you can fit more in a box!! I think Gary's plants are about the perfect size, well established root systems, nice healthy leaves and still small enough to fit in those cones he uses.
Here is my tray of them in my mini greenhouse from the order my cousin and I split ....
~Brenda
Gary's streps are a really good deal and I don't care what the names are when it saves me more than 5 months of growing to get them to this stage and blooming.
I need some higher domes and all mine come from Park Seed where they are 19.95 each. Kim told me she found some for about the same price as yours. Next time I am in Houston, Austin or San Antonio, I am going to look for a hydroponics' store. I am fine in the meantime with the ones I have. Thanks for telling me though.
I hope all of you great propagators offer some on the marketplace. I love them all and there is nowhere around here to buy them. I just love seeing all of the pictures . Keep them coming! Lurker lou
Lou, did you know that we found out that Gary Mikita (Out of AFrica) will sell 10 for 35.00 and he chooses the names. That is what Brenda did. I may start ordering from him as it takes me several months to grow from leaf and actually get blooms. 3.50 is a great deal...for streps.
Yah!! That sounds great! Thanks for the tip! Lou
Hello All,
I have real big bio domes that my son Mike got me for Christmas so I am thinking of bringing them up and putting strep cuttings in them... I still have a few cuttings hanging in there.. I can't believe I grew the first ones really good then went brain dead about even remembering to put them in a dome... Oh well things happen.. I mix perlight and soil and root mine that way.. I may try a new way this time....
Hugs,
Susan
Susan, I know for sure that you are the one who gave me plumerias last spring. I put each of them in a pot and had given up on them ever blooming. Now that I do have my first bloom, I am not sharing any time soon as these are the prettiest blooms I have ever seen.
Gorgeous Gail. My husband has Plumeria's and they are wonderful, one is full of pink blooms right now. I love how they smell. Your color is lovely!
That is a pretty bloom Gail... At last count I had 87 I knew a few sticks rotted when I brought them out of the basement as we had had so much rain so I am about now in the 80's of plants... All are growing nicely... I had blooms in the winter.LOL I have several with inflos on them but will take them awhile to grow and open... I have to cut down on how many I have as they grow into trees and then have to put in bigger pots... We have several in 25 gallon pots... Now those are heavy... I am waiting for them to bloom then keeping just the ones I really really like... They are beautiful flowers and some smell out of this world...
Ok off to work for me... Yack later.
Hugs,
Susan
Hi;
Can you grow the plumeria indoors?will they flower in doors? i think they are so pretty & smell wonderful.
mrsbonnie
I have a question about Streps-
Kim(DImmer) I hope it's OK that I ask this on your thread?...
I repotted a strep from a solo cup. But now every time it tries to put on a new leaf it turns dark and dies. Did I plant it too deep or do I not have the watering right?
Thanks!
Diane
I goof all the time but it sounds like you might not have planted the crown high enough AND you are overwatering. We all do it.........me most of all!!!
I visited a lady who is president of one of our Gesneriad groups and she showed me a terrific way to root leaves:
get a sandwich-size baggie
place about a teaspoon of water in it
turn it so it is standing on one corner
cut your leaf and place it inside the baggie
fold the baggie in half so it resembles a wedge of pie
zip it closed or use a paper clip to hold the top closed
HANG it up where it gets good light
you should have roots in about two weeks
I tried it with a variegated violet leaf, and just as she said, it rooted beautifully. In previous attempts to root these leaves, they rotted, but not this time - I LOVE this method. She said she uses this method to root everything.
That sounds really neat did it take long to root
Dimmer( AKA) Kim
No, Kim - about two weeks.
Did you buy chance get on that Housplant swap it ends on the 15 of June Its under swaps, trade and Red robins. Its pretty cool and you also can trade for African Violets. I have alot but No names Now I am getting better. Have a great day have to get realy for work
Kim
Kay, thanks for the info on the cuttings sounds good... I never knew a strep had a crown? my bad...LOL Ms. Bonnie, yes you can grow a plumeria indoors with allot of sun light... They do grow better outside .... They suffer allot of spider mites indoors also. They do smell wonderful...
Hugs to all,
Susan
Hey ya Susan:
I planted all of my Plumies in the ground ... they are leafing out and I can't wait to hopefully get blooms later this summer!
Hey Girl,
Seems like I have not talked with you in ages... You go girl growing them plumerias.. I am hoping some more of mine bloom this summer so I can see what I like and get allot of them out of here... I have way to many and when I have to pot them up in 25 gallon pots they are very heavy to bring in and also take up allot of space...LOL Well that is if you have like somewhere in the 80's of them... Yeah I know only 80 some I had a few die... LOL
Now Lin I for some reason I can grow streps... I am so thrilled... My Roulette Azur is almost fully opened now... I will post a picture later...
Hugs,
Susan
Susan, oh my goodness ... 80 Plumies all planted in pots that you have to move in during the winter?? Whew! Now that is hard work! I guess it's good that I have a small house, if I lived in a house with a basement I'm afraid I'd be in big trouble cause it would be full of plants all year round!
My husband has been off work the past two months ... he goes back to teaching summer b term in another week and a half. We have been very busy with all the yard work, clearing weeds and debris from along the side of our property, planting new sod in a couple of areas of the yard etc. After many delays, we finally got the new roof on the house. They got here at 7 a.m. Wednesday morning and finished up yesterday afternoon! Now, it's the pool area. The guys came yesterday and hooked up a pump to drain the pool. They left and left their pump and hoses just sitting there. My husband unplugged the pump when all the water was out of the pool. Two guys got here at 10 this morning and stood around talking, one finally did some grinding around the tile at the top of the pool ... then just before noon they packed up and left! I thought they maybe were going to take a lunch break (even though they hadn't even been here two hours yet) but hubby said he had a feeling they were gone for the day since they took all their stuff with them! He has been waiting all on a call back from the pool company to find out what's going on! I said at this rate, the pool won't be finished for a couple of months!
It's been an interesting week that's for sure. All of a sudden yesterday morning we noticed it was very warm in the house ... hubby checked the thermostat and it was 84 degrees inside the house! So, he went and checked the circuit breaker and looked around ... couldn't find a problem. Called the AC folks who put in our new central system about 5 years ago and they sent someone out to check it. The guy was up in the attic in the garage near where some parts of the AC system are located and his foot went through the ceiling in the garage! Then we find the problem ... apparently the roofers using that pneumatic nail gun or whatever the tool is ... shot a nail through a copper pipe to the AC that was up near the roof edge in the attic, so all the freon leaked out. We found out that when the new AC system was installed it was not up to code with the way they ran the copper pipe or something. So, it wasn't the roofer's fault ... the pipe should not have been that close to the ceiling/roof. My husband has been on the phone with the owner of the AC company and told him about his employee breaking through the ceiling and then he had to cut a square out of the garage ceiling to repair the copper pipe and the leak! I guess he has not agreed that the problem was their fault so don't know what's going to happen there. We haven't seen a bill yet so have no idea what the final cost will be. My husband went to Home Depot earlier and bought the supplies and is patching and plastering or whatever it is, both the areas in the garage ceiling right now. Geesh ... if it isn't one thing, it's another! I had a load of laundry in the washer yesterday morning and later went to put it in the dryer and it was still sitting there full of water. I thought maybe I had forgotten to start it, that maybe I put it on to soak setting by mistake. Nope, come to find out a switch was broken! So, Hubby went to the plumbing supply place and got a switch and fixed it! I am so glad he can do all kinds of stuff like that! He is handy to have around!
This has ended up being a very expensive summer for us. I just hope the pool people will get back here next week and begin work on what is now an empty hole in the ground with cement dust everywhere from what little bit of work that got done. If our rainy season starts (which we really, really need rain!) that will delay the job even more!
Arrrgh! Don't mind me ... I'm just venting here!
Well, I guess I will go mow the lawn! Usually I do it early but decided to wait today. Hope everyone has a great weekend!
Lin, we will sympathize with you over maintaining a home. It is hard work. Just talked to my daughter who bought a new refrigerator and dish washer. Sears delivered the refrigerator over a week ago and the men keep saying every day, "Today, stay home as we will be there to install the dishwasher". She said when she called at noon today after staying home all morning the Sear's people said, "It has been delivered and been installed". (LOL) It was not funny to my daughter by then who was cooped in the house with kids running everywhere dying to get out of the house. She still at this hour has not heard from or seen the delivery people.
My dishwasher is out and I don't even care. The dishwasher is only 2 years old but the maintenance people out of CC wanted 100.00 just to take a look at it and see if it could be fixed. I told them, "NO THANKS"......I will wash my own dishes.