Hi -
I have a couple rhizomatous begonias that have grown nicely, but they are a little unsightly. I have leaves at the end of the rhizomes, but the rhizomes themselves have gotten long and bald where the old leaves snapped off, and are starting to drape over the edges of the pots. I assume I shouldn't do anything till spring and better lighting come around, but would appreciate some input about pinching, versus snipping off the end of the rhizome and repotting it. (I suppose I'm also a little scared of just lopping off the whole thing! Perhaps I should also start a couple leaf cuttings before doing so...)
Thanks!
pruning long rhizomes?
Cut the rhizomes off if you find it unsightly and start new plants. Rhizomes are easier than leaves to propagate (usually). You could dust the wounded end with rooting hormone to fend off disease but I never do this anymore. You can put the cut rhizome in a plastic baggie by itself until the wound callouses before putting it in some kind of potting medium (a day or two is usually enough). Typically perlite is less prone to fungus, etc but not foolproof.
If you have some large leaves then cut them off and start new plants with them as well.
I use roasting or cake pans with the clear lids. I poke holes in the bottom (about 9 or so) with my pocketknife or a screwdriver. I do experiment with different media such as perlite, soilless mix, perlite and soilless mix, and in the past I've used sand and also Nature's Helper (a shredded pine bark mix) for example. The pan method is good for lots of cuttings. If you have single cuttings then a plastic drinking cup with a larger clear plastic cup for a lid is ideal. Snip the edges of the bottom with scissors or pruners for drainage. Lettuce containers are great too for a few cuttings.
Here are some 'Morocco' cuttings I took a month or so ago. In this case it was stems that I laid horizontally and recently removed the lid so they could acclimate to normal "house" air.
Great - thanks for the extensive tips!!
hcmcdole, when you take a tip cutting from the rhizome does the mother plant survive, or do you just toss it and not bother?
The mother plant continues to grow and often puts out lots of new growth - maybe in response to being pruned like other plants do?
The Morocco cuttings all came from the mother plant which I let our local chapter members cut if they wanted any. I then cut it after that to start a new pot, then got the tray of cuttings a month or two ago, and the mother plant is almost back to its summer size. The daughter plants I cut are almost 2 foot tall and blooming now. Here it is back in late September before the cutting began with Selph's Mahogany and venosa.
This message was edited Jan 12, 2009 4:05 PM
Yes, that's what I would assume, but I was wondering if you need to have a naturally vigorous plant or at least one with a lot of energy stored in its root system. If you lop off a lot of leaves your plant can't photosynthesize as much. Sounds like your plant was really healthy to start with. I recently took rhizome cuttings from a healthy pot of 'Queen Olympus'. I left plenty of foliage behind, but ever since I took the cuttings the mother plant has been dropping leaves and I can't figure out why. I wish I had an ABS chapter nearby. The closest is in NY city and it's a real schlep to get there.
'Queen Olympus' is a fussy begonia if you ask me. I'm on my 3rd or 4th plant and finally have it looking pretty good. I really should try getting some starts off it for some insurance but so far haven't had a lot of success so I will let it be happy for a few more months.
A vigorous mother plant is best for starting new plants. You wouldn't want to cut a baby plant to start a new one since this usually ends in failure for both. If a plant is obviously on its last legs then you want to grab whatever is left to see if you can salvage something. I have done that many times - sometimes successful, sometimes not but at least I tried. I've seen too many begonias die a slow protracted death and didn't know what to do, so now I try to correct any problems posthaste and also grab some leaves and/or stems to start some new ones. Case in point is 'Pink Diamonds' - I've lost this rex a few times in the past so the next time I was able to find one I told the nursery owner that I was going to propagate the heck out of it so the first thing I did when I got home was take a dozen leaves or so. Now I have 4 healthy plants in a large aquarium and I still have the mother plant but it doesn't look as nice as the ones I started from leaves.
Here is the mother plant on the left and daughter on the right.
The daughter pic is MIA. That's a lovely plant. Do you happen to know its parentage?
I took both rhizome tip cuttings and leaf cuttings from my 'Queen Olympus'. All are doing fine, which for me means they haven't died yet. I can't see much growth on the leaf cuttings yet, but they must be doing something because all of them still look fresh and healthy. I did try a new (new for me) rooting hormone called Rhizopon AA. Had near 100% success with several begonias I was propagating. The exception was B. solananthera. I lost about a third of those so far.
Yeah the daughter is there - she is on the right in a more standard pot where the mother is on the left in a bulb pot and I propped the floppy blooming stems on the daughter (also has blooms starting).
Here they are at another angle but blurry (don't know what I was focusing on).
Good to hear about your QO. I never use rooting hormone any more on begonias - too much trouble and I haven't seen any improvement. The bowl I have mine in is quite humid and I have 3 or 4 different begonias rooted in there - Boyfriend & Purple Curl already have new leaves and U308 and sizemorea still look fresh as the day I put them in there. But if I put a QO leaf down it soon rots. Perhaps too humid for it?
Here are some 'Art Hodes' cuttings I took nearly a year apart. The little one is from two leaves I started over a year ago. Kind of slow growing if you ask me. The bigger cuttings are ones I started from stem cuttings a month or two ago. Some growers claim they get better growth out of leaf cuttings than stem cuttings but I'm not impressed in this case. Maybe it was the media I grew the leaves in that caused the slow growth.
