Garden on the forest edge.

[digitS']

Larisa!

This thread is featured on every TEG webpage right now - as it should be! What a great introduction .

Kalium

I finally decided that I needed to check on what this word means. Kalium = Potassium.

I knew that! Bananas have lots of potassium .

Steve

 

[Larisa]

@Smart Red
I knew willow contains salicylic acid.
It should block the "stress hormone" in plants. But I do not know how to do it. Thanks for the recipe,Linnae!
I write it in my "green book".

 

[Smart Red]

Willow water, natural rooting hormone.
Spring may be the time of year to make cuttings and increase the favorite herbs and perennials in your garden, but give it a try for the fall garden too.. My windowsill is full of cuttings in water or cuttings under mini greenhouses. It’s such a frugal way to make the most of a good purchase. I look for inexpensive plants to purchase and make them the “mother”. I do worry about the chemicals found in powdered rooting hormone and how it might affect my family’s health, though.

My answer to this is to make Willow Water, a natural rooting hormone.
Willow Water Plant Science

There are two substances found in the willow tree that enhance root growth, Salicylic acid and Indolebutyric acid. When you make willow water, both these acids leach into the water, and provide beneficial effects for your cuttings. They help your cuttings fight off bacteria, fungi and infections – giving them a better chance to survive. They also help speed up the rooting process.

Making Willow Rooting Hormone is Easy
You will need a handful of willow twigs, cut in early spring. USE THE GREENEST, NEWEST TWIGS YOU CAN GET, these have the highest acidic properties. If you are harvesting from a tree later in the year, choose the end shoots.

Put your pieces in a Mason (or glass) jar and add boiling water. I used 1/3 twigs to 2/3 water.

After 24 hours, strain the liquid into another container and compost the 1 inch pieces. I left mine out in the sun for three days and made a strong batch!

1. If you like to take cuttings and grow them in water on the windowsill (like I do) you can add 1/2 regular water and 1/2 willow water to the container. This will help the rooting process along.
2. Soak your cutting for several hours in full strength willow rooting.
3. Use your willow concoction to water in your new cuttings. Two willow waterings should be enough to give them a good start.

 

[Larisa]

A great recipe! I wrote. I always have a lot of cuttings. And the willow-tree. Thank you, @Smart Red !

 

[Larisa]

I grow parthenocarpic cucumber. We have bees and bumblebees. But if it rains, they can not fly. I like cucumbers that grow like a bouquet. Many small cucumbers in the same node. I plant 8-10 bushes, but the cucumber very much!

 

[Smart Red]

I've never seen cukes growing that way. I suspect I would like growing them. They would be easier to find growing together from the same node.

I see several seed catalogs offer parthenocarpic cucumber varieties. I may give them a try.

Thanks, Larisa!

 

[Carol Dee]

Those a beautiful Cucunbers @Larisa

 

[Larisa]

Acer ginnala It blooms in early summer. Its fragrance attracts bees and bumblebees. Me too.

Its seeds rose in July, then darken.

 

[Larisa]

He looks like a flowering tree from afar.

In the fall it looks like a fire.

 

[thistlebloom]

That's one of my favorite small trees Larisa.
Acer ginnala goes by Amur maple here. What's the common name for it in your part of the world?

Another small maple that I love is Vine maple (Acer circinatum). Mine grow in full sun so are more bushy than those that grow in the woods. But it always has some color going on in the leaves in the summer.