Phaedra's Garden 2022

[ducks4you]

@Phaedra Geiermann , do you use rooting hormone powder?
If not, what is your rooting method?
It looks like you are rooting in plain water.

 

[Phaedra]

"runs to look up IKEA containers...."

Very cool.

Question: why do you clip off the ends of the leaves perpendicular to the stems?

Usually, it's suggested to remove most of the leaves to reduce the transpiration, but keep a few so that after the cutting successfully roots, the remained leaves can still do Photosynthesis.

I saw some nurseries did like this and just imitated them. However, according to my observations, the new leaves will appear soon once the cutting starts to root.

So, you can keep two to three leaves without cutting them in half. Another reason I did so is to save space, so a 9cm nursery pot can accommodate about ten cuttings while the light and air can still penetrate freely.

 

[Phaedra]

@Phaedra Geiermann , do you use rooting hormone powder?
If not, what is your rooting method?
It looks like you are rooting in plain water.

I did use rooting hormone powder. The photo shows when I pruned the young plants and prepared the cuttings. To avoid them from becoming dry, I let them rest in the water first. You can also use a plastic bag instead.

Before I put the cuttings into the hormone powder, I usually will cut it again and scratch the cutting surface a bit to create more wounds so the cutting will have a comparatively larger area contacting the hormone powder. This step will also increase the chance to root better.

 

[Phaedra]

I propagated the first softwood cuttings in late June - there are 15 lovely new plants: roses, black elderberry, Geranium, and honeysuckle. I put them outside ten days ago, and they grew quickly.

Two roses, one even had a flower bud - removed, of course.

I will remove any flower buds in the first year.

Geranium...difficulty level: 0
I removed their flower buds ten days ago, and now new ones are coming out.

Black elderberries - difficulty level: 0

They are now in doubled-sized pots, and I added a bit of slow-released biofertilizer to the soil.

The rose cuttings I propagated on 0730 also did well. About 20 are either rooted or with Callus. Well, no matter what, at least I can get ten new roses from them.

It's a lot of fun! I will try again tomorrow with another batch of hydrangea and geranium cuttings.

 

[baymule]

I have an elderberry patch spotted that I want to take cuttings from. I need to have several of nodes on the cuttings. Is that where the roots sprout out?

 

[Phaedra]

I have an elderberry patch spotted that I want to take cuttings from. I need to have several of nodes on the cuttings. Is that where the roots sprout out?

Dear Bay, here are some photos for your reference. We have several elderberry shrubs already in the garden. But I still bought a young black elderberry plant in the spring as their flowers are even more lovely.

So, when I pruned the young black elderberry (to make it bushier and stronger), I got a lot of this-year softwood cuttings like these.

When they successfully root, the new sets of leaves will grow from the upper nodes. When more new leaves grow out, you can remove the old ones.

 

[Phaedra]

I just arranged another batch of cuttings - blueberry, aster, rose, and hydrangea.

The preparation beforehand

I usually keep 2~3 nodes per cutting.

Give it a fresh cut under the node at the bottom.

And then scratch the surface a bit.

This scratching will increase the contact of the rooting agent or simply the chance to create Callux. As shown in the photo, more rooting powder is attached to the scratched area and won't be easily removed after inserting it into the soil.

We can use a stick, a pen, or whatever is suitable to dig a hole (not to the bottom, just to the half depth) first and then insert the cutting.

Well, when we harvest or deadhead a rose, we cut until where with 5 leaves. That means there will always be an additional length we can take as cuttings for propagation. If my 0730 cuttings can eventually become 10-15 roses like below (all cuttings from the same mother plant) and I can have her exclusive patch - it must be dreamlike!

 

[baymule]

So it is better to use the green ends, young wood, for cuttings and not the older parts of the stalks?

Thank you for the pictures and explanation.

 

[Phaedra]

So it is better to use the green ends, young wood, for cuttings and not the older parts of the stalks?

Thank you for the pictures and explanation.

As I know, there are softwood (this year's new growth), semi-hardwood (might be still this year's growth, but much more mature and firm), and hardwood cuttings. In the past, I had only experiences trying on hardwood cuttings; this is the first time I tried softwood/semi-hardwood.

Softwood cuttings root much quicker than I imagine, maybe because they are born for vegetation growth. So theoretically, softwood cuttings need much less rooting hormone but more moisture, higher temperature, etc. - conditions originally required for their development.

Usually, you can identify this year's growth from last year's by the stem color. The very tender front end is not suitable, either. So, you are looking for those green, flexible, but no longer tender parts.

Early summer- softwood / late summer or autumn - semi-hardwood

Please refer to this video for more details - this is one channel I like a lot.

 

[meadow]

I like your string holder!