Here’s an interesting rooting technique that I think I’m going to give a shot. It looks very easy and I’ve had good experiences with DE:
You gotta think in terms of how thick, how mature (is it at the beginning or the end of the branch that touches the trunk) and everywhere in between)))
I use 1 part Dip 'n Grow to 5 parts for hardwood. Period…
1 part for 10 parts water for soft. And you determine how long you are going to hang the cutting in your fingers inside the cup that comes along - which has nice lines for you to measure. You’ll see when you tip the bottle and touch the measuring cup that the amount of liquid that drops from the bottle always fills to exactly to the first line, therefore, it’s like they planned it that way. It’s convenient.
You hold the cutting for 5 “to” 10 seconds. And "everywhere in between 5 and 10 seconds… I guess after a long time doing something over and over “repetitively” it becomes instinct.
Now, one of the most important aspects of making roots happen is to scrape enough off to expose the bare wood aka pith. You have to go past all the green tissue and get to the PITH and have channels of thin green lines on the sides of the wood being scraped off. The part of the stick that produces roots is the same part as what produces the “corky substance” in callousing of grafted trees… this is an invisible layer and to reach it, you have to get past/thru the green - directly under the bark. This is Cortex.
Your rooting will develop between the pith and (invisible “line” you cannot see) where the green cambial tissue (“the green”) is. And that green is about a mm or 2 mm wide usually on something like a pencil thick cut. Therefore what I’m saying is roots “happen” right next to (dead area aka always known in botany as pith. pith being the wood that encapsulates all the alive/“living” tissue directly under the bark.
The bottom of a cutting should be cut clean, the scraping quickly, and the dipping immediately, followed by a pre-made hole in a personal choice of media.
best regards,
Dax
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thanks!!
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I think the same. I’ve had good luck foraging at abandoned homesteads where the fruit drops unused. But in the cities the public works people have to deal with complaints about rotting fruit so they remove untended trees. A crime. Best thing would be to get folks together to adopt fruit plants that are planted for everyone to share.
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I started cuttings early July. Semi hardwood Krymsk 86. Just cut ends off new growth and put them in a pot and put a glass pickle jar on each one. Using sand/peat moss mix. Excellent results this year. I’m already repotting some into 1 gallon pots. I used growth hormone powder. Be very careful with new roots–very fragile. Keep them shaded at all times. They’ll bake in those glass jars.
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I have had arborvitae cuttings in play sand for about 3 months. I don’t have any root growth on any of them and the leaves are starting to turn. Even without any roots should I transplant into soil to promote root growth or just consider this experiment a fail?
if you stall out with callus and no root growth, ive had luck hitting it with some nutrients, either move it into soil that has nutrients or give it some liquid fertilizer as long as your medium is well draining. THis works for me with sour cherry cuttings, they very often will callus really nice and then do NOTHING until I start fertilizing them.
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Thank you for that tip!
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