my gisela 5 root cutting just sprouted leaves from below the surface! I used this protocol:
late february cutting, 15cm length, 10-12mm diameter, stuck into medium on bottom heat about 70F with 4-6cm exposed. I used promix HP. I wrapped the proximal end (exposed end) with wax tape and some wax dribbled in to plug up the end. under grow lights. under a humidity dome for the first month then exposed with daily watering. no hormones (the paper tried a few levels of BAP and found that no BAP was best).
leaves sprouted at about day 39
I’m currently reading Hartmann & Kester’s Plant Propagation and I’m in the root cuttings chapter so I’m actually learning about this stuff after the fact. The bit from the paper about not using BAP makes more sense now: In general root-promoting hormones inhibit shooting, and shoot-promoting hormones inhibit rooting. With a cutting like this you need both rooting and shooting. Different species react differently though. This also means I’m not out of the woods yet, it’s possible I have a shoot and no roots, although I think rooting is easier than shooting for gisela from the success % in the paper.
