Thought I'd share this... cuttings in perlite (with pics)

The most successful method I've used yet for striking cuttings:

1. Everthing is inside a plastic freezer bag. The rose variety in this case is a Boursault called 'Armadis' which has been used as an understock and strikes like a weed!



2. Perlite is put into an orchid pot and the cuttings stuck in as you would into soil. I soak the perlite in water for a while before adding it to the pot. I'm thinking I am going to make some willow tea next time and soak the perlite in this.



3. After only four weeks roots were growing out the bottom. Because they were in the freezer bag and were moist there was no air-pruning of the roots.



4. The roots are very strong and very clean. The perlite seems to inhibit fungal growth. I would imagine you'd have to keep on top of this though as there is not a lot of nutrient for the cuttings to get their first feed from.

Tasv, how would you go with a light feed of hydroponic solution in a saucer as a boost.

cool stuff Tas

That looks good, Simon. I'll get some perlite to try soon. Do you keep them outside ? I gave up on the bag method last year because I got so much fungal growth and I got fed up with opening the bags to spray for fungus.
Plus I opened the bags too soon and the cuttings died. I'll try again though, with a few less this time
Val

She who is asking, could you explain the reason for the orchid pot against a normal pot . Val, I have worked out you are ex English as you place words the same as my wife. If you pick a post and it is not OZ language it is Carole.

roseman wrote:She who is asking, could you explain the reason for the orchid pot against a normal pot . Val, I have worked out you are ex English as you place words the same as my wife. If you pick a post and it is not OZ language it is Carole.

LOL!!! I have no idea how you guessed roseman, but you're right ! It's not so much my accent as my way of speaking I guess.
You'd think I'd be getting it right after 27 years though!

Val

Val, I have been here since 20.6.81. David knows how the English string there words together. It has taken him many years to learn this Carole.

What was the "give away"David? Will you write out the Pommie style and write out the Oz style? I have never heared of this before, ya never too old to learn!

To be honest Dee, I read her profile somewhere. I did not get it from her postings. The English seem to string words different to us Oz people I think. Carole has told me this. I am a mere male, who am I to argue.

Your right roseman they do! My parents were English, I learned as child ways to put words together. Then in school it would be corrected by the teachers. Not only are words put together differently but there are often hidden message attached to the sentence structure.

Once this happened to a friend...On a bus, they sit down next to someone. The already seated person will usually initiate conversation and will say one of two things. For example Lovely weather. or Lovely weather isn't it?
The first sentence is a social greeting to be polite but it means I don't really want to talk to you. Proper answer is, Yes it is, smile and look away.

The second, is also a polite social greeting, but it means they do want to speak to you. Talk away! LOL

My traveling friends would never pick up on this and try to engage the person who did not want to talk. They would later say, the English are rude and why did they speak to me in the first place.

It is the open ended question at the end of sentence (isn't it?) that gives the clue.

roseman wrote:She who is asking, could you explain the reason for the orchid pot against a normal pot .

Just something Jim Sproul told me a little while ago when I was talking to him about how he has his greenhouse set up for roses (which BTW is pretty awesome... to cater for up to 40,000 seedlings per year ). He plants his seeds in what I guess would be called long seed trays made from long lengths of treated timber about 12" in width I guess. The bottoms are made from wire and when I asked him why wire (because I was picturing the mix falling through) he said to increase the circulation of oxygen to the roots. He puts a layer of bark over the wire to stop the soil falling through. So I started thinking... well I have a few orchid pots around that I use for planting waterlillies in so I'll give that a go and see if the extra oxygen circulation makes a difference... can't draw any conclusions yet because it's an easy to strike variety and it's only happened once so far... I have others also in this set-up that are harder to strike and take longer and the have formed callouses but not roots yet (they were planted at the same time as Armadis). Other varieties I have in the same type of pots are a mini called 'Cri Cri', and an old moss rose called 'Madame de la Rôche-Lambert'. They look pretty good and I haven't checked for roots for about two weeks (when these photos were taken) so they may have roots now... I don't know... I'll check again on the weekend.

roseman wrote:Tasv, how would you go with a light feed of hydroponic solution in a saucer as a boost.

Just saw this reply... I really don't know. I know that a cutting's ability to take up nutrients is reduced without roots and also know that developing roots is achieved by utilising resources within the cutting. Auxins produced by the leaves help to stimulate root development and I don't know for sure but I have a feeling this is why rose cuttings (for example) seem to produce new leaves just before they produce new roots and that this is a critical time in the success of cuttings to ensure that the new soft foliage doesn't fungus or dehydrate. I've experienced time and time again that if the new leaves are destroyed that the cutting ultimately fails... would be interesting to confirm or reject this with some kind of biochemical analysis or further investigation of existing literature. I don't know how effective callous material is at taking up nutrients and I don't know how soon after roots develop that they begin taking up significant amounts of nutrients. Maybe soaking the perlite/vermiculite in the hydroponic mix would provide enough to kick them along a bit until they could be potted on into potting mix??? The cuttings pictured above have been in potting mix a while now and I don't notice a huge amount of new growth. The growth that is present looks really good but I suspect they are focusing on chanelling resources into making new roots first Some things that impressed me about the roots that developed in the perlite is that they appear really thick and well attached and have lots of little root hairs to collect as much water as possible.

orchid40 wrote:That looks good, Simon. I'll get some perlite to try soon. Do you keep them outside ?

Yes Val... I keep them on a covered verandah that faces west here... the afternoon sun is filtered by a tall wind break close to the house and seems to be just about right for them.

TasV wrote:

orchid40 wrote:That looks good, Simon. I'll get some perlite to try soon. Do you keep them outside ?

Yes Val... I keep them on a covered verandah that faces west here... the afternoon sun is filtered by a tall wind break close to the house and seems to be just about right for them.

Thanks Simon, I have a spot on my verandah which will be suitable. I bought some perlite today, and some coir potting mix which is recommended on the perlite bag. Also making some willow tea
I was wondering if it is worthwhile trying to strike cuttings from roses that have been cut for vases? They only last a few days indoors sometimes, and they say the best cuttings are taken just after a flower has finished. What do you think ?
Val

I reckon you've got nothing to lose by trying I would just make a fresh cut just below an eye just before planting them though. I haven't tried the willow tea yet so I am keen to hear how you go with your cuttings Do you remember that thread on GE that I made a long time ago about the rose cuttings I started in water with the willow stems... I never did get around to trying it with just the willow tea... just belted the ends of the willow stems and stood them in an opaque bucket with a small amount of water with the rose cuttings... which seemed to work pretty well but not real convenient

Just a quick note.... I think the coir is added to help hold more water... since the cuttings are sealed in a bag and can't dry out I was thinking the coir might be overkill... the lower pH of the coir (peat-like) will help ward of fungus though...

Yes I do remember that thread Simon. I plan to soak the perlite in the willow tea this time. It's good to hear that coir will not encourage fungal growth too. Also I have no orchid pots like yours so will use normal pots. I found that the freezer bags kept collapsing on my cuttings last time even though i inflated them. How do you stop yours from doing that? The bottle method sounds good to me, but I would put the whole unit in a freezer bag now.
Val

A wire hoop or 2 will stop it dropping. Stick the ends in the pot and that should do the job.

Thanks, Roseman, I'll do that.
Val

Val. Thank you for the information about the "Blackberry Nip" [it sounds like home made plonk doesn't it] I shall have to get one and "Ebb Tide". What part of England do you come from? Carole.

Sorry Every one I posted that last post on the wrong area Carole

roseman wrote:Val. Thank you for the information about the "Blackberry Nip" [it sounds like home made plonk doesn't it] I shall have to get one and "Ebb Tide". What part of England do you come from? Carole.

Carole, will PM you.
Val

I am going to try the perlite, after all now, and the orchard pots if I can get some.
I lost my Kathleen Harrop cutting I thought had struck, so I am keen to find to find the most effecttive way of growing cuttings
Thanks for showing the pctures Tasv.

I would try it with something you are not fussed about losing first though... still just mucking around with different methods. I put somecuttings in tonight of one I brought back from my weekend away. We stayed at the caretakers cottage at Highfield in Stanley (TAS) and there was a red floribunda type rose that was growing (fairly neglected... and in poor ground) that was being absolutley BELTED by the wind and I figured if this rose could grow and still look reasonably good with this treatment it might be a doer at home where I can put it somewhere more protected with better culture. This time I sat the orchid pot of perlite in a larger container and cut little pieces of green willow branch about as thick as my finger and added them all around the pot in the bottom of the container. Then, I poured in boiling water to sterilse the perlite (because I was reusing it) and to steep the willow wood and make willow tea. The resulting brew was thick and brown. I left the pot in the willow tea brew for about an hour and then let it drain and cool down before I stuck the cuttings in. The cuttings were bagged and put on the verandah with all the others. Will see how this goes. You can read Dr Malcolm Manners' outline of willow tea here: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] .My own theory for willow tree tea in this little experiment is that a lot of roses produce fair levels of natural auxins that initiate adventitious root development and that this is in part initiated by the leaves, so cuttings with leaves are usually more successful than those without leaves. If cuttings don't have leaves but begin to develop some in the process of trying to strike them then auxin levels will begin to rise and both callousing and root formation will be more successful. I don't think adding the willow tea by itself will make any difference but will, once the cutting begins to produce auxins of its own, begin to have more positive results. Next time I try it I'm going to prepare willow tea and use a good strong hormone powder/liquid/gel with it to see if that improves things even further.

I have tried to strike some cuttings in perlite but have been thwarted by fungus. Very disappointing.
I started out with the moistened perlite in a translucent plastic container. I put in the cuttings and placed the lid on top.
I placed the container on the floor near the window where there is plenty of light but not sun.
When the cuttings produced a little forest of leaves and shoots I angled the lid to allow some air while still keeping the atmosphere humid. I gave the cuttings several applications of fungicide
Then suddenly they all developed fungus and died.
What went wrong?