Experimental Rooting

bushdoctor82

bushdoctor82

Well-known member
I’ll be hacking up one of my potted trees this year due to RKN and will be rooting some cuttings. What are some out of the box rooting ideas you folks have? As long as the medium is inexpensive, I’ll be willing to try it out. I have only promised to produce one tree (so far) for my fathers friends daughters mother in law, so this exercise is just something to do during winter.
 
The lazy method is a good one when you have excess cuttings.  Stick like 6-10 cuttings in 1 pot thats like 1 gallon (filled with something like promix or seed starting mix).... then pretty much ignore it, but don't let it dry out entirely.  Some of them will most likely root.... maybe even most of them.  I use this outdoors from spring through summer  :D

Just divide them after about 3 months
 
As of now, with what I have on hand, I’ll be trying out pea gravel, peat, ProMix, perlite, water, sand, RKN soil, shredded leaves and wood chips.
 
Have you tried 100% Diatomaceous Earth as a medium?    You can get it for low cost as Eco friendly oil absorbent. Tractor Supply/Napa/ auto parts supplier. It will eliminate the chance of fungus gnats. 
I haven't used it yet, but heard it works very well and fits your out of the box desires.
 
@"bushdoctor82"#14  @"Figology"#21  @"DCallahan"#71 ... Bush doctor I like your soil mixture except for the RKN containing soil. I would lose that one part of your soil mixture. You don't really need any garden loam, please don't include it. I was just talked into doing fig pops with Uline bags. I actually posted a thread on this. With the title like using fig pops for summer rooting. It's a recent thread. The reason that @"Figology"#21 is invoked here is that it was his idea that I am employing. I used a very high grade coco coir 50%, and 50% Pro mix. I would have added some perlite but could not get,#3 all I had was number four and it's just too big for cuttings @"DCallahan"#71 I have seen 100% diatomaceous earth used. Amazingly it worked pretty well. The rooting was in a one gallon pot rooted Outdoors in the beginning of Summer in pure 100% diatomaceous earth. This was at peppercuts from OF house.
 
@Figless - I’ve had good success rooting with a 50/50 mixture of peat and perlite in the past. The only reason I’m using RKN garden soil is to see how long it takes to infect the roots. If the cutting roots, it will be uppotted to the trash can in Spring.
 
@"bushdoctor82"#14 thank you very much for updating me. What you said makes perfect sense. When I first read it I was a little concerned.
 
When I root cuttings during the winter months, I use coconut coir media in a shoe box, over gentle bottom heat.  The cuttings root very easily.   The challenge comes when taking them out of the very moist environment in the shoebox and potting them in a mini tree pot or 1 gallon container.
 
I do not layer cuttings within the shoebox.  Instead, I only have about 3 inches of barely moist coir in one half of the shoebox and stick 4-5 cuttings into the coir.  More than 5 cuttings results in a tangled mess of roots.  

I cover the shoebox and place the shoebox on gentle heat.  I do open the lid once a day to allow some fresh air into the box.  I also let all water which forms on the inside lid to roll back into the coir. 

I’ll post pictures when I try rooting some cuttings in December.

I do not layer cuttings within the shoebox.  Instead, I only have about 3 inches of barely moist coir in one half of the shoebox and stick 4-5 cuttings into the coir.  More than 5 cuttings results in a tangled mess of roots.  

I cover the shoebox and place the shoebox on gentle heat.  I do open the lid once a day to allow some fresh air into the box.  I also let all water which forms on the inside lid to roll back into the coir. 

I’ll post pictures when I try rooting some cuttings in December.
 
Double shredded hardwood bark mulch. Hydrogen peroxide dip, fresh cut at bottom of cutting, dip in hormone and straight to pot.
 
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