Cuttings

[davidwood]

Good luck with that Jordan, I have never done them in water so will be interesting to hear the answer to your question.

I was only writing hear the other week how I had become very succsefull with cutttings, well those comments came back to bite me, the last 8 I did all failed haha.
Not to sure why, was it the new mix or was it because I had used hard wood rather than semi-hard wood, anyway total failure so I must try again.

[blupit007]

Jordan, I never re-dip for the water change.  Just dip for the initial.   I have some cuttings in my cloner for months with out re-dipping. 

David, I use hardwood (brown), and or wood that is green and brown wood (green wood that is turning brown)

[Darkhorse]

David, yikes, losing 8/8!  These will be my first, so maybe I'll have beginner's luck.  I have 9 cuttings of Purple Magic and two of Island Girl.  I will take a picture of my setup tomorrow after my camera batteries are charged.  They started out on top of my fridge but the cats quickly became curious-- now they're shut off in the office, each in its own glass of water. 

Thanks Kristen...  re-dipping that many times would be a hassle.  I used wood that is mostly brown with a bit of green.  I picked off all leaves with the exception of one or two (depending on size) small leaves at the top. 

Ugh.  My Dip N Grow says best by Jan of this year.  I hope it still works.

[blupit007]

Oh, and use some hormone in the water.  Chris uses Supernova, I use clonex cloning solution.

[Darkhorse]

The same hormone I dip it in?  Like, a drop or so?

[Charlie]

The classic experiments that are often cited for rooting hormone showed that while some is good, too much hormone actually delays or prevents rooting. Since the right amount depends on type of cutting (soft green to hard brown wood) and the variety and the conditions the cutting is placed in you have to try out different amounts to see what works in your situation.

Rooting exotic hibiscus cuttings is a roller coaster ride. Big successes followed by big failures and everything in between. If that happens to you just know you are not alone.

Jordan, both Purple Magic and Island Girl are in that group of cuttings that can root very well but will also fail plenty of times, too. Lot of times cutting success depends on whether the stem the wood was cut from is already infected with low levels of fungus, virus, or bacteria that cause rotting before rooting can happen. There's really not much that can be done about that.

Charlie

[Darkhorse]

Charlie, makes sense.  My plants are still recovering from winter, so I won't be surprised if this round doesn't go so well for me.  Here is a promised photo of my setup.  

Also, I'm noticing something weird.  Do cuttings normally "leak" or "bleed" any starches/sugars into the water?  I'm asking because I'm noticing what looks like mold or fungus growing, but only on the nodes that I picked leaves from before putting the cuttings in water.  It's not on the bark.  Only on the fresh wounds so to speak....  It's a white, hairy, sea-anomone-like stuff.  I'm hoping it's something leaking out of the cuttings, and not fungus already!  I noticed it yesterday, which was their first full day.

I've included a picture of the hairy stuff.  You can barely see it as my camera wouldn't focus on such a minute detail.  If you look at the bottom of the cutting, there's a node just above it on the right.  The whitish protrusion at the top of the node is the mystery stuff.  Eew.

Oh, and I'm down to 8 cuttings of Purple Magic and zero of Island Girl, all thanks to the cats.  I found one of my Island Girl cuttings on the opposite end of the house when I got home from work today, all chewed up.    Someone left the door open to the room they're in.

[Charlie]

Jordan, I discovered the same thing when I experimented with cuttings in a glass of water. You really learn a lot doing them that way. Hibiscus are related to Okra and do have a heavy sap although nowhere near as much as Okra. Some cuttings will leak it out into the water where it is quite visible although many do not. I never was sure why some leak and others don't. I think this stuff is a contributor to cutting rot as it provides a rich media for microorganisms to grow in. Changing the water and rinsing off the cutting should help. You can also cure cuttings by letting them sit in a cool shady spot for up to a day before sticking them.

Charlie

[helixturnhelix]

Hey Jordan!

Good luck with those cuttings!  I have a very DIY set up similar to yours,  I found that 500 uL of nitrozyme to 100 mL of water, make roots just start popping out.  Those two cuttings are of Vin E and Confection Perfection.  I chopped the only branch off Confection P in hopes that the main plant would finally start branching, but after 1.5 weeks check out the little roots starting to form!  This combination of cytokinins from the Nitrozyme and heat from my tank light, really seems to get these cuttings rooting, good luck with those

[Charlie]

Very interesting, Chris. Cuttings can be quite fascinating and sometimes frustrating. In the days I experimented with clear glass and water I saw all sorts of things happen to the part of the cutting in the water. Sometimes huge amounts of white callous tissue forms but no actual roots. Sometimes the roots seem to emerge from the callous at the base of the cutting but other times they come out just above the callous ad the callous does not seem to be involved. The callous on the sides of your cutting does appear to be differentiating into at least the beginnings of roots in some places but don't be surprised if nothing comes of those while real roots start growing from the base end in about 6 weeks.

Charlie

[Darkhorse]

Thanks Chris and Charlie for the advice.  I'm going to try adding a tiny bit of Supernova to the water, and will take care to rinse the "goo" off the cuttings when I change the water each day.  I haven't put any bleach in the water this far--  my city water is already hard and laden with minerals, so I didn't want to go over the top and keep them from rooting.  Everyone is still doing well.  I'll try to remember to post pictiures weekly.

[Darkhorse]

Day 6 and we have the beginnings of callous formation!  Blurry photo but the white dots are callous.  They almost look crystalline.

[jpiper82]

So how much is a "tiny bit of SuperNova?.
John

[Diana]

Dear Cindy and Charles, need your advice about if it's need not to fertilize the plant about 2-3-4 weeks before to cut wood from it?
I have heard if to try to root or graft fertilized plant ( the wood from fertilized hibiscus ) it's will not work. Is it true?
Sorry in advance for my poor English it's not native language for me, I use it not often the last time

[davidwood]

Diane I think you have heard wrong, its best not to grow cuttings in a mix with fertilizer [ it can burn the new roots] but for certain you can take cuttings from a healthy plant that is fertilised, I do it all the time with reasonable success. I would assume grafting is the same but best let Charlie or one of the others who take grafts advise you, I have only ever done one so not sure.