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OFF TOPIC, rose cuttings ; on topic, the potato cage harvest

Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html

I caught the neatest idea on TV today, a Louisiana rose center showed how 
they propagate rose cuttings. I know this is off topic from sqft, so delete 
now if you just don't think it appropriate.
Anyhow, get a fairly deep well draining container and put 1 - 2 inches of 
coarse sand in the bottom. Put 1 - 2 inches of perlite, and 1 - 2 inches of 
potting soil. Take the dead-headed roses you've trimmed from your bushes. 
Take cuttings that have had blooms on them, (snip the dead bloom off at 
it's base) otherwise, you might not get a bloomin rose at all! Find the 
lowest leaf node and cut at a 45 degree angle just below that. The roots 
will grow from the nodes. Take the last 2 - 3 inches of leaves off the stem 
(those that will be under the soil surface). and plop the cutting into the 
mix all the way till you feel the hard bottom or sandy bottom. Keep it 
evenly moist and out of direct sun. That's it. No terrarium, no bell jars, 
no rooting hormones, just some time. Said the roots will form in a couple 
of weeks, then the plant will need to be transplanted to a gallon pot. The 
guy said he doesn't transplant out to the garden till he sees roots coming 
out the bottom of the gallon pot, and this takes about 6 months. But, you 
get a free rose bush every time you trim your roses!  Looked like they 
started with about 6 - 8 inch cuttings. Sure wish I'd known this when I 
tried to get a start of an unknown type of antique rose.

The potato cage: I'd planted potatoes in straw back in Feb, and the vines 
finally died down about 2 wks ago. I dug them out this weekend and out of 
about 3 lbs of potato seed, I'd say I got (2) 5 gallon buckets full of 
various sized potatoes. Most are golf ball sized, but on every plant was 
one massive baker. I'll definitely do the straw planting again, only next 
time I won't stop laying on the straw, they really need to be bedded up. 
And harvested more promptly, too. some had migrated to the soil surface and 
had green sides.
I dug all this up and put in some small icebox watermelon seeds. I know 
it's very late for Texas, but we've had lots of rain and it's still pretty 
cool. Thought I'd chance it.
martha


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