CULT: Willow Water (the solution)

Laurie F. asks if the willow water would stimulate root development while at
the same time surpress increase development from the old rhizome.

Yes, I would expect it to have that effect, but the result would be very
transitory--not much of the chemical hormone is absorbed by the rhizome,
whereas the root would absorb quite a lot more.  Where the surpression of
increase is going to happen, the naturally occuring NAA produced by the
growing point has ceased once the initiation of flowering begins--August or
September for spring bloom--but it takes time for the hormone to be
metabolized and/or used up.

The idea of scoring--or cutting up, as in potatoes--the old rhizome interrupts
the flow downhill (new growth to old growth), and planting the rhizome at a
slant also makes a difference.  The NAA molecule has a higher specific gravity
than the average of the cell sap.  That's why when a flowering crab apple
branch is bent outward out of the vertical, flowering spurs begin forming.  As
long as the branch is in the normal position (upright) it stays juvenile,
producing sprouts and leaves and a long terminal stem.

In an iris rhizome, the gradient of the NAA from the top of the rhizome to the
base keeps roots extending while surpressing increase--until the growing point
flowers or is removed--as in division.  Then the side developments pop.

The commercial rhizomes that one gets from most West Coast nurseries have
rhizomes that are sort of "two storey"--the oldest part of the rhizome was
planted too deep, then the rhizome makes an abrupt bend upward and grows at a
new level.  All those side increases and growth nodes--knobs--that are on the
toe are down in old tissue where the NAA has been metabolized or broken
down--the source a long ways away.  The hormone that prevents their
development is gone.

Isn't nature amazing!  The internal system controls are incredibly complex.
Cell to cell connections between cell-sap solutions allow rapid and easy
movement of hormones and enzymes around in a plant.  Gradients, like in plant
stems that are out of the vertical--are established quickly and have "natural"
consequences.

I spent the first half of my life in practical Horticulture and did landscape
work for fun--as well as growing, breeding and judging irises.  All this
information came from tidbits picked up here and there--and a very generous
access to the Agricultural Experiment Station library at Parma, ID, where Plez
Scent Gardens--Lucille Pinkston--has her gardens.  I didn't live too far north
of there--about a dozen miles, give or take a bit.

Neil Mogensen  z 7 western NC mountains

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