Re: Mist system

At 07:58 AM 7/15/98 -0400, you wrote:
>I have just finished building a propagation bench with a timer to
>control mist heads.  I'm interested in propagating perennials from
>cuttings.  The bench is 2' wide by 5" long and 4" deep.  What kind of
>media should I use for putting the cuttings into? 

Tom:

Nobody else has volunteered on this one....

We used to do thousands of cuttings every year of just about any annual or
perennial you can mention (specialist nursery) and simply used a soilless
mix as our base. We used Fafard but Promix worked equally well.  For some of
the smaller cuttings such as Saxifraga we would incorporate medium turface
into the mix at a 50:50 ratio.  The turface held water but was large enough
to increase the air content of the soil to ensure easy rooting.  Perlite
would substitute for the turface.
If you want to play with soils do so but you'll find with a heated mist
bench plants should grow well enough in just about anything.  Your 50:50 mix
of perlite and peat "may" be too acidic for some plants - you'd probably
find better success with a 50:50 mix of perlite and just about any
artificial mix you can purchase.  The artificial mixes being pH balanced
(but still acidic) for containers.
Use old but clean flower pots or starter packs filled with this soil rather
than putting the soil directly onto the bench (easier to clean)  With pots,
once they are rooted, there is no transplanting until the roots hit the
outside of the pot and then you can transplant directly into the garden -
saves a few days of transplant shock on the cutting and you'll increase your
yield a few cuttings that otherwise would not like to be moved.
Do enjoy the thousands of plants you can create and do warn your neighbours
that none of their plants will be safe from your cutting knife! :-)  

This leads us into the obvious enjoinder to ask before taking cuttings in
any garden... an sometimes overlooked bit of garden courtesy.

Doug.
Doug Green
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