Re: Healing or heeling?
- To: propagation@mallorn.com
- Subject: Re: Healing or heeling?
- From: G* O*
- Date: Mon, 05 Mar 2001 23:03:29 -0800
Marge gave a nice description of heeling, let me comment on allowing
cuttings to dry.
***Disclaimer: I'm an uneducated idiot, you have been warned.
Some succulents and most cacti benefit from a "callousing" period when
making cuttings. Most times with rapid growing jungle type columnars this
involves making a cutting right before the resting season, typically
winter. Stand the cutting upright sans soil or moisture in a cool dark
corner until the growing season starts again (in my area of zone 5, w/o a
greenhouse, this tends to mean the cuttings sit for about 4 or 5 months).
Plop the cutting into the appropriate medium for the species and water
once. Slower growing cacti and succulents can be cut at the beginning of
the growing season, calloused for a couple of days to a week or two, then
placed in the potting medium.
Of course the length of time the plant can stand being without water and
nutrients is directly dependent on the size of the plant, how it was cut,
and how well that species holds water. While it is callousing most cacti
will heal over with what looks like (and I suppose is) scar tissue, hence
the name.
Have fun, and happy propagating.
Glider
At 09:03 PM 3/4/2001 -0800, you wrote:
>When you talk about allowing cuttings to dry, is that "heeling" or
>"healing?" Can someone give me a definiton of the term?
>
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