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Re: Cuttings In Water


Hello.

I use ordinary tap water, this has worked well in a variety of places
I've lived, including where the water was likely alkaline. 

I don't add anything to the water and I don't change it unless it
appears to need it, checking daily if there's trouble, you'll start to
see the water cloud or something cloudy form close to the stems; if
the cuttings are rinsed vigorously to remove pests and spores and
things, and or rinsed in soapy water, (I use basically what you'd use
to wash dishes most often; if I'm trying so suffocate aphids or
something, I might just apply the soap directly to the plant for
several minutes) this is very rare. 

I think some people would throw these out at this point, but unless
the stem has turned gelatinous, I rinse off the cuttings with a brisk
stream of water, or soak them in soapy water first, rinse out the
bottles and give them fresh water. If there's enough left of a stem
that's gotten mushy to try again, I just cut it back to the healthy
part, clean it, and put it in fresh water in a clean bottle.

Sometimes a bottle that's gotten pushed to the back of a shelf and
neglected will turn out to have beautiful roots just above where the
section of the stem has turned to mush and the water turns out to be
green as grass from algae growth, and will tolerate it indefinitely,
but I don't know any real rules and wouldn't recommend letting things
go that far, it Has killed quite a few.

I also try to make sure the water is romm temperature or a little
warmer, a few degrees at the onset seems to often be able to make up
for a lack of constant added warmth, but I try when I can to keep them
on shelves where there's a few degrees coming from the flourescent
ballasts beneath the shelves, too.

I should mention, too, that so far I've found that when a seedling
under a domed tray will put out aerial roots, roots above the soil
line, it's usually a good indication that the cuttings will root in
water. That's what alerted me to one I forgot to mention, Stachys
cooleyae, which is a great rooter in water despite some of the closely
related hedgenettles which don't seem to go for this treatment. Plants
that form roots when they creep or sprawl are often in this category,
once in a while the Ajuga or Lamium cuttings already have one or two
roots forming which is very helpful.

I'm still wondering how much water tolerance-- tolerance of aquatic
habitat or tolerance of overwatering-- coincides with the ability to
root in water with no other considerations; one specie of Obedient
plant is sold by pond and water garden dealers, and I have had the
regular Obedient plant, Physostegia virginiana root from cuttings in
water as well.

And of course there's the water tolerance of the willow, being many
people report from time to time about how water that had a willow
cutting rooting in it will root "anything". 

At present, I've noticed seedlings of the variegated monkeyflower,
Mimulus guttatus variegata, putting out aerial roots, so I'll be
giving this one a try later on.

As far as the length of the roots, usually a minimum of an inch,
generally two. I have let some go until the roots were roughly a foot
long, just to be experimenting, but it usually helps the plant get
rootbound sooner to let them get very big, and of course it can kind
of depend on the size of the pot then, too.

Good gardening!

Robert Carl // Mint Family Collector chroniapolloni@yahoo.com



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