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CUTTINGS - Part 2 |
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The soil around all cuttings must be kept moist for at least six months. Feeding from their sap, nearly all will show leaf-growth in their first few weeks, but they will die later if allowed to become dry. A small percentage will die in any case. Always plant more than are required.
In recent years plant hormones have been used to increase and hasten root-formation on cuttings. The most common of these on the Australian market are Hortomone A, Seradix A, and Seradix B. They all contain indolylbutyric acid. The first two are solutions; the third is a powder available in three different concentrations, each coloured differently so as to avoid confusion. Seradix B Powder No. 2 is recommended for rose cuttings. The concentration of Seradix A or Hortomone A is varied by increasing or decreasing the number of drops used to each quart of water. No more than six drops of either to one quart of water should be used for Hybrid Tea roses, and up to twelve drops to the quart can be used for understocks. One quart of this very dilute solution will treat about three hundred cuttings. It should be made up fresh for each batch of cuttings. Cuttings should be stood in the solution for eighteen to twenty-four hours, then thoroughly rinsed in water, and planted. When the powder is used the lower inch of each cutting should be dampened, shaken, and stirred in the powder. Tap it on the side of the carton to remove surplus powder and plant in the usual way. To an amateur the saving of time in rooting is of little importance, for a mere few days is of no consequence by the time a plant is twelve months old. The increased percentage of rooting is useful to him. To a professional grower the main use of these hormones is in striking stocks, especially the more difficult types. Quicker rooting, larger root systems, and better striking percentage give him stocks of greater numbers and better quality. Indolylbutyric acid is a synthetic chemical. The preparations ' are sold in small quantities, at low cost, and ample for all requirements. Naphthalene-acetic acid has also been used but appears to be inferior. The rooting of any cuttings begins by the formation of callus, a cream ring of thickening, round the base. With the use of hormones this callus becomes as prominent in ten days as it does in four weeks under ordinary conditions. Many types of plants that could not formerly be struck from cuttings are quite easy to propagate with these preparations. Natural hormones exist in all generating tissues, especially the cambium, from which callus and roots grow. Standing cuttings in tap-water for a few days before planting, or planting them in wet well-washed sand for a couple of weeks, will induce root-growth in some plants that will not strike in soil. Probably this improvement is due to the hormones being in weak solution from the cambium in the water or the sand moisture, and its being unaffected by soil contents. |
