Question Details	Asked By	Asked On
How to root plants	drgade	09/09/04
Recently, I saw a show on TV where they were explaining how to make a rooting material out of Willow branches. I got the part about cutting 4" pieces of willow, smashing them, boiling water and putting the pieces in it after removing from the heat. What I don't remember is the amount of this solution to use when trying to root cuttings from flowers. Can any of you give me more information on this process?
Clarification/Follow-up by charlotte on 09/09/04 10:55 pm: I looked some up for you. I read your answer to greenconn, and saw you are wanting geraniums, so i put in how to root geramiums, and got the first part, then the other part I got when I put in, geranium rooting medium. Now we will see if I can copy and paste it all on here.What is the best way to root cuttings from annual geraniums? __________________________________________ Generally speaking the best way to do root cuttings for geraniums (Pelargoniums) is to take a softwood cutting in early spring, late summer or early fall. This would be considered a softwood cutting. Your local nursery or garden center can provide you with the appropriate strength of rooting hormone. The label will indicate the appropriate strength for the plant or for the type of cutting. I recommend taking a cutting above a node, preferably a new growing point where there is actively growing tissue. Remove all flowers and buds. This will force the energy into root production. Be sure to select from a plant or at least a portion of the plant that is healthy, disease and pest free. I recommend having your medium and rooting hormone prepared in advance and processing the cuttings right away to prevent moisture loss. Do not dip the cutting directly into the container of rooting hormone, rather remove a small portion and apply to cutting. This will keep your rooting hormone clean. Dibble a hole in the soil with a pencil will do. This prepares a hole for the cutting so that the hormone is not removed from the cutting by the abrasion of inserting into the soil. Use a soil that is a good mix of peat and perlite for proper drainage. You can purchase mix that is for roots or seed starting, either would be fine. Your chief concern would be that the soil is clean and has proper drainage. You may even want to consider dipping your cuttings into a fungicidal to ensure that they are clean. These cuttings can then be planted in a flat or small clean planter. For at least the first week I would recommend putting a clear cover (humidome) over the flat so that it seals in the humidity since the plant will initially lose quite a bit of moisture through leaf respiration. Be sure that the soil doesn't dry out but is not soggy. Watch them closely during this time. They will also need adequate temperature (approx. 70 degrees F. soil temp.) Placing them on a heating mat is best to maintain soil temperature. Ample light is also important you can use a grow light or a florescent light and put it on a timer so that they are getting an adequate amount of light during the day. You can also put them in a sunny windowsill if available. It should take approx. 4 weeks to root and be ready for transplant, perhaps even sooner. (This time frame is a bit of a variable.) After about the 2-week mark you can gentle remove the cuttings from the medium to see if there are roots initializing. This will provide you with a pretty good gauge on how they are progressing. Then return them to their medium. I recommend doing more than one cutting just in case you lose some. Your cuttings should be approx. 2-3 inches length with a additional 1 inch base in the soil medium of optimum success. After rooting has taken place they can be potted up into larger containers. Search the Web: You searched for:rooting medium for geraniums Sponsored Results 1. How to Overwinter Geraniums ... How to Overwinter Geraniums. Geraniums are popular bedding plants blooming from May through frost ... Stick the cuttings in a rooting medium of coarse sand or a mixture of coarse sand ... www.ipm.iastate.edu 2. Growing Geraniums, HYG-1217-92 ... Geraniums are one of the most reliable plants grown in the home garden ... sand alone or mixed equally with sphagnum peat moss is an ideal medium for rooting the cuttings ... ohioline.osu.edu 3. G74-190-A, Geraniums (Pelargonium) Indoor and outdoor care of geraniums as well as propagation are covered here. ... geraniums from cuttings first select containers 3 to 4 inches deep and fill them with moist (not overly wet) planting medium. Satisfactory rooting ... cutting in the rooting medium ... www.ianr.unl.edu 4. Ivy Geraniums ... Production Methods:(5) Ivy geraniums are propagated by cutting ... Cuttings are placed in a rooting medium of peat or peat-lite mix and fertilized with nitrogen and potassium after ... cipm.ncsu.edu 5. Seed Starting & Rooting Media at Home Harvest Garden Supply Seed Starting and Rooting Media including Oasis Rootcubes and Horticubes; Peat Pots; Peat Pellets; Seed Starter Mixes; Air Layer Kits and more available at Home Harvest Garden Supply. ... for Poinsettias Foliage Hibiscus Baby's Breath Azaleas Geraniums Chrysanthemums Impatiens Roses and others ... homeharvest.com 6. Overwintering Geraniums Overwintering Geraniums. Geraniums are popular bedding plants blooming freely from May to frost. However the first hard frost doesn't have to be the end for your geraniums. ... Stick the cuttings in a rooting medium of vermiculite coarse sand or a mixture of ... www.ipm.iastate.edu 7. Geranium (seed and cutting) ... Production Methods: Geraniums are propagated by seed and cutting ... in length leaves removed and placed in a rooting medium. A rooting hormone can be applied to stimulate the rooting ... cipm.ncsu.edu 8. Root Cuttings from Annual Geraniums ... speaking the best way to do root cuttings for geraniums (Pelargoniums) is to take a softwood cutting in ... I recommend having your medium and rooting hormone prepared in advance and ... www.gardengatenursery.com 9. Winter is a good time to multiply the joys of summer geraniums ... Summer geraniums (Pelargonium) are often brought indoors for the winter where they languish on a ... of sterilized rooting mix or make your own rooting medium with half sand and ... seattlepi.nwsource.com 10. Geraniums Purring Tiger's. Classroom Critters. GERANIUMS. SCIENTIFIC NAME. Pelargonium hortorum. ORIGIN. South Africa. RANGE. X. CARE. POTTING. Use a potting medium consisting of one part peat moss and one part sand or perlite. ... Water lightly to keep the medium moist. Rooting should occur in 2-3 weeks in filtered sunlight ... GENERAL. Geraniums like to ha... www.science501.com MORE RESULTS >> Related Searches geranium Related Searches geranium house plant indoor plant geranium oil the root ginger root herbal remedy herbal medicine biology science plant herbal supplement Search the Web: Powered by ShopNav Well, I had hoped the links would have been underlined, so you could click on them, but if you put rooting medium for geraniums in the search engine. You should get the samw sites, and be able to go to them and get the information. Charlotte Clarification/Follow-up by drgade on 09/09/04 11:19 pm: Thank you charlotte. What intrigued me about the show was the use of crushed willow pieces as the "rooting hormone". I'll use the system that you sent to me, but will try it with the brown solution that came from the willow boil. Either the guest on HGTV is right, or just doesn't know anyting. But WHAT IF IT WORKS?
Answered By		Answered On
charlotte		09/09/04
Hi drgrade; Well, you can see some of the dumbest things on TV, by people who profess to know something, but are actually blithering idiots. I get the boiling willow bark, that is the way my ancestors made pain killer, known to us now as that miracle drug, aspirin. Yep aspirin comes from willow bark, so what the genious was doing, but going to long way about it, was putting an aspirin in water, to make rooting medium. Personally, I have my doubts that it would work.Aspir is supposed to keep cut flowers fresh longer, but it doesn't. Best thing to do is look up the plant you want to root., on the web. Some plants root from a stem cutting, some from a piece of the root off the parent plant, and some from spliting a leaf, or section of leaf. what works for one, will not work on othere, unless it is the same type of plant.Some you root in soil, some you must use only sand, and some you must firt root in water. Go to your search engine, and type in how to grow and care for ( name of the plant you want to root) You will get lots of choices to look at and see which site gives the information you want. when there is a National society for that plant, you will get that site too, and boy, will you learn a lot in there! When you see information you want, take your lil arrow to the top of the page, and click on your print icon, and when you get all the pages you want printed out, staple them, put them in a folder, and go for the next olant you want. Make yourself some books for reference. Rubber plants, you take a little section of the leaf. Christmas cactus, you take a part of the leaf, or stem, or whatever you call that oart of that plant. Things like Ivies, purple jew etc, break off a sprig, shove it deep into some dirt, with just a leaf or two sticking out, and keep it wet, till you see new growth. Some are so easy, some take a little more work.Some are downright HARD to do. I have made books for myself on, African violets, Christmas cactus, Rubber plants, Amarillas, tons of plants. It is all on the web, just waiting for you to seek it out, print it out, and have some gorgeous plants. If you have trouble finding some good sites for the plants you want. Write me and I will search for you. Charlotte

Additional Options and ratings are only visible when you login!