I have had horrible luck with my tomato root stimulator cuttings.
I get less than half of them to survive. I make a 4 inch cutting from the live plants I want to propogate(Ugly Tomato) and dip the wetted cut end in the rootone powder and shove it into a 4 inch pot with potting soil in it. I keep it moist for 2 weeks and look for growth, but usually there is no growth and no roots when I pull it out and throw it in the trash.
Any suggestions.
I haven't had much luck with the rooting hormone stuff (in general) either; somewhere I read that the shelf life of that stuff is microscopic - by the time you buy it, there's no life in it. I'm sure other folks have better luck with it.
Re: tomatoes, my spring seedlings seem to want to get up out of their pots sometimes; they develop the rootlings waaaayyy up their stems. You might try a couple things:
I have successfully layered a mature plant before - tip a branch down to the ground, scrape the branch a little where it will be under the soil, pile on some dirt, give it a few weeks et voila, cut the little guy offa the main plant.
You can try this with a less mature specimen by dropping some moist soil into a baggie and tying it around the tomato branch - esp. if the main plant is too young to tip over or have large enough branches to reach the ground. Bring the soil to it, as it were. The baggie should be cut open 'cause you're wrapping the soil around the plant, like a dirt bandage. A large enough plant could support more than one of these, I imagine.
Good luck!
Hi Homer,putting the cuttings around the edge of the pot works best for me.
YES!!! :-)
When I worked for my Botany professor in the college greenhouse about 27 years ago, he had me do some tomato pruning and propagating.
Without using any rooting compound, I just stuck the cut pieces into a bucket of water and left them in the greenhouse.
They in turn were under daily sprayers.
I managed to make 40 plants out of 6.
Try some fertilized water vases like you would propagate ivy.
When they sprout a good set of roots, pot them in very wet soil and go from there. Be sure to mist them for at least a few days.
Hope this helps?
Several years ago, during the way-late caging process, one of my favorite heirlooms was cut in half, literally split down the middle of the stem to the ground. I pick up the piece that was detached from the roots and put it in a bucket of water where it grew roots. A month after I planted it, it was "in pace" with its identical twin, both plants produced very well.
It's amazing how hardy tomato plants are . . . . unless the chickens get in there!
Glenna
We have Willows down by the river.
I'll have to give that a shot!
Make sure you keep them moist and use STERILIZED soil or a clean sand and vermiculite or peat moss mix. Regular soil is full of bacteria and fungi. They'd probably be more inclined to rot than root.
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You guys are great. Lots of new ideas.
Do a Google for "willow water". There's actual science behind that old wive's tale. (Auxins are abundant in willows.)
I tried it on an apple softwood cutting this spring. It didn't work, because I didn't plant the cutting in a sterile medium. My bad. I learned something though... : )
Jan in Alaska
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