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| Hello,
I'm new to the world of Gessies, but have been going AV's for 20 years. I recently purchased a few plants from various venders and when they came, they were in excellent condition. Unfortunately I treated them a little too much like I do my violets and kept some of the soil too moist for too long and ended up getting a nasty infestation of fungus gnat larvae. When the plants had gone into decline I put down a few leaves of everything as an insurance against losing anything. Everything has rooted and sent up new plants except the cuttings of Primulina Piccolo. The leaves have been down for a little over 2 months now. The plants have sent out lots of roots, but no plantlets have started to grow (just a bunch of callused tissue and roots). I have some leaves trimmed to encourage growth, however, there is no difference between trimmed leaves and non-trimmed leaves with respect to plantlet formation. I was reading somewhere that some Chirita's are particular stubborn when it comes to growing from leaf, is this cultivar one of these difficult plants? How long should I wait for plantlets before I give up (I may wait until the leaf dies)? |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Yes - you are correct - Primulinas start faster from the wedges than they do from leaves. But do not despair - if it is rooted, it will eventually give starters. I think they do a bit better - if you keep them on a dryer side and covered. That's a pity you didn't stick the tip you sliced off into the ground - it would probably be showing babies. And yes - you are correct - they need to be dryer than violets. In my experience the layer of coarse perlite on the bottom helps as well as adding more perlite and little pinch of dolomite lime to the soil - if you consider that Primulnas came from the limestone hills. Right now soil seems a bit too wet and a bit too homogenous for the good air access. Good Luck and good choice - Piccolo is a nice one - you need to try other Peter Shalit hybrids - "Patina" and "Destiny" are the best IMHO. I think Destiny is the easiest one. Irina |
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- Posted by Taxonomist3 none (My Page) on Mon, Jul 16, 12 at 17:03
| Thanks for the quick follow-up Irina! The picture above was one of the leaves I brought to work to see if it would do any differently from the ones I had down at home. It was fairly dry when I got in this morning and I had just watered it (hence the drenched-look). I'd dare to say it's about 40% or more perlite in the soil. I also had it inside a plastic bag while the roots were developing. I took it out of the bag and hardened it off in hopes it may aid the formation of leaves/plantlets. The leaf seems to be holding up well so I'll keep on keeping on until it dies or a new plant arises. I do need to get my hands on some domolite lime. This is one thing I have not been adding to my normal mix. Do you know if this would also be a good thing to include for Steps' soil mix as well? |
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- Posted by Taxonomist3 none (My Page) on Thu, Jul 19, 12 at 19:21
| Finally! I got some plantlets forming on one set. Seems they want a little more heat to encourage leaf formation. the leaves on the bottom shelf are still just rooting even though they are the same age. |
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