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gonene1

Flooded cuttings! what can i do?

gonene1
9 years ago

A surprise rain for the season came .
my mini greenhouse roof got filled with water and crashed on the cuttings flooded them completely.
now they just socked with water.

I took some of them out of the soil and squeezed the soil to drain the excess water.

then i saw that some just started to root (small white dots), and some did not.
there was not a trace of rooting hormone powder to be seen.

then i thought that maybe it's not a good idea to take them out of the soil at this stage and i stopped.

what should i do?
is it OK to take cuttings out drain the water and put them back in?
should i put another dose of rooting hormone before putting them back?

any other way to save them?

(In the photo, my mini greenhouse and cuttings in a better day/)

Thanks

Comments (6)

  • floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
    9 years ago

    I would definitely not remove them from their pots and not squeeze the soil. Assuming there are drainage holes in the pots I would simply put them onto something raised like a baking cooling grid and let them drain. Getting sopping wet once is not going to hurt them. It's sitting in wet soil for a long period which would cause trouble.

  • gonene1
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Thanks for your comment

    Yes there are drainage holes in the pots, and where i used drinking cups i made drainage holes at the bottom as well as around all the way to the top.
    I'll let them drain and open the lid to bring fresh air to the cuttings for a few days until it drys.
    i just hope i did not kill the ones which i took out of the soil.

  • gardenper
    9 years ago

    Do I see some passion vine cuttings there? If it is, I have placed passion vine cuttings in straight-up water before, so I know it can handle a bit of flooding without any trouble. This goes for any other cuttings that would be fine in water.

    However, the important thing is for those cuttings that can't stay in flooded conditions to get dried out. Your drainage hole and not sitting in some other kind of drain pan should let them do that.

    You will not need to add any more root powder.

  • gonene1
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    thanks gardenper.
    here is an update.

    the mix of wet soil and very high temperatures (in Israeli heat) proved deadly to some of the cuttings.

    every cutting which i took from the edge/head the new growth , rotted (like the two on the right in the photo) .
    the more woody cuttings are looking well (like the left one in the photo).
    (see photo)

    do you know if they rot because of the part of the stem from which i take the cuttings?

    do these rot because of the excess heat moisture?
    Or do they rot because the green\herbaceous cuttings from the edge are not suitable for rooting?

  • floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
    9 years ago

    I hadn't realised you were in Israel. In that case I'm wondering why you have them under plastic with no shading. That would seem likely to cook them even without the flooding.

  • gonene1
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    well the day before the rain we had a heat wave with such intense sun.
    i don't have anything to measure the temperature but when i opened the cover i got struck with such heat , i'd bet it must have gotten to 120 degree Fahrenheit.

    because the cuttings did not look dry i did not think it's bad.
    I did not think they could cook, i was worried about them drying.

    somewhere in this forum i read that someone is putting his cuttings in direct sunlight and this helps them root faster then cuttings in the shade.
    i guess now that he did not put them in Israeli sun.

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