clear success! "Advanced Burrito Modification"

11 years ago

Pics to come tomorrow!

A really difficult to root rose, for some reason, Hansa. I have really good luck in past with Winchester Cathedral, and had no idea how tough Hansa was going to be.

#1 - wet medium, no matter how sterile = no good.

#2 - even really porous medium, such as perlite/bark, barely damp = still no good - eventually there is mold everywhere, and everything goes black.

#3 "the secret" (shh.shh.) go back to the old "organic" way - you know how everyone just says they stick it in the ground and it grows? - why is that? - because even though the ground is not sterile, it has a large community of organisms that act together for the common good, which has evolved over millions of years. So the "secret" is no secret: medium = 50%leaf compost mixed with worm castings, to provide plenty of beneficial bacteria that eat the fungal spores, 25% ground hardwood bark (for air), and 25% peat moss, to hold it all together.

5 weeks ago, I stuck the 5th set of cuttings, after 4 dismal failures.

1 week ago, they were looking good, but no active growth, so since it was a slightly rainy day, I put then out in the rain, to give the cuttings full water saturation (pots went from 260 to 330 grams,so 70 grams more of water, for a 3.5" peat pot, is about a quarter cup, to give you the idea. In other words they started off barely wet, and after 4 weeks they got a heavy watering. Now that everything was so wet, , I totally removed the covers (clear plastic lids), because being so wet, it will get mouldy, and with the lids off for 4 days, all the leaves are still perfect. I thought one of the leaves was wilting, so I pulled that one up, and it had full callus along the ENTIRE length of the stem, and a few good roots, so I quickly repotted it. Compared to conventional cuttings, I did about 50/50 Adv-Mod-Burrito with conventional, and AMB did far better. Some of the peat pots actually had 3/3 success (i put 2-3 cuttings per pot).

cheers, and have a nice day - still not to late to take more cuttings, so I am going to do another two trays later this week! - paul m.

Comments (4)

caflowerluver
11 years ago
For some reason I always had success with Hansa. But that may have been because I did what you suggested, just stuck the cuttings in the ground. Here they are in a raised bed where I stuck the cuttings after I pruned. This is after 2 years growth. It was experiment I tried that worked. I have since given them all away. Should have kept one because something killed my Hansa years later.
Clare
kittymoonbeam
11 years ago
My very first rose cutting was rooted this way. I didn't know any better at the time. It was a Medallion which at the time I called Drooping Beauty because I didn't know the name and when I first saw it, the long canes bent down with the large flowers almost touching the ground. This year I was trying to root a Felecia and failing and the plant made it's own copy where it touched down on the soil. I am so glad because my old Felecia is a thick old one cane special these days. The new one is so thin and flexible and I'm thinking of just letting it grow where it rooted.
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overdrive
Original Author
11 years ago
roots are coming out of the bottom of the peat-pots, so I moved them to larger plastic pots. they are now under continuous overdriven fluorescent, with lamps at 5" from the canopy. There are a few new shoots sprouting, and once they all sprout, I'll move them to almost touch the lamps.
overdrive
Original Author
11 years ago
Link to pictures, they are really doing well. I have set up another 2 dozen leaf-bud cuttings, and we are into fall at the moment, so I am going to experiment with cold temperature rooting - 50 degrees F, and see what happens. The reason to do this, is the rose foliage tends to go yellow and fall off if held at 70 degrees - this must be due to some kind of fungus, so I would like to inhibit the fungus by keeping the temperature down, and the garage right now gives me temp in the 48 - 52 F degree range.

Here is a link that might be useful: Photos of the Leaf-Bud rose cuttings, sending up canes!