Why do many of my cutting rot or die even though soil is barely moist?
Comments (10)
hc mcdole
8 years agotlbean2004
8 years agoI have a "mini green house" which is just a tray with a big clear dome top. It is sitting on my kitchen table in front of a north facing window. I put the cutting in the tray about 3 weeks ago and the soil stayed moist the entire time. Although it was only slightly moist not sopping wet.
Here are some pics
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Why Do My Cuttings Keep Dying?
Comments (10)The rooting of cuttings is energy-driven, and most houseplants 'peak' insofar as their energy levels are concerned in late summer, so late summer will find hobby houseplant growers realizing their highest strike %s if they follow a few simple guidelines. Oxygen is an element essential to the success of cuttings. You want LOTS of air in the medium you're using to root cuttings. Use a coarse medium that doesn't support perched water; or, if it does support perched water, be sure you use a container deep enough that the proximal end (closest to the roots) of the cutting is NEVER covered by a film of water. Think 'DAMP', not 'WET'. You'll also want to reduce the leaf surface area in most cases, eliminating some leaves or cutting them across the veins. This is to help reduce the amount of transpiration. If the plant can't keep up with the volume of water lost through foliage, the plant will SHED the foliage as a normal drought response, which is not conducive to rooting. Essentially, when you're trying to propagate cuttings, it's a race to establish a healthy hydraulic connection between roots and shoots before fungal organisms rot the plumbing. For that reason, try to steer clear of a medium that contains any form of mineral soil - garden soil, topsoil, unsterilized sand ...... Here is an effective way to keep humidity levels high & assure a high success rate: Neatly cut the top of a clear gallon jug. Stick your cuttings in a coarse, sterile medium like washed and screened perlite (in open shade). The plastic tray has holes in it so it drains after you water the cutting. After the cutting strikes, remove the screw on cap to allow more air circulation, then gradually remove the 'tent' entirely. I've probably done at least 100 cuttings to share already this summer using this or a similar set-up. Here is a Ficus microcarpa recently rooted under the milk jug for a friend. Notice the wick hanging down to drain excess (perched) water from the soil - practicing what I preach about the 'damp, not wet' thing. Let me know if you want a pic of some of the other cuttings done in such a manner; especially let me know if you have questions ..... Al...See MoreMoist soil around the house
Comments (11)I have mulch in some places around the house but not in all of them. No matter where I put the mulch around the house, the free-range chickens rearrange it to suit themselves....and they don't leave it where we put it. We actually don't keep mulch in the beds around the house as much as we used to, having seen first-hand how well the rattlesnakes and copperheads blend in with the mulch. I need white mulch so the snakes are easier to see....we don't have white mulch, but the idea of white stone mulch is starting to appeal to me. My fenced garden area is very well-mulched, though, because I have some sort of control over that area since most all the animals are fenced out of it. We are in a hilly area in the Red RIver Valley, between Marietta and Thackerville, and our acreage basically is a creek hollow, with the house on the highest point of ground. When it rains, everything runs downhill away from the house, and if it rains hard enough, all the mulch washes downhill away from the house and into the woodland. I constantly fight a losing battle to keep the mulch where it belongs. When we built our house, we had the builder put in a pier and beam foundation because we didn't want to deal with a slab on our compacted, dense, red clay soil. It is not a decision we've ever regretted. It is so much easier to fix a plumbing leak via the crawl space under the house. Prior to moving here in 1999, we had a house on black clay soil in Fort Worth for 16 years, so we were well-versed in the problems you have with cracking clay soils causing foundation problems, plumbing problems, etc. and we've always exercised great care in keeping the soil around the foundation evenly moist to the extent we can during Extreme or Exceptional Drought in order to avoid those problems. Because I know how hard it is to keep the soil in the foundation area moist, it does concern me that your soil around the house is staying so moist during such a dry year. Your mesonet station in Durant has recorded only slightly more rainfall this year than ours has, so our soils probably are about the same in terms of moisture levels. Not too long after we moved here, friends of ours in Texas began having foundation-related issues with their new custom home less than a year after moving in. Apparently there was some sort of major water issue under their house. I don't remember the source of the water, but they were unaware that the water was there. It was eroding the soil beneath their house, causing their foundation to sort of shift and sink and crack. It was the biggest mess you've ever seen with the builder disavowing that he was responsible for the problem in any way, blah, blah, blah....you know how that sort of thing goes. I believe the builder, or his insurance company, eventually did cover all the costs of finding and fixing the leak, replacing the eroded soil, fixing the slab, pouring concrete piers to prevent the problem from recurring, and then fixing the cracks in the walls in the house, replacing ruined flooring that had cracked along with the slab, as well as replacing all the landscaping they had torn out in order to work on and beneath the slab. It was the biggest mess you can imagine. They literally had an underground river carrying away the soil under their house, but never saw moist soil at grade level that might have alerted them to the problem. Theirs is an extreme example, but it serves as an example why you shouldn't ignore soil that seems to be more moist than it should be. If your soil in your yard is parched, but the soil around the foundation is wet, something's not right. Mulch would help keep the soil moist, but in a year this dry, it likely wouldn't keep all the soil around the house constantly moist---not with only a little over a foot of rain all year....See MoreWhy are my tomatoes rotting before ready to pick?
Comments (8)Hoosier covered several of the problems including the fruit left on the vine too long. I also see some anthracnose and sour rot. Also some possible Alternaria Canker but no close up to be sure. Research these on the web to learn all about controls and preventing them next year. Also contact your local county extension for info on which diseases are common in your area and treatment tips. Bottom line - you have at least a couple if not more, fungal infections going in the patch. The only solution at this late date is to try to slow it down with fungicide sprays like Daconil - multiple applications. It won't cure the problems but will slow it down. I know on another thread you posted you were opposed to anti-fungal sprays but they are your only real option now I fear and not nearly as hazardous as you think. Otherwise, about all you can do is pick your fruit just as soon as it shows the slightest color and ripen it inside, thin out the patch with some pruning of all the diseased material to improve air circulation, eliminate any sprinkler watering, and hope. Just my 2 cents. Next year, a much bigger patch or a lot less plants ;), much soil improvement, and lots and lots of mulch. Hope this helps. Dave...See MoreRotting Leaf cuttings - water or soil?
Comments (16)I've written this many times before : I love hovering over those leaves and watching as the roots appear. And one can do this if they're in water. BTW, I've never lost a leaf yet. Of course, being impatient I've howled and growled until they rooted. Even swearing didn't seem to do much to make them hurry....they take their time....See Morehc mcdole
8 years agoNot sure how much light they are getting with a north facing window but seems like it should be adequate.
The mini greenhouse should be fine as well. Do you see evidence of condensation on the walls/top of the dome? With a high top, you may need more humidity.
Here is an example of what I did back in the spring with cuttings (no leaves in this batch). I have moved most of my propagation to Jiffy pellets. For very large leaves I can use wedge in Jiffy pellets or use the entire leaf with a long petiole laid horizontally in a tray (lettuce container from the grocery store works well) with the petiole laid flat under half an inch to an inch of the potting mix.
And the example of the big nursery in Orlando with wedge cuttings.
Cropped into the same photo showing a little more detail (note the small cells). They do use a misting system so that they never dry out but don't stay sopping wet either.
And another view with the leaves facing 180 degrees.
One more photo of a Jiffy pellet tray I did for fun reusing the same tray and new pellets.
gardenfanatic2003
8 years agohc mcdole
8 years agoDeanna,
Your last paragraph about cuttings taking a month or two to root depends on a lot of things. Warm, bright conditions and they can root in a week but dim, cool conditions can take months (or rot). I had one leaf of a beefsteak that I stuck in a pot of canes (years ago) during winter so everything was in the basement. While it wasn't cool, it was very dim in its location. It sat there for at least 3 to 4 months before finally pupping. That was the longest I think I've ever seen.
Good thought about the fertilizer Tiffany. I know it is discouraged for seed starting but it might be detrimental for cuttings too...
Not to change the subject but I had a new issue this past weekend. A sparrow got into the basement (I guess I had the door open too long on Friday). I could not chase it outdoors either. We went to TN on Saturday and came back on Sunday. I finally got it trapped in the small utility room (closed the interior door to keep it contained in that small room) and opened the door to the outside and kept chasing it from one corner to another until it found the exit. What I didn't know was it made a mess of a lot of my starter trays - scratching soil everywhere which included some small plants, bulbs, etc. If I had known I might've killed it (not really but I was quite ticked off from the mess).
Here is one tray showing some scattered soil. I could sweep what was on the floor but I would have to turn out lights to turn on a vacuum - GRRR!
tlbean2004
8 years agohc mcdole
8 years agopunchcardgardener PNW 8a
8 years agohc mcdole
8 years ago
Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL