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Plant Propagation

Moving lavender cutting, rooted in water, to soil

ellenr22 - NJ - Zone 6b/7a

8 years ago

I cut some Lavender last August and stuck them in water. They have grown a lot of roots, the cuttings are still green and fragrant. Now I want to put them in soil.

I once had found - but cannot find- how to do that. I know that "water roots" and "soil roots" are different, and there is a process to make the change.

Can anyone advise?

Has anyone done this with Lavender?

thanks...

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Comments (2)

susan marie
8 years ago
following
ellenr22 - NJ - Zone 6b/7a
Original Author
8 years ago
I followed this advice which I gathered from various places, including garden web. But I am not sure of the time frame. I think I may have moved my lavendar cuttings too soon from the soil/water mix to all soil. However, they are still hanging on, and I am keeping them humid by spraying them daily. The advice says to keep the soil very moist, but I am not sure for how long....

What's the best way to move plants rooted in water to soil?

I LOVE the idea of rooting things in water, but a few times I tried this and got roots, but the plants perished when I moved them to a pot. Could someone give me a few pointers on what I might have done wrong. Many thanks. Eileen

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calistoga_al ca 15 usda 9 -

Partially fill the pot with your mix, hold your rooted plant by the foliage and keep the roots just on the top of the soil. While holding in this position add more soil to the level desired. Lightly firm the soil. Set the pot in a bath of slightly warm water about halfway up the pot. Leave until the surface of the soil glissons from the water. Remove pot and put in shady area for a few days. Al

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The info Calistoga provided is very good. If you don't succeed doing it this way, try dipping the delicate roots into a thin mud slurry first before inserting in the soil. This apparently protects the thin plant hairs. You might also try just gently sprinkling the soil over the roots and not tamping it down, and then misting the soil thoroughly to prevent the roots from breaking off. Make sure you keep them in shade or cover them with a plant propagator hood for the first few days to keep the humidity high.

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bubba62

Yet another method is to leave the plants in water (you might want to put them in individual containers) and add coarse sand or fine aquarium gravel (anything that won't float or absorb water) until the roots are covered. Then allow the water level to decrease via evaporation until the plants adapt to the solid substrate, at which point it's an easy transfer to soil in a pot.

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I rarely do any rooting in water but I use bubba62's procedure if I want to plant one in soil that has been rooted in water.

Soil roots are stronger than water roots.

April, trim the roots to a manageable length, then pot up according to the good directions in the previous posts.

Hydro to soil or vise versa can be a difficult task, a simple way to avoid problems is to treat the plant as if it was a cutting/clone. Immediately after transplant place a clear plastic bag with a few holes in it over the plant, after a few days make some more holes in the bag and so on until there is no difference between having the bag on or off.

This method of keeping a higher humidity works very well and you should do fine.
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