Trouble with Wax begonia cuttings of PW Sure Fire Red
I took cuttings of Proven Winners Sure Fire Bebonias. They grow good but they do not branch out or send up any new sprouts. They have good roots. They are in my Greenhouse with daytime temps of 75 and 65 at night. Grow lights on for 16 hours. I tried cutting the tops off and that ended up with the leave falling off. How can I force new stems to come up?
Comments (18)
- 6 years ago
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Comments (20)Thanks & thanks. Wow! I wouldn't know what to do if I saw something like that at WM, just wish they would sell some Begonias besides wax. I put that basket together from cuttings this spring. J, I've always turned pots before this year, but went totally no-turn this year. Like you said, that means there's permanently a dark side, so it's been interesting with the holes in the sides getting so much more light in some cases. Some weird combos have developed, with full sun plants on one side, full shade on the other. Will be interesting to see if the 'dark sides' can survive inside for winter. The look of the sunny side is worth it to me for a change. The only problem is trying to take a pic of the good side, they're up so high if not standing on the porch. This 'sunny side' pic is from a few weeks ago....See MoreAny trouble replacing plants
Comments (9)Hi, Vaodiva. I don't remember what I posted before, but here are a few I KNOW I loved: 1. Saturn (best all around performance, height, size, and strong color in full sun. 2. Sedona (not the most vigorous, but the color is radiant) 3. India Frills (just grows and grows and makes a nice, sprawyly & low "ground cover.") 4. Kona Red (aka Dipt in Wine) A wonderful, rich color and good size. 5. Kiwi Fern...interesting foliage and strong grower. Doesn't get too leggy, if it gets plenty of good light. 6. Alabama Sunset. Not real tall, but great color, and plenty of fullness. 7. Blackberry Waffles...really dark and ruffly 8. Roaring Fire...splendid color and vigorous growth. Takes full sun all summer long without a whimper. 9. Felix. Not as vigorous a grower as some, but the beautiful leaf form and color make up for it. Fiesta. Bright, brilliant, beautiful. Oxblood...deep rich color and nice growth. Chocolate drop...lovely little leaves, nice low groundcover effect. Peter Wonder. A real champion grower, very ruffly. Japanese Giant...huge and colorful. Envy...the biggest leaf of them all and a rich green backdrop plant. The ones I was disappointed in were Christmas Candy, Fright Night, and Trailing Plum Brocade. They just languished for me. Oh, add Apocalypse to the good ones...it's a fantastic plant. And for greens & golds, add Blair's Witch. A bonus plant Rosy Dawn sent me, and it turned out to be one of my best & most vigorous growers. Hope this helps. As you look them up, you can see from the photos which ones might appeal to you. Good luck! Marcia (ps...my best trailer was Trailing Garnet Robe)...See MoreSports in begonias
Comments (28)Russ, I have tried many different EEs over the years. Alocasia and Colocasia mainly but a couple Xanthosoma as well (have less luck with these). Stingray, Mojito, Elena, Elepaio (is it one word or two?), Illustris, Black Magic, Jack's Giant, Portodora, Malaysian Monster (think I lost it but then it never really grew much), Nigra, Black Velvet (think I lost it this winter), Mayan Princess, Hilo Beauty (may have lost it too), White Lava (we'll see if it comes back), Frydek (one of my favorites), African Mask, and probably a few more I cannot recall. The only ones that survive our winter in ground would be Colocasia - Illustris and Black Magic are two that seem somewhat reliable but they come up late and small to begin with but by mid to late summer have caught up to the ones in pots. You are lucky you can keep them outdoors year round. Lotusland is hard to find and is possibly the largest leaf rhizomatous begonia that I've seen (doesn't mean there aren't larger). I think it was named after the famous home and gardens of Lotusland in Montecito, CA. A wonderful place to visit if you are lucky enough to get in but the tour was much too short for me but I still enjoyed every minute of it. http://www.lotusland.org/ As I was moving plants to bigger and bigger pots over the years to make the plants grow larger and larger, I had never heard of "potting down" before. That did not make sense to me - why move a large plant to a smaller pot? When I would move my monster pots indoors for winter sometimes in the garage, the plants would get smaller and smaller. One person mentioned "potting down" to me to keep the big plant going strong but I resisted the extra work. It took a few years to find out the advantage of this but I still resist if I can due to the extra work involved. When it comes to saving the plant then I will do that reluctantly. Hope this makes sense? I wasn't talking about propagation in this respect. I was just talking about moving the plant down to a smaller pot respective to its root ball size....See MoreFlowers for cutting
Comments (39)Kim, Johnny's selected seeds has a huge amount of seed for cutting gardens as they supply them to many market growers who raise flowers to sell at farmer's markets. While everything they sell will not adapt to our climate, many of the items they offer would/should grow here.. You might look through their website section of cut flower seeds and see what you can come up with for filler. Their atriplex in different colors might make good filler, though there's a part of me that worries it might become invasive. Amaranths and celosias make great bouqet filler and are relatively fast from seed. I grow both the plume type celosias and the crested ones. Grasses as fillers might get tricky. They may go from green to brown too quickly in your heat to be very useful. Dill, whether in flower or not, would be a delightful filler, and one that smells good too. My favorite one for cutting actually is called "Bouquet". Some other fillers that come to mind include ammi (available now in more colors than just white), didiscus (especially striking in blue), yarrow, basil, globe amaranth, veronica and chamomile (though heat ends its season here pretty early). Some people like to use various mints as bouquet fillers because of the scent of the leaves. Dawn...See More- 6 years ago
6 years ago- 6 years ago
Heat pads were suggested by a greenhouse grower. A 1000 watt light is use to help light the gh on cloudy days. All winter here.
- 6 years ago
I used a heating pad one year for seedlings and found they rotted faster using heat than nothing at all. Maybe it just kept them much too warm?
I understand about the light - just why 16 hours?
I had a greenhouse at our last house and never had lights and only used a kerosene heater to keep it warm on the coldest nights. The only problems I saw were the plants on the lowest shelves.
Top shelves were great for C&S
But I used the middle shelves as well.
Most C&S stayed in the GH even in HOT summer but I dragged a few outside as well.
- 6 years ago
WOW those are great pictures. 2 different GH owners suggested that time. My GH gets a lot of shade. Blues spruce on the west side. One of the owners gave me the light to help counteract the shade.
I would really like to figure out how to get new growth from the roots. I only get the one stem. I did have one success from a leaf stem. I am waiting on several more that are about 6 week old now.
From this this on Jan 20
Feb 22. This is what I am look for. several new stems coming up.
John
- 6 years agolast modified: 6 years ago
Your last pic shows a lot of progress. I've rooted a few in my basement in dim light but no rush on seeing lots of new growth. I can always pick up new wax begonias every spring and save space for other rarer plants to concentrate on. Hard to beat buying a six pack of 'Dragon Wings' or 'Big' for around a dollar a plant at Home Depot, Walmart, or a lot of independent nurseries.
I put these cuttings down about five weeks ago and already seeing lots of babies coming up. The rugged looking leaf is 'Cachuma' and the more glossy leaf is multistaminea. The other two pellets are of a plant I have in another room and I removed the oldest yellow leaves and thought I would give those a try - lost one already (blank pellet). I guess a healthy leaf is the way to go from now on.
- 6 years ago
- 6 years ago
- 6 years ago
- 6 years ago
Seed pods? I think you are talking about the Jiffy pellets. You can pick them up at Walmart, Home Depot, Lowe's, and nurseries that carry potting supplies. If you looked for them just say 3 weeks ago, they would be very hard to find since they are a seasonal item. There's always Amazon - HA!
This is a more deluxe package with a wicking mat. This is before adding water to hydrate the dried pellets.
after wetting
Bashful Bandit leaves for putting down (these pics were all a year ago (Feb 22, 2017)
Trimmed leaf and some wedged (like a wedge of pie)
10 weeks later and they are ready for moving up and out.
four more weeks and they are crowding each other for space.
- 6 years ago
- 6 years ago
- 6 years agolast modified: 6 years ago
Is this how you did the planting or did you cut the stem off?
- 6 years ago
I am not sure you can use wax begonia leaves for propagation but you can try. If they all rot or root but don't produce a plant then use stem cuttings with a node next time (growing tip next to the leaf).
For rhizomatous begonias (and some Asian cane-like) you can either cut the petiole off and divide the leaf between major veins or keep the petiole (trim oversized leaf edges off).
Check out Brad's Begonia World for good growing tips.
Here is his propagation page:
http://www.bradsbegoniaworld.com/prop.htm
This tray is a combo wedge cuttings and disk cuttings with petioles.
disk cuttings (the black leaves were put down last so the green leaf was there weeks before and has pups coming up)
These wedge cuttings are Red Fred and have been there for several weeks. (wedge like a piece of pie)
- 6 years ago
Thanks again. I have been to Brads world a lot. I have one leaf cutting success. I have about 30 a month old right now and the ones I just planted. I am trying for at least 100. I have 25 mother plants. I should have ordered plugs last oct. it is fun trying.
This is on Mackinac Island
This is my first attempt last year
hc mcdole