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westes Zone 9b California SF Bay
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Propagation biology
Comments (15)Kevin, Good questions. I wouldn't be overly concerned about rootstock. While rootstocks can convey characteristics like tree size reduction, increased precocity, cold tolerance, water tolerance, etc., unless you have a specific need, standard roots will do fine. Konrad offered some good information as usual, although I might question that poor vigor is a problem with fruit trees on their own roots. A big part of the reason nurseries suggest planting the graft union above the soil line on dwarf trees is so the scion portion doesn't root out and cause the tree to lose it's dwarfing characteristics. Here's a little background. Rootstocks dwarf by nature of some degree of incompatibility with the scion. This incompatibility disrupts the flow of carbohydrates and other nutrients producing a smaller sized tree. There is good research indicating the larger the portion of dwarf rootstock sticking up out of the ground, the greater the degree of incompatibility. Limiting the nutrient flow can cause positive things like increasing cold tolerance (i.e. forcing the tree into dormancy earlier) but many times it produces a more delicate tree requiring a higher level of management. Perhaps a biological analogy would be raising two children, one with optimum nutrition, the other on half rations. In most cases, the less fortunate child would be weaker, smaller, more prone to illness, and shorter lived. Sometimes the degree of incompatibility is too great, causing either long term graft failure or simply breakage at the graft union. Occasionally a rootstock will increase the flow of nutrients compared to a standard rootstock and produce a larger more vigorous tree. This happens only seldom. Generally it's the other way around. Naturally one might expect the fruit to be smaller on dwarf trees as well, but this is not the case. The reason being that most of the energy going into the fruit comes from the leaves, not the roots. In fact, the leaves export a significant amount of energy into the roots. That's why partially girdling a branch (i.e. choking it with a wire) will generally produce bigger fruit on that branch. The leaves use all their energy for the fruit with little or nothing to the root. This is also the reason some dwarf roots will produce marginally larger fruit. More leaf energy goes to the fruit and less to the roots. In times past, people were much less concerned about rootstock. Grafted apples were on seedling rootstock from Red Delicious apples. The primary reason Red Delicious seed was used was because Red Delicious was the most apple, and therefore the most common seed. Processing plants could collect large volumes of seed as they processed the apples The seed was inexpensive to purchase and trees performed fairly consistently on the rootstock. Same thing with peaches. Lovell rootstock was popularized because Lovell used to be a popular canning peach. Canners could sell the seed inexpensively. As far as I know, Lovell isn't canned today, but the seed hasn't lost popularity. Halford is still commercially canned today and is also a popular roostock. I grow my own peach roostock and haven't noticed any difference in performance from my own seedling rootstock and other more popular rootstocks like Halford, Lovell, etc. What you have described above is indeed called air layering. The reason most trees are not propagated by air layering is because it's much more economical to graft and success rates are generally higher. Lastly as an interesting aside, in rare cases the rootstock can convey it's own traits to the fruit. Tomatoes can be grafted onto poisonous nightshade plants (to which they are closely related). If grafted, the tomatoes will contain some of the poisonous alkaloids found in the rootstock....See MoreFascinating soil discussion on the Houseplants Forum
Comments (7)The perched water table happens no matter what is in the soil mix unless all the particles are uniformly large I disagree. Watering most soil mixes when they are very dry results in only a limited amount of water being retained. With a second watering after a few minutes, more water will be retained. You can demonstrate this very easily by watering a completely dry pot of soil in a saucer until the saucer is full and then leaving it for an hour. Chance are the saucer will be partially or completely emptied when you come back. Exact results depend on your soil mix but it happens to some extent in any dry soil. What happens with that first watering is that some water is retained around some particles, saturated at the bottom by some definitions since water drains through, but that doesn't mean zero air. The water them migrates over the following minutes or maybe hours into small pores in the coarse material and into the layer structure of clay material, or into the internal structure of organic materials like peat and bark, even moves to higher levels in the soil as they suck in the water. All of the sudden there is no perched water table, you could add more water to the soil without it draining through. I have never seen any experimental work published on this but it certainly occurs and is easy to verify, I just don't know whether it means we usually do or usually don't have perched water tables in our succulent pots. In some summer-growing succulents which are heavily watered and not allowed to completely dry there almost certainly is a perched water table at some times, but again I don't agree that this means zero air in the soil mixes which are often used. Presumably this is part of the reason why we stick so much grit in our soils. Winter growing mesembs I almost never water to the point of runoff. Or maybe cacti don't mind a perched water table. Possible reasons would be that they area adapted to saturated soils for relatively short periods, some certainly experience periodic flooding in habitat. Or the structure of a "good" cactus mix may be such that sufficient air remains in the mix even in the area of the perched water table to prevent the kind of root rots which would occur in an anoxic soil. Or maybe we use watering practices which only create a perched water table when the plant is thirsty enough to drain it, or weather conditions will evaporate it. I absolutely use top dressings. I don't allow the bodies of succulents like Lithops to be in contact with the proper soil, that's death in my climate. Not being able to see the soil is something I just have to live with. But top dressings vary a lot. Some wick up water much more than others although obviously all retain a high proportion of air spaces. Some types of top dressing seem to increase evaporation. Experiment with fine clay granules on the surface of the soil, they continually wick up water and remain moist until the soil mix is completely dry. I also use loam based soils. They do degrade over time. The most obvious thing is that the initial fertiliser load runs out after a few months or maybe a couple of years depending on the plant and how you water it. The soils also do compact down over weeks or months. It is easy to see the soil level drop if you don't compact it down when you pot the plant, less obvious if you squashed it down to start with. Lastly, over a period of years the clay component of the soil washes out. Unpot a Lithops after ten or twenty years in the same pot and there will be just be sand and gravel, it won't be like soil at all. Although I use a loam-based soil, the make-up of that soil includes something like 20% organic material and in practice that is usually peat. Add in an equal amount of aggregate and I have a soil mix that is 10% peat. At these levels the soil does not behave like an organic soil but it does provide for better retention of nutrients, as if I needed it with the clay in the loam and the baked clay granules! Salt buildup can occur regardless of how you fertilise, simply from minerals in the water. For most of us, the vast majority of the water we put on our succulents simply evaporates, any fertiliser or minerals in hard water are just left in the soil. I have quite soft water and the soil I use has a decent initial fertiliser load so I don't fertilise much either. I have never experienced salt buildup, even with the non-flushing watering that I use on most mesembs most of them time. While completely dry soil may mean root death, after a sufficient length of time anyway, this is almost inevitable in my climate and just something I have to deal with. It is simply not practical to provide water every few weeks to most cacti over winter, and certainly not to Lithops. Lithops lose their fine roots and regrow them in the spring, they seem to be very good at it. Many cacti deal with it well, some don't. Some species don't seem to be adapted to going completely dry for months at a time. When people talk about cacti that "lost their roots" over winter, they are usually talking just about the ones which rotted because they didn't grow their roots back in spring :)...See Morewondering what sort of water to water plants with (biology exp)
Comments (4)The best water I ever used for my houseplants came from our aquarium... town water is chemically treated, so I allow it to sit for a day or so before using on my plants..laundry water might be alright for a garden if no bleach is added but its still got chemicals in it from the detergent..I would use rain water if it was not collected coming directly off a roof that had shingles on it, etc.. Spring water might have alot of lime in it and leave residue on the soil but its still a better source than treated water... but you use what is available.. you might try finding a homesteading forum for some in-depth answers..they are well acquainted with water problems....See MoreBest forum to discuss Country Plant Farm?
Comments (6)Hello Robin and John, Robin, those aren't our actual items to sell, but cheese and wine sound good, yes? Add chocolate and you've got a traffic stopper, LOL. John, I agree about the complexity of the farm name. I don't want to post it here as I enjoy using this forum and do not wish to break the rules, but here is a made-up name which is, other than the products, just like ours will be: GREEN ACRES Peanut & Flower Gardens Unless it would be better to simply post the name, hours and phone number only, then rely on the side signs for detail? The traffic speed, while it is SUPPOSED to be 35, ranges from 45-55 illegally because no one patrols out here. We even have a speed limit sign well within view from way down the road. The thing is, those who live further up the road have to go up a hill, so they drive as fast as they can so they can get an extra push up the hill. Idiots, I know, but they do it. We're also located smack in the middle of one of the few straight-a-ways on this winding road. As you round the corner, our sign is right in view, you can't miss it, a good distance down the road, so it catches your attention way back and you have that much time to read it, as well as keep an eye on the road. ;-) I have a few temporary signs out in the road, and many have slowed or stopped to read them all, as there is not a consistent flow of traffic. In other words, it would be slightly unusual for a car to be directly behind someone as they slowed to read. Sadly, there is no parking or place to park until you drive past our gardens and home. Thanks for the support on the side bar idea. I really need that one, as our supply changes throughout the season. One month it may be local honey, the next it could be tomatoes. Then come green chilies, etc. I am even dabbling in garden art, so we'll see how that goes, too. Re: lettering for the sign, I found the perfect font which is quite legible but still decorative without being one of those obnoxious fonts you can't quite make out until you study it. :-) Thanks for your input, I truly appreciate it!...See Morewestes Zone 9b California SF Bay
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tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)