Humidiponics propagation

Yea - I don't know what that word means either. I just made it up. :D


But what I didn't make up is the above. I took some cuttings on 9 October in a heated propagator in a light box. I take cuttings with masses of foliage, and then to ensure that the cutting doesn't lose moisture from all that foliage, I flood the floor of the propagator with water. Consequently the cuttings are in pepetual 100% humidity or as they don't say in the trade humidiponics. :D

These cuttings are from Salvia splendens. When I took the cuttings, I tried to avoid the healthy part of the plants that were still flowering and took some cuttings where the bottom node didn't always have any leaves - so I wasn't sure if it was still active.

I needn't have worried as the roots on at least two cuttings have appeared above the soil level - kept alive by the 100% humidity. I have never seen that before. I was removing some dead leaves when I saw the first one. I thought I had pulled it up by mistake as all the inch long roots were exposed above the soil with nothing below. I can't show you that as I quickly replanted it. Then I saw the second one.

 

Hi Peter,

The Salvia's are great aren't they? Take the cutting one week and literally within a fortnight you could pot them on. Plus there are so many different beautiful types and varieties. Humidiponics sounds good.

 

So presumably they would root easily in an Aeroponics propagator?

I've got one of them, but after the initial euphoria wore off I haven't bothered with it. I used it for Fuschias, and 100% or thereabouts rooted. But then they root whatever you do to the cuttings ... and potting on from Aeroponics to Soil severely checked the plant (hardly surprising, although maybe there are ways around that and I didn't do anything special except try to give them plenty of humidity).

I ought to flog the thing really, can't see me using it again.

 

RaggedTN - I do agree Salvias are so easy for taking cuttings. Because this system has 100% humidity, the leaves cannot lose any moisture - so I can leave as many as 20 or 30 leaves on a cutting. Before now I have taken more cuttings from the original cutting within as little as 20 days.

JWK - thats a good point about the mould and was my fear at first. But I have been taking cuttings this way for three years now and I have never had any sign of mould. The method won't work for everything though. I wouldn't try to take cuttings from Geraniums (ie Pelargoniums) or any other dry loving plants.

Kristen - thanks for the mention of Aeroponics. I didn't recognise the name, but after a Google, I realised that I had seen this in Disney's Epcot Centre 25 years ago. There was a long line of good sized plants supported in the air and passing through a chamber where the bare roots were sprayed. I think they called it Hydroponics then.

I am fascinated by how and why things work, and my next thought was how does the cutting know where to produce roots rather than leaves, if there is no soil. You have also given me an idea - to suspend a cutting entirely in the air in my propagator and see what happens. Perhaps I will get roots from the top. :D

 

The word "Tropisim," comes to mind.

 

That's another word I haven't heard of Pete :D. You are right - I had a Google. You can get gravity Tropism where stems grow upwards and roots grow downwards, and also light tropism where the plant will grow towards the light.

But there is another effect as well. If you take a cutting with 4 nodes and put 3 of them under the soil, those 3 will grow roots and the top one leaves. But if you only put one node underground that node will grow roots and the other 3 will grow leaves. If the entire cutting is suspended in mid air and sprayed with water (aeroponics), or is in a 100% humidity (humidiponics), how many nodes will grow roots?

 

There`s a bit more to aeroponics than just spraying water Humidiponics (aka foggerponics) will get the roots to develop but it won`t provide enough moisture to sustain growth.
You could overdo it to the point the humidity condenses into water but then it`d become nutrient film technique (nft) not humidiponics

 

"There`s a bit more to aeroponics than just spraying water"

That's all my Aeroponics propagator does. Its very crude ...

I have read that the Cannabis boys use foggers - to get more air to the roots I suppose (I mean during the growing phase, rather than specifically the propagation stage). My Aeroponics propagator just uses one of those mini irrigation nozzles and runs continuously - I put a 15 min on / 15 min off timer on it - ideally could be more often I suppose, but that's all I could rig up without spending a lot on it, and the roots don't dry out in only 15 minutes.

The deluxe model has a heater in the solution (aquarium jobbie I expect)

 

Hi Kristen,
I`ve yet to see a fogger setup that can support active growth unless its running so much fog it condenses back into water. Sounds like you have sprinklerponics, sometimes called low pressure aeroponics, the shops label them as aeroponics so they can charge a few hundred quid for a cheap pond pump and a few hozelock sprinklers
Believe it or not, you could leave the pump off for a lot longer than 15 minutes and the plants would be fine.

 

"sprinklerponics" :D:D:D

Nah, you are being unfair Hex, they also throw in :O a container for the water, a clear plastic dome, and some neoprene collars ... Apart from the Reservoir and Transparent cover (which I reckon are non-standard sizes) it would probably be much cheaper to build a pick-and-mix model ...

15 minutes on/off was all that I could easily achieve with a routine mains-timer, but I reckon 1 minute on and then an off-period would be just fine (and use less electricity).

Of course the thing is useless if there is a prolonger power cut - I lost a batch of cuttings when someone nudged the timer and it stayed in the off state and more than 24 hours before I noticed ...

Anyways, I've reverted to cuttings-in-pots now and the Sprinklerponics kit is gathering dust ...