experiment

I was reading on another forum about an interesting experiment, that is, to develop rootlets instead of :within the soil, by wrapping cuttings bases in damp kitchen paper towels in the shade and put in a plastic bag on a shelf.

The idea of this experiment originates by the fact that a package had not arrived to the recipient and came back with rootlets.

 

Can't see any reason for it to not work (other than cuttings rarely work anyway for me).

There is a technique I'm planning to try whereby you take the cutting without taking the cutting (read about it in my RHS propagation book). Having chosen a cutting candidate, you prepare it in place on the plant, but don't actually cut it off, just cut part way through. Then you wrap the bit that would have been in the soil if it had been a proper cutting, in a bandage filled with moist moss. Then when roots come through the bandage, cut it off completely and pot it up. Apparently it increases the chances of success because the parent plant is still partly feeding the 'cutting' while the roots develop.

 

Sound like air layering

 

My only reservation is that the rootlets would be very delicate and tender and might be damaged when you finally have to plant them in soil.

It might not matter though. Lots of plants are tough.

 

Layering is very good for shrubs, climbers and some perennials. Thick mulching is often enough for me but as clueless said cutting and pining down in the soil is the way to do it. Not sure about wrapping cuttings in damp paper, etc. or in water although busy lizzies respond well to this. Cuttings rooted in compost are tougher I think..........?

 

I've grown some seed on damp kitchen paper (covered with clingfilm), so I don't see why it wouldn't work.

 

Interesting experiment Java. Hydroponics teaches us that you do need oxygen and moisture for growing - but you don't need soil. And cuttings don't need feeding for some time.

 

Many years ago 30+ I needed to take cuttings of a Rhododendron and used the air layer method. Cut upwards towards the top of the stem put moss between to keep it open slightly, wrap a large ball of moss around thethe stem moisten and wrap in a polythene bag and left for 12 months. That rhodo is now a large shrub.

Trevor