Share The Seeds
Gardening Area => Advanced Cultivation Techniques => Topic started by: mj on November 15, 2015, 10:07:23 PM
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdGzn8kbULc
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Time for a new Psychotria Viridis leaf rooting experiment. :) I just placed my order for some starter pots.
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I made an inexpensive air pot for my Psychotria Alba stem cutting. I bought a plastic place mat at the dollar store, the mat is thin perforated plastic with about 1/32" pores all over. I just cut it into length wise strips made a loop which I sewed together with a darning needle and some polyester thread and then cut a bottom of the same material and sewed that on as well. I think I could have bought a pot for less but This was faster and it turned out to be a nice pot, my Alba stem cutting is in it now. From all the on line searching I have done it seems that the air pruning is amazing especially for trees. Best regards mj.
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I made an inexpensive air pot for my Psychotria Alba stem cutting.
Will you post a picture of the pot you made? I'm trying to visualize.
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I made an inexpensive air pot for my Psychotria Alba stem cutting.
Will you post a picture of the pot you made? I'm trying to visualize.
will do, just give me a day or so, I need to borrow a camera and a cable to get the picture into my computer. Best regards mj.
PS: reusable fabric shopping bags make excellent large plant bag, lots of you tube vids on that sort of thing. /the magic part to remember is four inches longer in every direction than your existing pot when you transplant into an air pot. So that means eight inches wider and four inches deeper. You can also drill some holes in existing pots to achieve the same results.
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Wow those photos are amazing. I want some of these pots. I had no idea. Thanks for sharing.
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I purchased the Express 18 Air Pruning tray with containers to experiment with planting Psychotria Viridis. The pots are 3.125 square by 4" tall. As previously documented here: http://sharetheseeds.me/forum/index.php?topic=2835.0 My preferred method is to root and sprout in water then plant the spouted leaves into small pots.
These are the first two leaves planted in the new pots. The leaves both started rooting about 14 weeks ago but the plant on the right is a bit faster growing. The plants probably will remain in these pots for about 1 year before being transplanted into larger pots. I plan to post an update at that time.
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Plantlight: this is excellent news. I would like to ask you a few questions about your success with rooting leaf cuttings in water. Do you do your rooting inside or outside? I ask as I have repeatedly read that outside rooting is much better than indoors rooting. Secondly do you use an air pump to oxygenate your water along with an air stone/bubble stone? I just read your thread again which I had done in the past (short working memory) and have answered my question about the air pump so perhaps I should ask how often you change out the water in the jar? Also what is the PH of your local tap water (your town web site should tell you)?
I was out to the post office at lunch to post some seeds to a buddy and on the way back I gathered up a shopping bag full of fresh snow. Upon arriving home I melted the snow and then gave it a boil to kill anything that might be in it that should not be and then filtered out most of the organics of large size with a coffee filter, then I took all of my zip lock bagged Psychotria leaf cuttings and replaced the paper towel and used the melted snow (PH 5.5) to wet the fresh paper towel. The idea is to see if the cuttings respond to the lower PH which ought to suit them better than the filtered tap water I was using.
Some good news is that a good number of my non Viridis cuttings had signs of very small shoots having formed which were not there last week. I open the bags to change the air and to have a look once a week or so. I expect that I will be seeing some Viridis shoots in another 2 - 4 weeks. So I am really happy about the shoots. My fingers are crossed in hopes that the corrected PH will make my cuttings a lot happier. than they were before. Best regards mj.
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Do you do your rooting inside or outside? I ask as I have repeatedly read that outside rooting is much better than indoors rooting.
I root them indoors where I can control the environment. I'm using a heat mat right now to keep them warm enough. And a humidity chamber to keep them from wilting.
how often you change out the water in the jar?
I replace the water and clean the jar about every 2 or 3 weeks depending on how clear the water looks to me.
Also what is the PH of your local tap water (your town web site should tell you)?
Last time I tested it, the tap water was ph8.8.
I too all of my zip lock bagged Psychotria leaf cuttings and replaced the paper towel a used the melted snow (PH 5.5) to wet the paper towel. The idea is to see if the cuttings respond to the lower PH which ought to suit them better than the filtered tap water I was using.
I root in ph7 distilled water. I've tried lower ph water to root the leaves and didn't think it worked as well for me. The lower ph does make a difference in the soil, however.
The wet paper towel method works very well it you want the leaves to root in multiple places.
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Just picked up some of these for re-potting my Psychotria viridis. They are 10 inch 7.5 liter. Can hardly wait to try them. 8)
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plantlight
those are nice planters what brand and were did you buy them ?
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The small pots are Rootmaker from Rootmaker.com and the large ones are Rootmaster from Amazon.com
I don't have any previous experience with air pruning pots but I'm up for the experiment. Wish me luck :D
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Any updates on those pots?
I'm going to buying a few 'smart pot' (those fabric containers) to plant some root heavy plants. Hoping that I can grow plants for longer without the stalling do to roots reaching the bottom and circling.
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No updates except to say that they drain very well, as may be obvious from the design. I like them so well that I've purchased multiple sizes for up potting but no plants need repotting yet. I plan to update next Spring while repotting. Hoping for lots of strong healthy roots. :)
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Well, I suppose this may be of interest: Here is a photo of the test group of 18 leaves along with the progression of pots for the best growers. I plan to keep them in the starter pots for 1 year as mentioned in reply#6 above. The leaves in reply6 are the tallest in this photo - 5" tall.
The large pots pictured are 3, 7.5, and 20 by GroPro. I first purchased the 7.5 but later realized the this would not be best for the next up potting so I purchased enough 3s for all the plants shown. There is 1 plant already in a 3. I bumped it from test group early to make room for the Caboclinha that recently sprouted.
I did not document the repotting but I noted that the soil held together better than I had expected. Too soon to make an conclusions but it seems to be promising.
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I was interested in updates on how your plants did in theses types of plants .
Also has anyone used them with columnar cactus ?
also opinions on using these types of pots with cactus ?
thanks
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I wasn't pleased with them, at least the smaller pots. Too early to say with the larger ones. The small pots dried out too quickly as they drain very well and I used my usual light soil mix. I had a very difficult time keeping them hydrated in the summer.
I think the rapid drying and rehydration stressed them so that the plants in ordinary pots did better. Next time, I'll make the soil mix more dense to see if that works better. Of the 18 that I started, all but 1 are still growing but I've repotted them into larger pots and didn't notice a real difference in root formation.
The plant that died, dried out between waterings. :(
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Here is a photo of 2 leaves from the same plant started out at the same time. The one on the left in the air pot and ordinary pot on the right. I didn't start this as a test, I just didn't have enough air pots. The difference in size is startling.
One thing that exaggerates the difference is that the one on the right was given morning direct sunlight and dappled sunlight noon onward. The left got dappled light all day. So 2 things going on here. The air pot dried out quickly even in lower light and the other stayed well hydrated even though having some direct sunlight.
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My friend ended up not liking these pots either but swears by the true air pots (those spikey ones)
He said that these did dry out too quickly but there is an advantage to that.
The more your plant dries out the more you can fertilize it with nutrients, it means that its drinking a lot more. However these kinds of plants aren't like the kind of plants he's growing for this reason and are also more like vegetable crops if you will. So theres that to consider.
I want to try these for cacti so I don't have to worry as much about them here in FL, drying out super quick would mean they could take more rains, use better soil, and have healthier roots to boot. But we will see. He has promised me these to try for them.
I am trying regular fabric air pots for cacti real soon.