Print

[jbz711]

Anyone have any recommendations for propagation of E. Novo from cuttings? I recently took a green cutting with a scalpel, and trimmed it send to a taper, dipped it in rooting hormone and stuck it in a net pot filled with perlite sealed inside a plastic bag on a shelf in my greenhouse. It's been in the bag for over a month, and still has green leaves that look healthy, but still no roots. Who has had success propagating this way? I know I can wait for berries, but I grew these ones from seed and want to see if we can get things going quicker now.

[JMZ]

I was able to root 3 last year. At the time I was rooting some cuttings from my yard in big clear plastic box that I kept outside in partial sun. My dog kept breaking branches on my novos, and I’d just stick them in the box full of other cuttings, all of which were in potting soil. It wasn’t until I brought everything in for the winter that I noticed that three had rooted. My success was low, maybe 15%, but it is possible. I did this as a shot in the dark since the limbs were already broken and I already had a place to stick them. I didn’t follow it closely, I was expecting them to all die. I planted berries in this same box, the germination rate was pretty low for that, maybe 30%. I gave the clones and seedlings away, but I know that one of the clones is about 5 inches tall now and covered in flowers, HaHa. IME Novo seedlings are very tender for much of the first year, clones seem to be robust and much less likely to get broken by a surprise thunderstorm. I mailed those clones bare root in a zip lock bag with a few drops of water, and they are all living today. I’ll try again once my plants go back outside.

[jbz711]

Can you be more specific about the branches, were they all still green or at all lignified? Did you use rooting hormone?  Did the plastic box have a lid and can you guesstimate temperatures it was exposed to and how long before rooting?  Do you have any opinion as to where on the mother plant cuttings should be taken from (base, crown, etc.)?

[JMZ]

The box did have a clear plastic lid. The box itself had small holes drilled in it from when it was used as a shotgun fruiting chamber for mushrooms. I did this in late summer or early fall in Georgia, so it was easily 90+ degrees inside the box during the day. Most of the branches were from the side of the plant, and I’d stick them in the soil as soon as I realized they were broken. I’m not sure, but I think I did use a rooting hormone. If so, it was several years old, and I’ve never found that it helps with other plants. Rooting didn’t happen fast, at least a month but probably closer to 2 months. My plants are long and lanky so I’m planning on cutting them way back in the spring. I’ll have a lot of material to experiment with so maybe I’ll be able to determine what the proper conditions are.

1 Like Jfart likes this.

[JMZ]

Let’s see a seedling flower like this cutting! The flowers are new, they developed after rooting and getting sent to it’s new owner. This cutting is pretty sturdy, a seedling this size would easily get trampled to death by a thunderstorm.

1 Like Jfart likes this.

[valec]

Just to support this: E. novo can be propagated from cuttings. The success rate is pretty low (maybe 20%), but rather small cuttings, just slightly lignified, can take. Dip them in rooting gel, place in a light potting soil (or coco choir), cover with a humidity dome and be patient. You'll see that some don't drop their leaves - and after a couple of months in which you keep the soil slightly moist always, they may actually start to grow.

With E. coca instead it seems impossible.

1 Like nobody likes this.