Hi everyone, thank you for the generosity of knowledge and experience here. I wanted to contribute a propagation log.
A variety of beautiful leaves from multiple plants around the greater Sao Paolo area were collected, some standouts including a variety that was said to display red veins in high-magnesium soils, and a narrower-leaf variety that was likely colorata.
Tragically, in transit the leaves were quite damaged and partially dried out, and the experiment has become to see if it is possible to propagate from the surviving small 1-2" pieces of leaf midrib. A neighbor was kind enough to provide 2 fully intact and healthy leaves from a young plant which are being used as the control, so to speak.
The Setup:
-A Shoebox filled with 1:1:1 Potting soil:Perlite:Vermiculite (small amount of starter fert mixed in), the medium is kept quite moist but not soaking.
-The box is kept at ~85F & 85-95% RH using a temperate probe connected to a seedling heat mat, indirect sunlight.
-The full leaves were snapped in multiple places using the accordion method and also scored shallowly along the midrib with a razor. They have been placed in the soil using the 'horizontal' method outlined in this thread.
-The midrib pieces had any brown ends freshly cut off and were dusted with rooting hormone.
Before putting the midrib pieces into the medium, a handful were showing signs of browning already, likely where they had partially dried out. As of writing, the box has been going for 3 days and many of areas of browning have spread. Holding out hope that a few will survive but thus far its not looking promising, but 'Life finds a way!"
Here are the photos and I will update with any progress along the way. I'm of course open to any observations or suggestions. Cheers!
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Topic: Psychotria viridis propagation (Read 1065208 times)