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[Bach]

I was idly wondering last week whether kratom, being in the same family as my beloved Psychotrias would share the trait of propagating from leaf cuttings. Coffee will work that way so why not krat?

So I plucked a leaf from the big Rifat and placed it in one of my Psychotria leaf trays.

I looked at it today and the stem had formed a knobby looking callous on the cut end which is very encouraging. No roots or anything yet but I'll report progress here as things develop.

If this works it stands to free up trading krat quite a bit, especially when sending internationally.

Anybody else try this yet?

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[EIRN]

News?

[cactusmuncher]

I have tried rooting three kratom leaves. 1 in water and 2 in soil. Both dried up and became quite crinkly and had to be discarded. If I had the opportunity I would have created a more humid environment for them.

[Mangrove]

How closely related are coffee and kratom? I'd like to know if the entire psychotria genus can be taken from leaf cutting, or if that special trait is endemic to only a few species of psychotria. My Kratoms are doing well atm; I was wondering when I should take them inside (AKA how low can the temps go before they don't grow no more?) I know that E. Novo dies below 50 Farenheit, but idk how kratom would handle the North-Central FL winter (5 out of your 7 strains of psychotria managed to propagate from leaf cutting when left outside over last year's winter; 4/7 which I kept inside died primarily from humidity shock), and would like some advice.

Thanks,
-Mangrove

[Bach]

Coffee, kratom and Psychotrias are all in the Rubiaceae. Psychotria and Coffea are much more closely related than kratom is to either on based on morphology.

I'm not 100% sure if propagation from leaf cuttings is a genus-wide phenomenon but it works with every single Psychotria I have tried it with (about ten species). Works for coffee too.

The single kratom leaf I tried started browning at the stem and it eventually consumed the entire leaf. I'll try more sometime.

One way that kratom is distinctly different is that it is way more deciduous (usually having to do with dryness) than psychotrias which tend to hang onto their leaves forever. This may not bode well for leaf cuttings but we won't know for sure until we have a number of trial under our belts.

E. novo does not die below 50F. It doesn't like it but it won't kill it either. That said don't keep them outside for weeks at a time when it's in the 30s.

Kratom seems pretty easy to put into dormancy for winter. Just keep it on the dry side and bring it in when it gets cold. One or two winters I kept mine in the garage for a couple months. Lost all it's leaves and it took a while to wake up again, like June or so but it made it through just fine. It's 17 feet tall now, still in a (large) pot.
 

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