Items you will need:
cutting box (many holes on the bottom, good depth for roots) can be found in most garden stores
pearlite- a light compound that does not hold water- this is your rooting medium
KLN - we recommend this solution- we've tried them all, expensive gels, really cheap root tone, and finally our stand by liquid rooting hormone by far for cost and result exceeds most other products
GLEO- expensive rooting hormone, applied only when the cutting has roots- not necessary but for fast results and EXCELLENT root growth use this- follow instructions carefully-
water - easily accesible- cuttings must have either misting or any good watering (one gallon per cutting box) in the morning and evening will suffice (this scenario is NOT in a greenhouse. in a greenhouse cuttings would NEED constant misting to survive the high heat of summer.)
clear plastic - to cover cuttings- helps keep moisture and is a great rooting environment- great humidity encourages roots to seek open air for they seek moisture
Your house- Think of a warm, dark corner, under cupboard, under bed, in your closet- you will want to put your cuttings in the semi-dark for the first 2 days- with regular watering under the plastic dome which after 2 days you can move your plant to a light bulb that will provide 12 hours of light. Plants will be covered by the plastic with regular watering.
Gloves- using rooting hormones, fertilizer, bug spray or any solution for gardening is not good for humans. please please please always wear gloves when using such products. Our skin is very porous and we don't want rooting hormone in our system, then we'd like Incredible Hulk. ick.
To Start-
Your mother plant (what any plant is called that you take cuttings from) should be at least two months old. Of course to ensure that there is more than one shoot, pinch the new growth (2 leaves) at the height of 8 inches (trust me). It will seemingly not grow for a week, but more leaf shoots will appear as well as hopefully two more spikes. To make more than three spikes, wait until your plant is 12 inches and cut first cutting at the third set of leaves from the top (leaving two sets of leaves for your cutting- extremely small and light green leaves don't count) From the bottom of the plant as many as five spikes will appear. To stop overcrowding maintaining your plant is now necessary- this means taking regular cuttings (every four-six weeks) Or not. You choose. Then the plant grows up and is 'bushy'. You can creat more widespread 'creeping' if you take cuttings- we'll talk about this later-
What you have for a cutting is 2 bright green very small leaves just at the center of the cutting. 2 more leaves of regular size, stem of 2-4 inches, 2 more leaves of bigger size, stem 2-4 inches(where you cut). The biggest set of leaves, strip them from the stem, with scissors or your gloved hands suffice. These bald spots or NODES are where the roots will first appear or at your cut (45 degree angle).
With your mix of K-L-N and water, let the plant soak for 15 minutes. My coworker believes it is best for the plant if only the cut stem is standing in water, but I've found if the cutting is completely immersed bugs will drown as well as eggs- mostly. Less bugs in your cutting box. Don't spray new cuttings. We'll talk about this later.
Take the cutting box and fill it 3/4 full of pearlite. Soak with water. Ph-ing your water is always a good precaution- is not so important with garden cuttings or even Salvia d, but is VERY important with another plant that is much sought after (origin INDIA). Perfect Ph is 6.5-7.5
The pearlite is somewhat 'hard' now. Take your scissors or gloved finger and make holes in the pearlite where your cuttings will go. Doing this in a line is better rather than random. This way more cuttings can take root in your box maximizing the pearlite use (its expensive). The pearlite can also be used three times or more if dying leaves, green chunks and dirt are removed either during or after the cuttings are transplanted.
After 15 minutes- up to 3 hours- though success rate of rooting is less after the 'cut' has softened- place your cutting up to the first node where you had stripped the biggest set of leaves. You might have to 'pat' or 'fill' the hole ( you can also make a line from one end of the box to the other thereby not creating individual holes). After all cuttings are placed in box, take a sprayer, a hose is not recommended or have an attachment that disperses the harsh flow- watering will 'cement' the pearlite around the stem. Cover with your clear plastic. Place in dark corner with warm heat for two days, watering regularly.
When watering your cuttings it is not necessary to fix K-L-N with your water- but if you wanted fast results, you can water once a day with K-L-N. Without the rooting hormone the cutting will root in two weeks. Make sure to water ONCE a day, in the morning is better. With the KLN i hav seen results in 7 days. Though there are only four GOOD roots, planting in peat moss will make slow growth. The cutting will produce roots faster in the cutting box than a cutting with four good roots. Leave your cutting in the box until a good ball comes out. Growth and transplanting results will LOOK much better if the roots are balls rather than singular growths.
You can find any clear plastic bag, rip it open til it can lay flat and place it over your cutting box. This is a simple way to make a 'greenhouse'. If your plastic touches the plant, place sticks (clean- not from your hard) in the pearlite and make a tent of your clear plastic.
If using one cutting box is too much, take a regular one gallon or 45 inch pot (?) and fill it with pearlite. you could place 1-5 cuttings in the pot and continue with the regular instructions. When placing your cuttings in light, place lamp 8-12 inches from plants- light bulb- if using grow lights, a thousand watt light is TOO much. Salvia hates light. It will survive, make roots, but it will be yellow and your PGE bill will be too high. A six light fluorence was used, makes great green leaves, though place two feet-three feet above cuttings. This is unneccessary because salvia d could make cuttings with a light bulb, cheap, easy, no hanging of heavy equipment, etc. Place it under a lamp with a timer. Needs 12 hours. If the plant has to endure more than 12 hours, it will suffer-yellow, get bugs, etc. If the plant gets less, it would root in four weeks.
Use a light bulb, a timer can be expensive but if you turn on the lamp when you get up and turn it off when you go to bed, that would be fine. Remember to Water. Pearlite doesn't hold water. Whatever moisture you give is what you get How much you water
You can choose to remove the plastic but the plants love it. Though if you keep the plastic on for the whole duration of their rooting, one must be careful to cover them as well in the first few days of transplanting, making sure the cover has air holes. No air flow at this stage could rot the roots. In watered dirt, the plants will create a lot of humidity and stems can rot at this stage if your dome or cover doesn't have air holes, but it is important to cover them. If you don't cover with plastic in these first few days to one week of their first week of dirt (peat moss) they will be fine but look kind of peaked. Which any plant will look like this in the first few days of transplanting. I have never used B-1 on Salvia d transplantings, and can't imagine they would be okay- they are highly sensitive to base fertilizer. Sensitive as in die.
If curious and would like to check the status of your root growth it is posible to check. At 7 days, choose one strong cutting and lightly pull at the stem. If it holds, it has root growth. Don't touch again until you are ready to transplant. If you take it out of the pearlite to check how much root growth you have, expect that particular cutting to suffer and take 3 more days than the other cuttings. Now, find your weakest cutting. VERY lightly pull on it. It will probably not be as strong as your pull on the stronger cutting, but it might if you have been religious about your KLN.
When you are ready to transplant, use small pots with peat moss. A plant will send its roots out first and when it touches the edge of the pot will start to grow up. If you use a one gallon pot, don't expect the plant to grow well. It might stay the same size for a long time.
In a small pot your Salvia d, in perfect conditions and dirt (see other June Blogs), will have fuzzy white roots at the end of 1.5 weeks. It is ready to transplant to a one gallon pot or bigger. Though i like using the one gallon before the squat five gallon, with the same idea previously stated. It will be easier for the plant to grow with smaller restrictions. If you have spindley brown roots, you are giving it too much water.
By this time you have to be vigilant about watering because your salvia d is in a small pot. It can die if not watered because the roots are sensitively providing the cutting with its own nutrients. From here you can fertilize (after the plant has been in the small pot for two weeks- which it should be transplanted then or you can have stunting) with ACID FERTILIZER. You can cause severe damage at this stage if you feed it base fertilizer.
If you accidentally do this you can flush the plant out with water. Over and over and over. Water it the next day and the next, til it looks like a Florida swamp. You might come away with just two burned yellow leaves, two weeks of no growth, but your plant will survive. and in this instance, NO SUN. You don't want your plant to have to endure any other hardship than the wrong fertilizer.
And if you didn't want to take your own cutting, which if you test this with any other garden plant, non tubers, bulbs etc, you will have great success, you can order your Salvia from Theatrum Botanicum. The 'problem' with Salvia d, is that the root is semi-soft. A good cutting is a woody cutting, though not real wood, Mate for this reason is HARD to root for this reason.
If the stem is too new, bright green, flimsy, the stem does not have enough growth to sustain the cutting and create new roots. A good square, half inch stem is perfect. I've done much much smaller but it takes two months. This is good to do when you need your plant to 'surge'. Small snips of decent size, four sets of leaves, counting the new growth, takes two months to root and even longer in dirt to grow up. However, these kind of 'pruning' measures are great when you want to stimulate your plant to grow. If you witness a stagnancy with your plant, for reasons unkown, no real growth or happy big leaves are coming, your plant needs incentive to expand. Small snips let its survival instinct to turn on, thereby making the plant rapidly create more shoots to ensure survival. This must be done when your plant is stuck or it will not do anything. Maybe a good top dressing of peat moss would jump start it, but i've seen fertilizer do nothing if not harm the plant. Sometimes if we start taking from the plant it can get confused as to its function.
I heard from a conservationist that every time she took a plant for research the plant always came easier AFTER she had permission to take it. If you have problems, take a moment, be silent and say, I'm going to take a cutting. Then youre set.
Good luck, easy cuttings. They will survive during anything.
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