The Hayward Kiwi branches that I got from the California Rare Fruit Grower’s 2006 Golden Gate Chapter Scion Exchange back in January have sprouted quite a bit and I’m not sure what to do with them. Should I:
1. Plant the whole branch in soil?
2. Cut the new (green) growth and root the cutting, then plant that?
3. Something else?
These branches (one male and one female) are sitting in water on my shelf under grow lights.
I asked these question on a propagation forum but wanted see if anyone here had additional information.
I’ve dipped cuttings in rooting hormone then placed it in soil to root. I was wondering if you can use rooting hormone in other ways:
1. Will rooting hormone added to water accelerate rooting of cuttings? (assuming the plant roots in water, i.e. coleus)
2. Can you sprinkle rooting hormone on a crawling plant’s stem that is in contact with soil to accelerate it’s rooting? (assuming the plant roots when in contact with soil, i.e. mint, creeping jenny, some succulents)?
3. Are these applications not a good idea or bad for the cuttings?
Thanks in advance for your help.
For Christmas, one of my best friends, Michael, gave me Tulips in this cool little pot. The Tulips are emerging and now about 1 inch tall.
I found this near the area where I found the seedling from a few day ago. I think they are Pine Nuts. Can anyone confirm? I planted them and we’ll see if they grow.
My co-worker’s Zygocactus is dropping its leaves. She was going to throw the broken pieces away, so I yelled “NO!!!”… and she gave it to me. Yet another propagation project.
After work, I passed by Target and saw these Terra Cotta Pots that I thought were cool. They are different than your standard Terra Cotta Pot. They measure 4 inch wide by 3.5 inch tall and cost 79 cents each. (3 cents more than all 600 bulbs my brother got yesterday)
Just a thought… When I get my own house, I want to get a live Christmas Tree to plant in a large container. I’ll keep it in the back and take to the front of the house and decorated with lights at Christmas time. I’ll so some research and see what trees don’t grow too big or can be controlled with pruning.
Does anyone do this?
I posted the following in the Gardening community ( link )
Hello Fellow Plant-lovers… I’ve just began to get interested in the Latin names of my various plants and have a few questions about nomenclature. Please forgive me/correct me if I’m using the incorrect terms.
I’m using these 6 examples for the questions below:
a. Kalanchoe tomentosa
b. Crassula perfoliata ‘Falcata’
c. Crassula perfoliata var. falcata
d. Crassula perfoliata falcata ‘Morgans Beauty’
e. Crassula perfoliata ssp. falcata
f. Crassula lycopodioides f. variegata
I generally have seen the Latin names as [Genus species] as in (a). I’ve also seen [Genus species ‘Something’] as in (b).
1. Is the ‘Something’ between the single quotes called a “cultivar”?
Today as I was surfing Google, I ran into a couple of unfamiliar nomenclatures (c-f)
2. Is (c) equivalent to (b)?… and what does “var.” mean?
3. In (d) they have 4 terms. Is this a correct usage?
4. In (e) and (f), what does “ssp.” and “f.” mean.
Sorry, if I sound so elementary. I’ve generally been using the common names of my plants, but recently discovered I have a couple of plants that have the same common name, like “Jade Plant”.
Thanks in advance for all your help.
Also, if any one of you is good at identifying plant names, I have a photo set on flickr.com with plants I can’t identify. You can check it out here. ( link )
I just discovered that one of our freelancers here at work is really into cactus and succulents, like me. I was trying to explain on of my favorites. it’s kinda toupe or grayish tan with long spines that look like thin fingernails. Then I tried to draw it:
[Edited July 20, 2005] I found it with the help of (Anonymous). It’s a Opuntia Diademanta. Here are some pics of it: ( link 1 ) ( link 2 )
[Edited July 25, 2006] The actual name of this cactus is ‘Tephrocactus articulatus var. papyracanthus’ or Paper Spine Cactus. ( DG PlantFile )
When I went to the garden today, I noticed that my mom’s Jade Plant (Crassula argentea) was laying on the ground. At first I thought my mom pulled it out, but after inspecting it, it looks like the plant broke from its weight. I was wondering why my mom would pull a plant that we’ve had for over 18 years. It has grown over 5 feet tall (64 inches); the trunk measured about 5 inch in diameter and about 16 inch around.
Help!… I’m not sure what to do. Will this plant root if I dig a hole and place the broken trunk in it? Will it root if I place the trunk in a bucket of water? Is there a way to save or revive the whole plant?
My Mom’s broken Jade Plant
As our weather is getting warmer, I’m getting worried about my vegetable beds drying out too much. I’ve read about using shredded newspaper as an inexpensive mulch and thought I would try it. After placing the newspaper mulch in a section of my vegetable bed, I thought to myself that it kinda looks weird, like I’m growing vegetable on some other planet.
My only worry, besides the cosmetic appearance is the pill bugs and earwigs having more places to hide, but that may be true with any mulch…
Have any of you had experience using newspaper as mulch (negative or positive)? Did it work? Were bugs a problem?