Rooting cuttings

[binley100]

If my Mum wanted to take cuttings of shrubs , fuchsias etc she used to snip a piece off and stick it in a glass of water. In fact a lot of the shrubs in our garden she rooted for me. Anyway I thought I'd give it a go as I want rosemary and Lavender bushes for the lottie. Well they have been sitting in a glass of water for just less than a week and I've just notice roots appearing .How easy is that.

[shushkin!]

Well done Binley
I am so impressed I am going to have to give it a go now
myself. My Gran used to do the same and I thought it was
magic when I was wee kid.

[stella]

My rosemary has been in a glass of water for over a week and nothing yet. What have I done wrong

[binley100]

Patience is a virtue my Mum used to say.
I must admit I'm still waiting for some of them to root .Now if only I could get my broad beans to germinate

[Jardiniere]

isnt there a danger they will rot before they root?

[binley100]

If you use twiggy (technical term ) bits that have some new growth at the top they should be ok and maybe cut them just under a leaf joint, then take off some of the lower leaves.

[Flummery]

You have to use special water - and stick your tongue out the corner of your mouth!
It dousn't always work but it's always worth a try for free plants.

[starloc]

rooting in water works well i do loads of plants in it, even citrus ones, now i use a home made bubble cloner so the roots dont rot at all due to dissolved oxygen

doing it in water with no bubbles of oxygen, you can mix up agar as a gel like the pots you buy, using water change the water every few days to stop it getting smelly if you dont want to do anything more severe (fungicide etc) ,
If you want you can feed them as well, use a tiny bit of sugar in the water to feed the plant as well, if you want to use rooting gel pots add the whole lot to some agar to make a gel

I use a tiny bit of hydrogen peroxide, bit of sugar, bit of indole butyric acid in the water to root things, it works very quickly, the hydrogen peroxide kills germs and adds oxygen to the water so the plant wont rot, but its literaly one drop you need

If you pop some rooting powder ( a pinch or two ) in the water with a pinch of sugar, the rooting powder accelerates the rooting and the suagr feeds the plant,the rooting powder has fungicide in it as well

Waters fine on its own, but i like to mess round

[Flummery]

There you are - special water, like I said!

[stella]

Special water!!! I thought you meant blessed or something cos I need all the help I can get. Just had another look..... nothing so I gave them 2 grains of sugar not got any of the other stuff, thats as special as it gets in my house.

[shushkin!]

rooting in water works well i do loads of plants in it, even citrus ones, now i use a home made bubble cloner so the roots dont rot at all due to dissolved oxygen

doing it in water with no bubbles of oxygen, you can mix up agar as a gel like the pots you buy, using water change the water every few days to stop it getting smelly if you dont want to do anything more severe (fungicide etc) ,
If you want you can feed them as well, use a tiny bit of sugar in the water to feed the plant as well, if you want to use rooting gel pots add the whole lot to some agar to make a gel

I use a tiny bit of hydrogen peroxide, bit of sugar, bit of indole butyric acid in the water to root things, it works very quickly, the hydrogen peroxide kills germs and adds oxygen to the water so the plant wont rot, but its literaly one drop you need

If you pop some rooting powder ( a pinch or two ) in the water with a pinch of sugar, the rooting powder accelerates the rooting and the suagr feeds the plant,the rooting powder has fungicide in it as well

Waters fine on its own, but i like to mess round

I am going to have to have a go making and trying out this magic water.
Cheers for the info. Where do yu get your indole butyric acid from though?
I dont know if I could say it let alone spell it if asked!

[Two_Sheds]

I'm glad you brought this up, I'd forgotten about some coleus canina cuttings I had in water: just checked, and 90% of them have roots. Duly potted up.

Dahlias will be next (they've also been sat in water on a cold windowsill for a fortnight or more)

[Flummery]

Special water!!! I thought you meant blessed or something cos I need all the help I can get. Just had another look..... nothing so I gave them 2 grains of sugar not got any of the other stuff, thats as special as it gets in my house.

Nah - I was just being tongue-in-cheeky - 'cos I'm like that - cheeky!
I didn't realise you could put added nutrients till I read Starloc's post, although it makes sense.

[Lovage]

Another 'magic ingredient' to help rooting of difficult things is extract of willow.
Willow is one of the easiest things to root ever - if you root some pieces of willow in water then use the same water for other cuttings it will really increase the likelyhood of sucess. You can also use the same water on cuttings in compost.
I'm sure you could google more details

[binley100]

..........or you could just get a holy man round to bless it
Gosh there was me thinking twigs , pot of water how simple. Should have known nothing in life is ever that simple