The Garden Helper

Helping Gardeners Grow Their Dreams since 1997.

No-dash-here, you've found The Real Garden Helper! Gardening on the Web since 1997

Corkscrew vine cuttings... best way to root?

Gardening Reference » Gardening in 2006
« Prev thread: corkscrew tree| Next thread: Corn!!!! »
Back to Thread index
by roflol on October 14, 2006 12:39 AM
(transplanted and expanded post from Softwood Cuttings above, realized might not get any response up there.)

I just got in the mail a box of vigna caracalla cuttings from Colorado. They look pretty healthy except the blooms had all fallen off and in the bottom of the bag, and I'm not sure they qualify as softwood... the stems are all green, not woody - what's the definition of softwood? At any rate, I am going to give this a try since I had a fresh bag of potting soil to use and I had read on davesgarden that somebody else in a cold zone takes cuttings every fall and keeps their vine "going" that way.

I gave each cutting a fresh angled cut just below a leaf node, dipped it in honey (didn't have rooting powder, and read somebody else's comment somewhere on the net that honey worked just as well for them), and put in clean pots with fresh potting soil... got 11 of those going. One of them had a green pod on it, and I'm *really* hoping it will last long enough at least to turn brown and give me the seeds, but I'm not holding my breath.

A few cuttings were gangly enough I just put them in clean water with a smidge of hydrogen peroxide, just to see what would happen.

They're all in an east-facing room in the house that gets morning sunlight (not tons but some) where I've closed the heater vent (to reduce drying out the air more than anything).

Any suggestions to improve their chances?
by tkhooper on October 14, 2006 10:19 PM
Cuttings should not be in direct light then need indirect light. Other than that you might put a humidity tray in there. And keep the soil moist but not wet. Good Luck with your cuttings and I hope that the seed pod develops viable seeds as well.

* * * *
 -
 -
by roflol on October 15, 2006 01:17 AM
Thanks, Tammy. They were in the back of the bunch as far as light goes, but I'll pull them back further as they were getting a little direct sunlight. So far so good, the leaves don't look any worse than they did when I pulled them out of the box 2 days ago so here's hoping!
by nmlAlba-dC15 on October 18, 2006 11:46 AM
Hi roflol...

outta curiosity ... how many cuttings do u have? i tried sorcing for this plant some time in da past...found that they r expensive..so i gave up!

* * * *
 -
i believe that somewhere in da darkest night...a candle glows,
i believe for every drop of rain that falls...a flower grows....
by roflol on October 18, 2006 06:51 PM
Ended up with 14 or so, but they are not doing so well right now with leaves dropping off daily. Oh well. It's not over for me until they're brown moldy sticks. Then I give up too.
by nmlAlba-dC15 on October 19, 2006 09:54 AM
Well..i wish u da best... hope if not all at least some will survive... i'll pray for u... know why?? ...i hope in da future i can trade something for a cutting or 2 ...LOL!!

* * * *
 -
i believe that somewhere in da darkest night...a candle glows,
i believe for every drop of rain that falls...a flower grows....
by roflol on October 19, 2006 12:29 PM
lol, I understand. I think they're gonna need the prayers.

[Big Grin]
by roflol on November 04, 2006 09:20 AM
Know what, nmlAlba? I think your prayers are half working.... Here's the update (at the risk of jinxing the whole works):

After losing all but 3 leaves and having to pitch half of the cuttings because they did end up brown and moldy, I have 3 that actually have new leaves growing, 3 that still have green stems and what look like leaf nodes starting, and one still in water that hasn't turned brown yet (it may have water roots, I'm not sure).

Plus the seed pod is still green, but the stem it's on is very brown so I'm just leaving it alone hoping that time is all it needs to give us some viable seeds.

[grin]
by tkhooper on November 04, 2006 11:43 PM
I'm going to pray for you too. I've never seed the plant but I love the name. That may have something to do with me being twisted, I'm not exactly sure about that yet lol. Keep us posted ok?

* * * *
 -
 -
by roflol on November 16, 2006 12:27 AM
The saga continues... we are down to 5 cuttings and I am concerned as yesterday one of them (the thicker-stemmed one) the leaves turned yellow pretty much overnight, and one of the other "older" cuttings (ones I put into soil immediately) the stem is starting to darken and the leaf buds it started have stopped developing. These older cuttings have 2-3 roots coming out of the bottom of their pots (long white roots).

These older ones I have had in a plastic-lined box and had water in the plastic liner so they would be getting water from the bottom, but it did dry out one-two days which seems to be when the trouble began.

The "younger" cuttings (the ones I started in water and just moved into soil recently, and are currently in pots soaking in water) seem to be doing fine.

They are all in potting soil that says it should "feed" for 2-3 months. I haven't added anything but water.

It almost seems like they do well in the early stages of rooting, and then they need me to do something else but I don't know what it is so they die.

Any suggestions?
by nmlAlba-dC15 on November 20, 2006 03:27 PM
Hi roflol...

didnt notice your message for me before... m still praying hard for u... well i do hope some will survive....!!

So how r they now...?

m now trying to root some Camellia cuttings... i do hope some of 'em will survive...if not all LOL!!

* * * *
 -
i believe that somewhere in da darkest night...a candle glows,
i believe for every drop of rain that falls...a flower grows....
by roflol on November 21, 2006 04:42 AM
I opened a new thread under pests and diseases since we got the cuttings to root, but in a nutshell:

Lost 2 more rooted cuttings, and I'm not feeling too confident of these anymore. :-\ Oh well. God already knows the outcome of this, I just pray that I am graceful in accepting that outcome and learn something from it. :-)

I guess I'm successful at getting them to root, but after that I don't know what to do or when, and I haven't found find any info...

[tears]

The seed pod dried and opened, but the 5 or so seeds that were inside were much smaller than the pics of others I had seen and I doubt they are viable (nicked and soaked one, nothing has happened yet after a week).

Ohhhhhhhhhhh, well. Could be worse.

Active Garden Forum

« Prev thread: corkscrew tree| Next thread: Corn!!!! »
Back to Thread index


Search The Garden Helper: