Leaf Cutting Woe

[PitcherPlantr]

I find making cuttings is easy with practice. I take as much of the leaf a possible put it into a pot with regular CP soil. Then I burry the tip a little but still have most of the it out in the light. Put a bag over it and wait a couple weeks.

I have a 100% success rate.

Hoped it Helped!

[jimscott]

I find making cuttings is easy with practice. I take as much of the leaf a possible put it into a pot with regular CP soil. Then I burry the tip a little but still have most of the it out in the light. Put a bag over it and wait a couple weeks.

I have a 100% success rate.

Hoped it Helped!

I have done that before. Some species are more challenging (gypsicola, lauenea, colimensis). I have also had some leaves rot in a baggie. It's those 3 that I struggle with. The rest sprout easily enough no matter what I do.

[Joseph Clemens]

When I first received my Pinguicula jaumavensis, it arrived smashed and beginning to rot. In desperation I sprinkled a light dusting of dry RootShield® powder on the smashed and rotting pile of plant parts. I kept them on a dry paper towel in a cool, humid, and well-lit spot under my fluorescent lights. The rot was arrested and not only did the original crowns recover and begin to grow, but most of the severed leaves that had began to rot, sprouted plantlets.

Perhaps a similar treatment, such as dipping your difficult species leaf-pullings in RootShield®, (like cooks sometimes dip meat in flour to form a thin coating), may help them to survive until they can grow for you.

[jimscott]

How about sulfur? I have that on hand.

[Joseph Clemens]

How about sulfur? I have that on hand.

I don't think it would function the same; RootShield® is a living organism that forms a symbiosis with living plant tissue and feeds on pathogenic microorganisms and even nematode eggs; sulfur is a chemical element that is a plant nutrient, when in certain chemical forms (compounds), and is also assimilated by soil bacteria and converted into sulfuric acid and other sulfur containing compounds.

Though I have experience using RootShield® to protect our precious Pings - I sprinkle a little in each planting hole, and I mix a little into my dried insect powder (while I'm grinding it) - I haven't used powdered sulfur, except to acidify soil. If you have a few leaf-pullings to try it on, I'd go for it. If you do, let us know how it goes.

[jimscott]

Years ago I had a bottle of Rootone®. I'll have to look around for a retailer with RootShield®. Thanks for the guidance!

[RL7836]

Since RootShield® is T-22 form of Trichoderma, I wonder if other types of Trichoderma would be as effective in this application?

[Joseph Clemens]

Here is a link to my favorite retail supplier of RootShield®. Rootone®, of course, is an entirely different product, a rooting hormone + fungicide. I once was following a thread where someone was planning to use Rootone® to see if it would enhance propagation from leaf-pullings of Mexican Ping species. I don't believe they ever reported on their results.