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Casuarius

Banisteriopsis caapi Propagation 101

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Hola Amigos

Today I am going to show how to make cuttings of B.Caapi. B.Caapi is as easy as P.V to propagate. This is a good thing :)

Being a large liana vine B.Caapi in its normal habitat has no problems "multiplying" Most of its runner vines put down roots and even larger sections of vine put out aerial roots.

Here is a picture of a caapi putting out aerial roots.

gallery_7845_346_50760.jpg

Because of the nature of this liana propagating it is a very simple process if we stick to simple techniques.

I am going to use a heap of red caapi that came down when the tree it was loving fell over. Ideally the best pieces to propagate are woody sections. The thicker the better. However I can understand and emphasize if you want to keep the really thick sections to admire on their own!

While you can use "green" sections the thin green parts they are much more hit and miss and lack the vigor of woody sections.

gallery_7845_346_51166.jpg

In the tropics I can take any woody section, put it vertically in soil and within a couple weeks it will out roots and new growth tips, The piece doesnt even need any nodes. I mostly get 99% strike rate.

I know we don't have me tropical growers here so I have adapted it slightly for people who are in less ideal conditions.

Take a piece of vine and cut it into "T" sections like so:

gallery_7845_346_28111.jpg

Simply place these cuttings in your prefered potting medium, In my case I use coco peat but any moisture retaining medium will work. I dont use any rooting hormones however they might help your rates, This again totally depends on your location.

Place the cuttings somewhere shady with filtered light and be patient. It can be anywhere from a couple of weeks to a couple of months until you see progress. If you do this correctly and depending on the temp and humidity of your location you should achieve at least 80% strike rate. My favorite place to put them is under a larger caapi plant and use it for shade.

Air layering is also very successful but more work and slower results.

Most experienced caapi growers are probably are aware of all this, However I think this information will be help for most :)

gallery_7845_346_62050.jpg

Saludos

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Excellent, thanks Casuarius.

I have never noticed aerial roots on my vine (5 or 6 y.o. maybe), not that I've really looked that closely the last few years. Any other aussies in NSW get aerial roots? Maybe it's a tropics thing?

When you say the thicker the better, what's the thickest you've propagated? I've only used thin (<5mm) bits. Would it work with an arm thickness piece?

Interesting that you say the piece doesn't even need any nodes? Do you mean apart from the central node (in your "T" sections picture) or no nodes at all?

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Maybe it's a tropics thing?

 

The aerial roots are are a humidity + moisture creation. Age can play a small part to i noticed.

When you say the thicker the better, what's the thickest you've propagated? I've only used thin (<5mm) bits. Would it work with an arm thickness piece?

 

I think an arm thickness cutting would be a bit of a waste my friend :) I don't really know if that would work, May be it could and I cant see why not but its much more practical to use the smaller thickness. I think 10mm would be the ideal size and i would only go up to about 25mm anything larger isnt really needed and would be more a waste than anything.

Interesting that you say the piece doesn't even need any nodes? Do you mean apart from the central node (in your "T" sections picture) or no nodes at all?

 

The T section cutting roots the fastest, Ideally most cuttings will root from the node and if your in a colder climate the nodes will make it easier. The T section uses the center node and doesnt need another one. In the Papua i have had offcuts before without nodes that i just put in the soil vertically and i have them put out roots without any effort. After the roots grow you get a shoot spring out from between the roots and the stem and off it goes. Its a bit of a weedy behavior I think.

Saludos

Edited by Casuarius
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it's better when you take a heeled cutting, the side of the T bar which is above the (green)side shoot will just rot otherwise.

so instead of a T shape better cut a L shape!

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Is it normal for them to drop their leaves before the new growth emerges , or is that just a symptom of low RH and a dry environment ?

:drool2:

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What angle to you plant yours into the soil Planthelper?

If you plant the T upside down with the hard part horizontally and the green section as a "stem" you get root formation on both sides of the node and new shoots emerge on each side of the green section. If you plant them on a angle you usually only get one shoot and one formation of roots. One other thing to pay attention to is the depth of woody part - Keep it closer to the surface of the soil and not to deep.

The green section isn't really needed because most new growth occur as new shoots under the soil. The green section usually goes dormant and won't do much for a while.

I use the green shoot primarily as a indicator to show me if the cutting is staying level under the media.

The leaf drop is of no concern, Caapi cuttings sometimes do this. As I said above the growth that matters will come from new vine shoots from the corners.

Saludos

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what a gold mine of information

now all have to do is find a plant :wink:

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another cool little tek is to pull down a low section of vine and pin down each node in the soil or mix and when the majority have taken cut them away from the main vine.

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Nice write up, thanks for taking the time to do it.

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another cool little tek is to pull down a low section of vine and pin down each node in the soil or mix and when the majority have taken cut them away from the main vine.

 

often a vine will root if you put a potted plant on top of a node and water occasionally.

t s t .

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What angle to you plant yours into the soil Planthelper?

If you plant the T upside down with the hard part horizontally and the green section as a "stem" you get root formation on both sides of the node and new shoots emerge on each side of the green section. If you plant them on a angle you usually only get one shoot and one formation of roots. One other thing to pay attention to is the depth of woody part - Keep it closer to the surface of the soil and not to deep.

The green section isn't really needed because most new growth occur as new shoots under the soil. The green section usually goes dormant and won't do much for a while.

Saludos

 

i was told the T methode and always planted as you said, but not once (in hundresds of cuttings) i saw roots comming out of the (semi)hardwood above the green, so now i prefer L shapes... there are only a few plants which will throw roots above a node, salvia div is one of them, maybe caapi can do it in the extreem tropics.

when i did cut T sections, the wood above the green shoot would always just rot away.

my green parts never go dormant during probagation.

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Excellent, thanks Casuarius.

I have never noticed aerial roots on my vine (5 or 6 y.o. maybe), not that I've really looked that closely the last few years. Any other aussies in NSW get aerial roots? Maybe it's a tropics thing?

 

Yes thanks indeed Casuarius

Love all your contributions..

Yep in Northern Rivers of NSW aerial roots on 4y.o. plant - subtropical rainforest site on basalt alluvium near sea level..

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yesterday, i took some cuttings from my caapi and whils doing so i noticed one of the shoots had sprawled on the ground for quite a distance...

when i pulled the "runner" out, i saw it had formed some roots, and when i inspected closer, you guessed right,

none of the roots, had formed above the node. this is further proof, that what i said above is correct, horizontal planting makes no difference and T sections, will not form roots on top of the internode.

L shapes are better.

another thing i observed was that the whole sections of the shoot displayed trifoliate leaf arrangement.

unfortunately, casuarious deleted the thread about trifoliate leave forms.

we don't like it, if people delete there posts, and i told you so befor when you did delete your posts for the first time.

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Great thread, some really useful information. Must be good growing caapi in it's preferred environment.

Thanks for the information and awesome photos.

:drool2::worship::)

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Does Banisteriopsis caapi like to root deep or shallow?

I'm wanting to plant out a cutting into a pot for it to live in for the next couple of years and was wondering if a shallow or deep one would make the cutting happier.

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Does Banisteriopsis caapi like to root deep or shallow?

I'm wanting to plant out a cutting into a pot for it to live in for the next couple of years and was wondering if a shallow or deep one would make the cutting happier.

 

i would go for shallow, because it probably will provide a more even textured and moist enviroment.

deep pot's can easely get very wet and soggy at the bottom end...

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Hi there just wondering if anyone could tell me if the cappi vine is a fast or a slow grower and what conditions suits it best. I live in south east queensland conditions red soil high rain fall. My vine is currently out side it is only a baby. Has two leaves yet there has been no sign of it getting sick and now sign of it growing eather should I put it in a more controled enviroment aka in a pot indoors under a heat light...Share thoughs.

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Hi there just wondering if anyone could tell me if the cappi vine is a fast or a slow grower and what conditions suits it best. I live in south east queensland conditions red soil high rain fall. My vine is currently out side it is only a baby. Has two leaves yet there has been no sign of it getting sick and now sign of it growing eather should I put it in a more controled enviroment aka in a pot indoors under a heat light...Share thoughs.

 

It's fast! mine has doubled it's size in 6 weeks!! Filtered light, humidity and it should be fine. You repot it from the little seedling pot that it came in??

Edited by EssEllBee
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Great thread! Cheers for all the advice which I'm going to need right about now.

I've got a pretty young caapi in a pot. At the base it might be almost a centimeter thick. Last night I accidentally knocked over a support rod, and noticed this morning that it has almost snapped off a part of vine that's about 15cm up the plant. It's about 5mm thick at this point. The break is just before the vine started branching off into many smaller shoots, rapidly dcreasing in thickness.

It's spring time and it's hailing here. I guess there's a high RH but it's far from tropical weather at the moment. So my question is, what is the most I can propagate from this if it's getting really thin at the top? Last summer it shot straight up a couple metres and there's a couple long thin vines that I guess are unusable?

As far as mediterranean climate goes, is there any consensus on L shapes vs T shapes? If L shapes are the go, where exactly do I cut it and how exactly do I plant it?

Apologies for n00bness. :blush:

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the dude; just make sure theres a node present and shove it in some soil, I just use peat and keep it moist... works wonders. I've planted standing up, laying down, upside down.. doesn't really make a difference, they're pretty tough.

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make them look like this, it's called a heeled cutting.post-70-0-86593100-1349912633_thumb.jpg

and you always store the cuttings in a bucket of water, whilst you process them.

caapi_heeled_cutting.JPG

caapi_heeled_cutting.JPG

Edited by planthelper
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1, have your mother plant well watered, befor taking cuttings.

2, take cuttings, and store them in a container of water, whils't doing it....again, cuttings are stored in water, till further preparation.

3, above cutting goes into the soil, minutes after cutting them, well, callousing, is bad for plants, but good for cacti.

4, you plant plant cuttings without callousing,

41/2, but cacti need callouse.

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