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Salvi

rooting large/thick cuttings

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This is getting interesting..today I removed a marginatus pup and noticed 2 or 3 tiny roots at the base.

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Really? And these roots were within the flesh? I didn't think something like that was possible, but apparently it is. Was it a well developed pup?

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well rooting forms from the center fiber ring and works it's way outwards.

pups sprouting roots makes a lot of sense for the plant

I believe that the mechanism for this involves new growth

who's metabolites stimulate rooting from the core.

case in point.

I have a pedro 14" "log" that was left abandoned on the roadway.

yes, I happened to drive by and ID it at 60kph!

it was all scrapped up and seems to have fallen off a moving truck

After several months of standing upright it's sprouted two pups

these new tips have grown a few inches and have formed roots

at the joint with the mother stem.

at the gravitational bottom of the pup. since it's joint with

the mother plant constricts and arcs creating a "collection point".

I'll inspect the log to see if there's any rooting at the 6 O' Clock

of the mother log herself.

seems as if it'll help with the tip=+rooting hormone line of thought.

although I do believe that it's a process that occurs throughout the plant,

Just at lower levels in older midsection tissues.

I'll post some picts later today.

[ 11. February 2005, 06:20: Message edited by: Flip ]

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Salvi...the roots were forming outside the pup in mid air

Damn I need a camera.

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Here's the photos I said I would post

as you can see there's a lot of rooting from the two pups

at the top of the 14" log

than at the gravitational bottom.

roots1.jpg

The more upright of the two pups is sending it's roots through the actual mother log!

you can also see that the bottom the the log is barely rooting at all

but those roots did form directly under the two pups

vs a even distribution or even at the center or the gravitational bottom.

roots2.jpg

it all leads me to believe that the motivation to root

originates from the growing tops of the cacti.

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i would say gravitational bottom should not be interpreted as the very possible bottom rather towards the bottom of the stem, this can be seen in those shots the roots grow out and then down. whilst ive had cacti callousing in my cupboard i noticed the bottom side produces roots first and i rotate them to get more to form. roots grow down which means below horizontal not vertically down. i water my cuttings and just re potted cacti a day or two after potting and this is all ive found to stimulate growth of the roots.

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teo, theres a reason for this.

Each "block" in a plant (I don't know how to describe it. When you look at a section of plant under a microscope you see a bunch of blocks, kind of like a brick wall. They're groups of cells, anyway) has a single cell that is heavier than all the other cells in the block, and it moves to the bottom of the block.

In roots, this is what causes downwards growth, because the root tissue simply "pushes" in whatever direction it's currently facing, and as the heavier cell moves to the bottom of its block, the roots move in that direction too.

I'm at work right now, so my would diagrams suck, and I can't give actual quotes or links, but if you're interested, I can paste a link that explains it a lot more eloquently than I do when I get home.

[ 14. February 2005, 11:36: Message edited by: apothecary ]

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Update on the cutting: I pulled it up yesterday and found a nice root sprouted and some root buds. :D Pretty stubborn at 5 months to root.

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Not uncommon though. My fat pach cutting is more than 4 months old and is showing no signs yet. :rolleyes:

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I had a 6" wide scop cutting that I chopped into 10 pieces. After 12 months half had rotted. After 18 months 7 were gone. After 2 years 2 rooted. After 3 years the third one died unrooted. The two that did root put out pups after 3years and 3.5 years respectively.

I believe that the older the tissue the elss likely that it will root. May be a simple case of the mositure stimulus not getting through - btw, it is moisture that triggers rooting in cacti, moreso than gravity.

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Wow, 6" wide, that's a beast. How long were the cuttings, Torsten?

Are the two that rooted growing well now? Must of took a lot of patience for those guys.

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yep, they are growing well now. we are just about to take the 30cm pups off for further cuttings.

The cuttings were 2 pieces of about a 50cm each. We chopped them up into pieces of varying size. It was the largest that survived long enough to make roots. if we would have cut them into just 2 pieces each (ie 4 total) we would have probably got them all to root. But who would have guessed they would take so long. The longest I've ever had any other thick trich take to root was a year.

I do have a very obstinate bridgesioid though which has only about 10% strike rate and takes about a year - from 5cm thick juicy cuttings.

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ive got a cutting rooting at the moment, thing is its just the smallest tip that i shaved off to do some grafts. its about 1cm high and 2cm wide and it was left on the ground for weeks and looked dried. so out of curiosity i put it in some sand and watered it, root has come out of the side :D i will take a pic its truly bizzare.

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Quote T:" btw, it is moisture that triggers rooting in cacti, moreso than gravity."

This goes against reshroomed and my own observations unless your talking about water contact with the base of the plant and not RH%.

Is this the case?

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i know your asking torsten but my belief is that moisture of any kind around the area where roots are wanted stimulates root growth(i swear i also said this, must be in another topic). so planting them in sand and watering stimulates the root growth, so does leaving them in a damp place to callus. IMHO there is no point to grow roots if there is no moisture to absorb. oh and moisture means moist not soaking wet.

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I did an experiment where I put several cuttings lying sideways on a weldmesh panel. Half of them had sphagnum placed on top of them and the other half were sitting on a pad of sphagnum. The sphagnum was kept moist, but the rest of the cutting kept dry (out of rain & dew). Roots emerged where the sphagnum was placed at exactly the same average time in both groups. Those with sphagnum on top did not produce any roots at their gravitational bottom.

To understand why this happens you need to understand the root structure and growth of cacti. When cacti develop roots they produce sturdy well insulated main roots. These mainlines do not have any absorption ability. In older plants you will get some secondary branching from these main lines which also does not absorb anything. From these main lines the plant develops feeder roots that absorb water and nutrients. So far this is pretty much like any other plant.

What is unique about cacti is that when the soil dried up the non-mainline roots die off. But as they die the nutrients are concentrated in nodules just below the surface of the mainline. These nodules then sit in readiness for moisture contact sometimes for several years and respond with an incredible speed. Feeder roots will emerge from these nodules within a matter of hours after rain and will grow at phenomenal rates depending on the quantity of water available. Obviously there are some very strong hormonal influences here to manage this process.

Many cacti propagate by falling over and rooting from the side. It would seem logical that the same water sensing/seeking mechanism also applies to the aerial parts of the plant as the same rules of 'survival of the fastest rooter' still apply.

Btw, this mechanism is the reason why you should never water a repotted cactus immediately (especially the arid types). When you unpot them you trigger the dying back of the roots no matter how quickly you repot them. So it is best to simply let the roots dry out to the mainlines for 2 weeks and then repot and water. Many cactus growers will repot immediately, but will withhold water for 2-3 weeks. The drying off needs to be complete before the dead tissue is disconnected and the nodules are formed ready to burst back to life. Same principle.

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Always learning, thanks!

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