Psychotria leaf cutting technique comparison

[katu]

All of these leaf cuttings were taken at the same time approx. 3-4 months ago. The first picture the leaf was cut in half off the mother plant, planted in soil and placed in a humidity tent which consisted of a glad bag and placed in a shady spot on my back deck. The second picture the leaf cutting was treated the same but the stem was carefully snapped in two to three places at the base. As you can see the yield is drastically increased by employing this method. Hope this helps anyone interested in propagating these lovely plants

[frozenthunderbolt]

Awesome cheers!
my P. Alba seedling is almost big enough i might be able to start stealing the odd leaf for this kind of thing from it !

[theuserformallyknownasd00d]

Yes by using half leaves you'll get a lot more shoots. This year I achieved 15-20 sprouts on each half leaf. Also by limiting humidity but having the soil moist the plants will grow more roots, I do this for 2-3nths first then I'll up the humidity and it gives more sprouts. (Obviously because the roots are quite developed). This is what your doing making small snaps along the vein, allowing more sites to throw roots easier

[EthnoGuy85]

Awesome I have about 10 viridis leaves that I'm propagating. I only left three intact the others I made 8-12 snaps along the main leaf vein. How warm is too warm they've been inside at around 27C over a heat mat but it's much warmer outside. I am tempted to move them but i don't want to fry them either.

So far they've all got some roots going but no sprouts. It's been around 4-6 weeks since they went in the propagation box

[Sallubrious]

Psychotrias love it hot, as long as they have plenty of water they should be fine. If they are not going into direct sun then it is very hard to overheat them.

Obviously they shouldn't be plonked onto a hot slab of concrete in full sun at that stage, but they love it hot.

[katu]

Like Sally said mate they love it hot and humid, they're a tropical understory plant so provided they're not getting blasted by full sun you should be right. I've never bothered with a heat mat myself but I live in the tropics, might be needed further south. Also like prioritise said every break in the stem will throw more clones. If your careful you can cut away the clones and replant the leaf, i'm still amazed how many plants you can tease out of half a leaf. The only thing you really need to get these things going is patience. The ones in the pic were planted about 4 months ago but I have a few others that were planted at the same time that are rooted but yet to throw plantlets. I find they tend to throw plants around the same time that I've given up on em

[Sallubrious]

I cut my leaves into 3 or 4 segments with scissors and then root them by wrapping them in wet paper towel or cotton wool in a plastic ziplock bag. Then the bag goes onto a heatpad or another warm spot under fluorescent light.

In really hot weather I get roots in about 15 -20 days and then it takes about another 3 weeks before they start sending up suckers. I've never seen them take 3-4 months like some have in this thread. Mine get a mix of filtered daylight with supplemented fluorescent light on cloudy days and at night to extend their photoperiod, so maybe that's why mine develop quicker.

[katu]

I used to do the same Sally with regards to the wet paper towel/glad bag thing. I agree they definitely root faster. My only problem with that technique is it's hard to remove the leaf from the towel without damaging the roots. More the point I think i'm getting a bit lazy nowadays

[planthelper]

most cuttings (leaf cuttings like in this case, but tip and stem cuttings as well) will benefit from "squashing the tissue a bit", and

this process is called wounding.

wounding a cutting can be done by bruising, the tissue, by embedding a blade into the lower part of the stem cutting, or by cutting away a sliver of the cambium layer at the bottom of the cutting.

for me it's difficult to fold and squash a viridis leaf, or to wound a stem cutting, as everything inside me, doesn't want to hurt the plant, but I do it, because I know it helps the plant, to form roots.

I mean it's hard for me as well, to drench acacia seeds with boiling hot water, although this will facilitate germination.

some people fold the viridis leaf, like an accordion,... it looks bad, but it does the trick!

separating those plantlets, is hard work, most people never bother, because viridis leaves are often available in abundance, and it's faster and much, much easier to, plant more leaf cuttings than to separate plantlets.

[katu]

Hey P.H. with regards to "folding"a leaf cutting would it still be planted vertically? And mate I agree with u on seperation of the plantlets being the hard bit. I myself take the time, can't bring myself to just thin them out so to speak. That and hardening them up depending on your climate. I have found in the past that they won't get much bigger than they are now until they have been seperated, or they at least grow alot slower. Once seperated out they take off.

[woof woof woof]

HOt and Humid! Partially shaded. When the humidity drops leaves tend to curl up

[planthelper]

yep, still plant vertical, if using the accordion method.

do you say in the opening post, that the "more successful" cuttings, originated as well, from larger leaves?

anyway, like with pretty much all forms of cuttings, the rule is, "larger cuttings will produce, larger plants more rapidly.

in other words, a whole viridis leaf, just trimmed at the bottom, will produce bigger plantlets, in the same given time, than the same size leaf cut in halve...

[katu]

I did not know that P.H. with regards to a whole Psychotria leaf giving larger plantlets than half a leaf, I guess it'd have twice the energy so to speak. I was referring to the snapping of the stem.