Rooting SD

[doxneed2c-me]

Anyone have tips to root SD because my attempts have all resulted in the plant dying. It never produced roots.

I should add there are no regulations for this plant here.

Edited August 4, 2014 by doxneed2c-me

[Nailthesnail]

Cut them where you want to root them from, Chuck em in some water, you want the water to go over about 1/3 of the plant or 1/4. Leave them in a shaded spot and wait 2-3 weeks. I actually just rooted some SD cuttings and left them in water for over 3 months. They were pretty close to dying and are only just starting to recover but they root very easily in plain water.
SD is very easy to make cuttings from.

In New Zealand where I live the water is pretty good so Idk if the water has chemicals in it but I would probably try and avoid fluoridated or chlorinated water.

Maybe get some distilled water.

Good luck

Edited August 4, 2014 by Nailthesnail

[Nailthesnail]

Oh btw that was years ago when SD was legal.

[El Presidente Hillbillios]

i think water in cool weather or straight into a pot of dirt if it hot weather

[cactuscarl]

I had so much trouble rooting them too, when they were legal... In fact I had trouble with that plant constantly it didn't seem to like anything. It'd look good for a month then go downhill it'd take me 3 months to nurse it back to health and repeat. If it ever was growing it would bolt and stretch out then snap... Hardest most tempremented plant I've ever grown.

[mystical oyster]

Back when they were legal, i found one of the most effective ways was to take a cutting. Stick in water for a day or 2, then id use a small jar to support the cut, but dont let the cut touch the water, have the water sitting an inch under the cut. Then it will quickly throw roots, to reach the water. This method was discovered by accident, but is most definitely effective, in my experience.

[tarenna]

In a land far far away with a humid subtropical climate I have seen this plant root readily in water and potting mix. I observed that there was a need to cut a few nodes and trim all the leaves back, leaving the growing tip. I saw that this resulted in nearly 100% strike in either water or potting mix. My observations made me conclude that it is an exceptionally easy plant to grow under the right climatic conditions..

[solomon]

In a land far far away with a humid subtropical climate I have seen this plant root readily in water and potting mix. I observed that there was a need to cut a few nodes and trim all the leaves back, leaving the growing tip. I saw that this resulted in nearly 100% strike in either water or potting mix. My observations made me conclude that it is an exceptionally easy plant to grow under the right climatic conditions..

^^^ this.

100% strike rate in either water or soil with healthy cuttings

[Illustro]

A glass of water works good, they root like mad. Even easier, just let the plant grow in the ground for a year and you'll have more self-rooted branches than you know what to do with. I made the mistake of planting a 20cm SD cutting in my garden last summer, 1.5 years later it had self-layered into a thicket covering an area about 5m x 4m with hundreds of stems, many over 7ft, each covered in root nodules just waiting to fall over and spread ever further. Pesky bugger.

[Halcyon Daze]

Back when it was legal, I saw a friend who had great success producing water-roots using short-neck glass bottles, like those vinegar bottles.

A nice healthy cutting was held in place with a simple wooden peg clasped around the stem, and the water level was filled to a couple of millimeters of the top of the bottle.

Tap water was used, which was changed every couple of days, and it was placed it in a brightly lit area out of direct sunlight. An east facing window-sill was OK.

Once there was a good bunch of water roots, there was no problem moving them over into a good quality potting mix.

Edited August 14, 2014 by Halcyon Daze

[gtarman]

Waaaay back in the day when it was legal I tried growing it. One of the trickiest plants I've ever tried to grow and propagate, at least in my micro-climate at the time. I'd always heard people go on about how it was so prolific and that it grows itself. But people say that about lots of plants sometimes...IMO it is both true and false of every plant - if they're in a favourable climate/micro-climate then they'll do well and grow easy. If not, then no. SD just seemed way more temperamental and unhappy to me for the most part, compared to other plants that will often do okay outside their favoured conditions.

But I also believe that there are certain plants that don't really like certain people, weird and mystical as that sounds. It probably just comes down to skills and specialties and habits as a gardener that are suited to growing some plants and not others, but I guess incompatible plant spirits is also a valid way of saying that, depending on your worldview.

I certainly found the effects/spirit of the plant were not beneficial for me personally, which along with its difficulties in cultivation made me move on. Then it became illegal anyway, so meh.

Edited August 14, 2014 by gtarman

[PhoenixSon]

Grows fast given the right sun/shade amount and ferts.

water to strike the cuttings is the easiest, maybe a bit of damage when you transplant them from water to soil tho.

But its cool to see that they are ready to be potted up, doesnt take long for them to put out roots when warm.

Really miss this plant lovely leaves, funky square stem, and once in a while a flower to make it even prettier

Foliar feeds are good,

its amazing when you see the crystals trichomes on the plant. Plants grown in greenhouses are the most potent due to no wind knocking off the crystals

[bogfrog]

I have heard that rooting them in brown beer bottles full of rain water works especially good, the brown glass diminishes the light that gets through and somehow thats meant to help. If you only have limited stock only put one cutting per bottle, that means if you get any rot develop it will only affect the one piece and not spread to the others...

I think the hardiness of the parent plant plays a role. Plants that have acclimatised really well to your conditions will take pretty rough treatment without complaint, yet cuttings from a plant which is still pretty fussy seem to sulk no matter how lovingly you tend them.

Ps: I think you're definately right Gtarman, re: certain plants liking or not liking certain people. That saying " you can choose your friends but you can't choose your family" ..I reckon that applies to plants too. Some seem inexplainably aligned to your core nature and others opposed to it.

[PhoenixSon]

also dont leave the cuttings too long in the water, pot up when roots are a couple cms long.

leaving them too long invites rot and weak plants

[mutant]

wow they root in beer bottles? I though the lady doesn't like alcohol <___base_url___>/uploads/emoticons/default_tongue.png

yeah they root in water easily... for best results get a bubbler or some more sophisticated propagator what sprays water on the cuttings instead of having them constantly submerged... they seriously rock!!

[AndyAmine.]

I found one of the easiest methods (back in the day) was to wrap a node with some moist sphagnum moss and then wrap that with some dark plastic or foil. You can speed it up a bit by painting on some ROOTEX-L first,

Main reason I liked this method was because one can forget about it and come back to it later without it turning into mush and the cutting takes off much faster due to the lower amounts of stress and not having to strip back the foliage as much..

You beat me to it Mutant. Yep adding a pump and airstone and using a dark container will greatly increase your chances of success with that method. If you dont have access to a pump, then adding a little H202 to the water will help keep it oxygenated and healthy.

Also, adding a little fongarid will also help if one is having issues with fungal outbreaks,.

Edited August 17, 2014 by AndyAmine.

[shonman]

No one ever asked my opinion on whether any plant, or other thing should Be legal or not.