ACK! help I don't know if I messed up

20 years ago

Hi all,

I obtained two plumeria cuttings from a silent auction. they are quite withered, but a good length. the bottoms were very callused. I took a sharp clean kitchen knife and planted in a mixture of 1/3peat 1/3supersoil 1/3vermiculite, with some dynamite slow release fertilizer in a 1 gallon pot. my question is should i have cut the end off (the callus) and what do i do if i was wrong?

thanks so much i really dont want to lose these cuttings, someone actually gave them to me.. sentimental value.

i guess for now i am going to take them out and dip into a rooting hormone, and replace into mixture

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Comments (5)

oorah
20 years ago
I would have cut the branch off a couple of inches from the bottom at a diaganol and just planted it in the mixture....water good once and let it dry out befor i watered it again...since its getting close to dorment season....water it once and leave it alone till spring.....people are going to tell you use this and that and do this and that.....if its going to root ...it will root.......
frangipaniaz
20 years ago
Hey, hope I can help... I'd leave the callus, the callus is good... wet the tip and dip in rooting hormone (with fungicide if possible)... then plant in well draining soil (which you probably have)... water a little, since it doesn't have roots, the water will just sit at the base... the cutting needs warmth to grow roots... go to plumeria101.com... great stuff, and it should answer any loose ends that we didn't tie up...
Brittany
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SLO_earth
Original Author
20 years ago
thank you for the help. i can't undo my cut but i did dip into rooting hormone. the cuttings are under a shoplight with one warm one cool flourescent light. now to figure out a way to stop the mites. anyone know if they can spread to other houseplants. from what i've heard it's just about impossible to kill them. one guy i met does tissue culture of plumeria in order to get clean stock.
pharoah
20 years ago
Callous tissue is the first step to roots, so by cutting that off, you set yourself back several weeks.

It wasn't a good idea to add verm. and peat to the supersoil. Supersoil already contains some peat and by adding more along with verm. your mix may be retaining too much water and could rot the cutting.

What's done is done. Just don't water again, until you have at least 2 open leaves. You can mist it if you like, but no more water!

The lights you have are fine, but bottom heat from a propagation mat or heating pad really help with the rooting process.

I am still a fan of 70%perlite or pumice and 30%peat. It works like a charm. Later after it has a nice rootball and leaves, then repot it in a mix of 60% Supersoil and 40% Pumice.

Regarding spider mites, yes they can spread and they are difficult to get rid of when the plants are indoors. Air circulation helps and they hate being sprayed with water.

Good Luck,
Tony
SLO_earth
Original Author
20 years ago
Tony,
thanks for the info. shows how much i really know. I just thought that because it was so withered that I needed to cut and wait for newer callus tissue. Didn't expect any water uptake to happen through the former callus.