I'm so excited! My first "burrito" attempt worked!

12 years ago

Yesterday was the two week mark for my first attempt at rooting cuttings with the so-called "burrito" method. I've been wanting to try it ever since I read Grandmothers_rose's 2011 post about it a few weeks ago. I'd never really heard of this method before, but it looked so simple, I figured why not give it a try? I want to grow more florist roses, and I've tried rooting them the old way of potting the cuttings up with either plastic baggies over them or a 2litre bottle. Only had minimal success. Florist roses are not very easy to root.

So, two weeks ago, I went to Safeway to their florist dept and found a lovely pink blend rose called SWEETNESS, and used it for my first try. I almost got a second one to try, but decided to wait and see if this works. To be perfectly honest, I was kinda skeptical. But I tried it, and yesterday when I unrolled the first burrito, I was shocked and excited to see most of the cuttings had nicely calloused ends and the budeyes were swelling!

I had to go run to the store to get some plastic cups to pot them up in, and figured I'd go to Safeway again to see what batch of roses they had and was going to try 2 more. I was sooo jazzed and couldn't wait to see what they had. I thought they'd have maybe a few nice varieties left, being Sunday. Well, they had tons of roses, only they were all either ones I already have or ones I didn't like or want. So many reds and plain yellows. Ugh! So will have to wait a few days and see if they get anything interesting in.

Here's how the cuttings looked:
{{gwi:1243848}}

I made 24 cuttings, and 18 worked! The other 6 had turned black on the bottoms. I can't wait to see them sprout, grow and eventually bloom. I think I'm going to try at least one batch every week if I can. This is sooo cool!!

Here's the bouquet of SWEETNESS roses before I cut them up:
{{gwi:1243849}}

(my cat Lola had fun chewing up the flowers!)

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Comments (5)

overdrive
12 years ago
the next trick is to see if the callus will form roots....
bethnorcal9
Original Author
12 years ago
Yeah I don't expect all of them to root, but if I just get ONE I'll be happy! I dipped the ends in a root growth enhancer with mycorhizzae, so I'm hoping it'll help.
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seil zone 6b MI
12 years ago
Congrats, Beth! I haven't tried this method yet but I will eventually I'm sure. Still working on perfecting softwood rooting.
bethnorcal9
Original Author
12 years ago
Ok, time for updates!

I'm not having too great of luck with this! I was amazed and excited when the above batch calloused so easily on the first try. I potted them up in clear cups with regular potting soil and put them in a greenhouse tray with a tall clear dome over it. Left the tray on my back porch. One by one they turned black and died. I'm pretty sure I know why tho. They were fairly long cuttings and I didn't stick them down all the way in the cups, and a couple of them were too tall for even the taller dome I used. So, the dome was not sitting flush over the tray. There was about 2" of air space, so I think the cold air got in and dried the stems out. I didn't mist them either.

I did the second batch of florist rose cuttings and after the 2 week wait, they had not calloused, but were mostly still green. I cut off the black ends and potted these up into a special indoor potting medium we sell at Ace that's used by pot growers. Mostly peat moss, perlite and lime I believe, with the mycorhizzae also. I only kept the cuttings that had swollen budeyes. I put them in the greenhouse tray and added a layer of clay pebbles soaked in water. Made sure the clear dome was flush over the tray. I got a 2-light fluorescent light fixture and put 40w full spectrum lights in, and put a heating pad under the tray. I set the light timer to come on around 4:00pm and go off about 1:00am. Then I put a chunk of my shade cloth over the whole table and light set-up to cut down on the brightness of the light at night (it lights up most of my backyard) and to also maybe add a little warmth.

So far, after a week or more, the cuttings are staying green and budeyes are still swollen. No need to mist, as the wet clay pebbles and the heating pad create a nice moist atmosphere under the dome. I also buried the stems all the way into the cups. I did have one stem last week that got a bit of mold on the tip above the top budeye, and I snipped it off. So far, so good.

Now today I upwrapped another batch a day early, and was very disappointed. There were several stems that turned black, and almost every one had turned black at the base. The rest of the stems were green with swollen budeyes, so I decided to go ahead and pot them up like I did the previous batch. Now with this batch, I'm kinda thinkin' I might not've gotten all the excess water out of the newpaper, and it was a bit lesser quality newspaper also. Not that that might make a difference, but who knows? I'm also thinking maybe when I diluted the Dip'n'grow, I might not've dilute it as much as I should have. I mean there's just so many different factors and variables to consider. I'm just hoping that these cuttings will root anyway in the potting medium and the greenhouse trays.

I still have about 4 more batches of florist roses all rolled up, waiting for the 2 week period. We'll see what happens with those. I'm gonna keep trying, that's for sure. Eventually something will work!
donaldvancouver
12 years ago
There is a variable that you can't really control with the florist roses: the freshness of the stems. They might be two weeks old when you get them or they might be very fresh.

I have had similar experience to yours: I can get them to callus no problem, but absolutely nothing from then on. I have given up on the burrito method for now, since just sticking stems in wet earth over winter seems to work in this cool soggy climate.

Since you're in California, have a look at Kim Rupert (Roseseek)'s methods on his Pushing the Rose Envelope blog. He has great success.

(Also be aware with florist roses you're probably reproducing patented roses, technically illegal even for personal use.)

That Sweetness is beautiful. It looks like Cherry Parfait. There's a Sweetness on Helpmefind but it's a fragrant mauve, not the same rose.

Here is a link that might be useful: Kim Rupert