Longer Wrapped Cuttings Update

It's been about five weeks since the precallused IXL cuttings were removed from their burritos, where they callused for two weeks. What you are about to see is seven weeks development from cuttings to these plants. Only two to three days of the weeks they sat out among the other canned roses were hot. Two days of 97 degrees, while the majority of the rest of them were in the seventies with quite cool nights. The past two days have had rain showers, a real rarity for Southern California this late in the year.

I'm sure the milder weather, compared to what it could have been, has helped the cuttings perform as well as they have. Having the increased humidity relieved me of needing to water them as often and eliminated any need to mist the foliage. IXL resulted from a cross of Tausendshon and Veilchenblau, both strongly multiflora hybrids. The species' greatly enhanced ability to root definitely helped, too.

Because of the cool, wet weather, I decided to check the pots for roots. If they were sufficiently rooted, these conditions would be perfect for unwrapping the stems to allow them to harden off easily without requiring any extra effort from me. Rainy weather is perfect for transplanting plants, planting bare roots and hardening off cuttings propagated in more controlled conditions.

Only one of the pots showed no root growth at the pot bottom or along the sides. Many impressed me with how well rooted they are so soon after planting. These were some of the root development in pots. You can click on all photos to view them larger.

I checked the one and two gallon pots but decided not to attempt the five gallon, four foot cutting for fear of destroying the soil ball. Based upon how the smaller pots look, and how well the cutting protruding from the plastic wrapped around the cane, I'm sure it is doing its thing. Ironically, the smaller pots generally showed superior root development. I wonder if it is due to the smaller soil balls heating faster in sunlight and warmer air than the larger ones?

They vary in size from half #2 pencil gauge to quite thick, virtually what you'd expect a traditional standard trunk to be. This is approximately two feet in length, in a two gallon can.

Those which impressed me as being sufficiently rooted have been unwrapped. Those which felt too lightly rooted to chance should weather conditions become hot and dry, I left wrapped. Once they develop larger root systems, unwrapping them to harden off shouldn't be that much of an issue. I wanted to get these going now to reduce the work required later.

This is how they look at this moment. All but one short, quite thick cutting, have some root development. Not bad for seven weeks time. Not bad at all!

These are now against a west facing wall, under a deep eave. Light is filtered through a Black Walnut, so it's bright with little direct sun until very late in the evening, shortly before dusk.