Now the needed bands are arranged and will be available the beginning of next week, I've planted those which should benefit from the larger soil ball the foam cups provide. I'm quite pleased how well wrapping has worked in this very warm, dry, sunny "winter". I'm not surprised how successful the Fortuniana cuttings callused as this method was originally used to root this variety commercially as root stock. I'm thrilled mine, for the same purpose, responded as well.
Little Meghan, a miniature I wanted to reproduce because it is a friend's name and not easily replaced, also responded quite well.
Some needed to be longer than would fit completely within the cups. Leaving them exposed to the brilliant sun, increased heat and drying winds without green house or plastic cover, could cause them to fail. I came up with a cheap, easy fix, cheap being the operative word. I never throw anything away I may be able to repurpose. Shirt boards used by dry cleaners when they fold shirts made the perfect "tubes" or cylinders to increase the soil holding capabilities of the 16 oz. foam cups. The boards are fairly dense card board which will stand up to water and the elements better than news paper. The boards are twelve inches long, so I cut them into three, four inch strips across their longest length, rolled them and stapled them together to create cylinders.
It's pretty much what I've done to mound bare root plants for years. Back in the mid eighties, Gurney Seed sold translucent plastic cylinders for "winter protection", which were strips of heavy plastic you rolled and inserted tabs into pre cut slots so they retained their shape all winter. You would slip them over the plants and fill with mulch, the cylinders retaining the mulch around the plants until removed in spring. I purchased a number of them and reused those cylinders for many years until they finally deteriorated. I wasn't able to find anything like them for replacements, but found many layers of news paper, folded in half, then rolled and stapled, or even a length of corrugated card board, cut to the desired height then stapled or tied into a cylinder with plant tape, string or rope, could easily serve the purpose at my favorite cost...FREE! Once formed and secured, the cylinders are easily slipped over the plant or cutting, then filled with potting soil to insulate and shade the plant until new growth begins from the exposed inch or two of exposed canes.
I felt due to the length of cane between growth buds, some of these would benefit from longer lengths providing greater stores of nutrients to carry them through wrapping and, hopefully, result in more successful new, own root plants. I potted the cuttings deeply in the cups, with the callused bottoms half an inch or so from the cup bottoms, then filled to the level I wished the cylinders to be inserted to. I slid the cylinders over the exposed cutting ends, then filled with potting soil, firming it inside the cups and cylinders as I filled, then watered them in well.
Prior to thinking of the cylinders and before needing any quantity of them, I thought of using the smaller size band pots I'd collected over the years, but thought too small for propagation as they dry out too quickly here. I cut the bracing out of the bottoms so they are simply square cylinders, then used them the same way as my shirt board cylinders.
The shirt board cylinders only have to last a few weeks until new growth begins pushing from the cutting ends. At that point, I can safely invert the cups while holding the cylinders securely in place and slip off the cups to view the soil ball bottom and inspect for roots. Once there are nice roots, I can remove the cylinders, exposing more of the cutting length to harden them off gradually. At this point, the plant is absorbing nutrients and water through its new roots, replacing the stored nutrients it relied upon to callus and survive until the roots formed. It no longer needs to be kept dark, cool and damp as it needs the warmth and sun to begin photosynthesizing its own food. Exposing just that little extra of the green stem provides more light and heat to start the food production while permitting the cutting to begin hardening off gradually, without the shock of being fully exposed to the more extreme conditions.
A week or so later, depending upon how vigorously each plant is producing roots, I'll slide the cups off the soil balls, put two or so inches of fresh potting soil inside, then set the root ball inside the cup to lift the plant higher in the pot, providing more room for root growth. I'll gently begin filling the cup with the soil which has been used to keep the cutting length cool, dark and damp until the cutting is planted the desired depth, then water in well. At this point, nothing other than keeping them watered is required until the roots begins filling the expanded soil balls. Once sufficiently filled, it's time to plant in larger pots.
Now the weather is finally cooling, many of us can begin experimenting with wrapping cuttings. There are a few questions which have been presented to me, so I'll attempt to answer them here, with all I've discovered here in my climate.
1. The best wood is that which has over wintered, hardened off and stored enough nutrition to break dormancy in spring. Wrapping cuttings which are fresh flowering stems hasn't been successful in many cases based upon those who have written me and in my own attempts. The wood has to contain enough stored food to permit it to callus, form roots and begin life as an independent plant. Stems grown this year, whether it has flowered or not, have, in most experiences reported to me as well as my own, proved too soft and failed. Wood grown last year and carried over winter is the best for this method.
2. It appears the most beneficial temperature range to hold the wrapped cuttings under is between the low fifties to mid to upper sixties degrees F. Too high and they won't callus, and may either dry out quickly or even rot. Too low and they preserve like produce in your vegetable crisper, without callusing.
3. From experiences reported to me and my own, it appears if the cuttings aren't going to callus within the initial two weeks of being wrapped, leaving them longer reduces the probability they are going to callus at all. Of course, you may experiment, leaving them as long as you wish, but from reports and observations, two weeks is the optimum time, at the optimum temperatures.
4. You MUST remove all the foliage from all of the cuttings, PERIOD. Leaves wrapped in the damp paper can both cause the cuttings to dry out as well as rot. You are dealing with hard wood cuttings. These are best dealt with bare, no foliage left on them.
5. You may remove the prickles if you wish. You don't have to remove the prickles if you don't want to. Removing them, if possible, can expose more cambium layer, which can then callus and eventually form roots. Removing them, if possible, can also make handling the cuttings nicer and prevent the damp paper from being damaged and hanging on to the cuttings when removing them from the wraps. This part is completely up to you.
6. You do not have to treat the entire cutting with rooting hormone. You treat the bottom end, the end you expect to form roots. Other exposed sections of cambium can form callus and roots along the cutting. You may, if you wish, cut the cutting up to make use of the places it is forming roots, or, you may simply plant it as deeply as you wish to form roots anywhere it wants. Again, up to you.
7. The length of cutting is up to you. I intend to experiment this winter/spring using one and two bud long cuttings to see just how much is necessary for the method to work. I've already demonstrated you can root whips up to nearly four feet long of suitable types for standard trunks. I also want to experiment with my VI Fortuniana to see if precallusing them can make the bloody things root more easily. If you're intending on rooting stocks for budding this summer, this may give you a leg-up getting your material ready.
