pombazaar.com

I pruned back my Sumbar pomegranate in Seattle hard this winter. I saved some pruning to start cuttings, but then I gave those away.

So all the material I had left were long whips that I had used as a make-shift broom for sweeping pavement! Oops!

I trimmed and formed the whips into cuttings, and then I placed the cuttings into just-damp sphagnum. After a few weeks I checked on them, and they were showing signs of rot at the ends, but buds were starting to push put. So I instead decided to place the cuttings directly in water, which I have done with figs. I saw pombazaar themself claimed it worked well, so fingers crossed!

I should really update my former post about this.

This method does work but will yield poor results. Poor results meaning a higher chance of mold and weak brittle roots that will need to re-stabilize once transferred to soil. Indoor rooted cuttings also seem to be more likely to be damaged by sunburn once moved outside. The best method is to put cuttings in moderately packed soil in a cup and keep the cup outside. You'll have roots in 2-4 weeks without any of these issues.

I jabbed a few other whips in the soil. They have buds swelling, now.

I am leery of just putting them in cups, outside. Out nights stay cool even in the summertime, and the soil temperature seem to be really critical for root development in other species o have propagated. Perhaps I will try just in soil in cups on a warm mat (next time).

The whips that grew roots in the water grew enthusiastically when transferred to a rooting medium. However, the ones that had not developed roots have really struggled. They all pushed leaves a d branchs, bit just... stayed in stasis. I also have really been unhappy with the seed starting/Potting soil nonsense I purchased, which could have been retarding development?

Anyhow, I was frustrated so I pulled the non-growing specimens and found that one was seeming to rot, one had a few roots, two had callus with little nubs, and one had zero development but no obvious rot.

I have planted these four whips into pots with 50% mineral soil and will monitor.

I find that one part soil to one part perlite or one part rice hulls, is best for rooting cuttings, the soil that I find works the best is moistened coco coir. Seed starting soil is one of the worst things to root cuttings with, it's way too fine and compressed.

Ah, thanks. I finally broke down and purchased one of those compressed bales of coir recently!