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  • My silly test

    From T@21:1/5 to All on Thu Jun 29 22:16:15 2023
    Hi All,

    I have planted the bottom 3" of white onions from
    the grocery store before and have had wonderful
    results. Onion tops all summer and winter.

    I pull one all the way out yesterday to help
    overcrowding, and cut off the lower 3" and
    two more 3" cuts above that and planted
    all three.

    Now I had to laugh at myself. The bottom nub
    will definitely grow and it is easy to tell
    up from down. But the other two, probably won't
    grow anyway (I had to check). But what was funny
    was I forgot to mark upper from lower and just
    stuck then in however. If they grow, it will
    be like sticking garlic bulbs in upside down.

    Chuckle,

    -T

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  • From songbird@21:1/5 to All on Fri Jun 30 20:21:43 2023
    T wrote:
    ...

    i would not expect anything to grow that does not
    contain some part of the base plate of the bulb (
    where the roots come out).

    you may be able to get other pieces to form roots
    if you culture them in some medium with specific
    hormones to encourage cell division and differentiation
    to get them to set up shop like the roots would but
    really that's way outside the scope of many simple
    gardeners.

    the easiest manner to do what you want is to take
    the stem and cut it in half and poke it in the
    ground and keep it moist enough that it doesn't
    dry out completely.

    also remember when taking cuttings of many sorts
    that there is the idea that the top of the plant
    in terms of size and demand is similar to what is
    left of the roots below taking into consideration
    some root mortality. to make that simpler, it
    often helps to trim off some of the leaves above
    to let the roots below not have to keep up with
    extreme demands until they can get established
    again.

    oh, and often it's a good idea to put such
    cuttings in some shade or dappled light where it
    is cooler and not so demanding until they're
    showing some signs of actively growing again.


    songbird

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  • From [email protected]@21:1/5 to songbird on Mon Jul 3 12:49:59 2023
    On 2023-07-01, songbird <[email protected]> wrote:

    also remember when taking cuttings of many sorts
    that there is the idea that the top of the plant
    in terms of size and demand is similar to what is
    left of the roots below taking into consideration
    some root mortality. to make that simpler, it
    often helps to trim off some of the leaves above
    to let the roots below not have to keep up with
    extreme demands until they can get established
    again.

    2nd year in a row I'm trying to grow cuttings from a mock orange bush
    growing on the other side of my fence in the park that some now gone
    crappy neighbors kids nearly destroyed. nursery told me to use soft wood
    (new growth) cuttings in the spring, hard wood if doing in the fall.
    last year without putting much thought into it I took a bunch of cuttings
    just above nodes (yeah, I know, dumbass did a dumb lol), trimmed off the
    lower leaves, dipped them in Bonide rooting hormone, stuck them in a mix
    of coco coir and sand in a plastic tote with a lid, drilled for a bit of ventilation and set in dappled sun under a tree and kept them moist by
    misting with a spray bottle for months. nothing ever happened except the
    leaves rotting or getting a fungus and falling off. see ima dumbass above.

    this year same thing except i did some braining and cut BELOW the nodes.
    lol. and used fresh sterile rooting medium. your mention of trimming
    off the leaves got me thinking again. i just went and re-read the info on growing from cuttings on several .edu sites and a couple mentioned
    trimming leaves in half but not removing them besides what goes into
    the soil. on soft wood cuttings anyway, seems there'd want to be some photosynthesis happening to help to shoots root. the leaves were left
    whole but today i'm going to trim them in half per the docs.

    process seems to be working this year, several of the cuttings give a
    bit of resistance when tugged on. :)

    ob edible:

    first harvest out of the vegetable garden last week. scapes off about
    110 garlic plants. cut them up in several inch long pieces, flash froze
    on cookie sheets, and stored in a large zipper bag to be used mainly on
    salads and occasionally for pesto. yummy.

    --
    SDF Public Access UNIX System - https://sdf.org

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  • From songbird@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Mon Jul 3 14:52:09 2023
    [email protected] wrote:
    ...
    this year same thing except i did some braining and cut BELOW the nodes.
    lol. and used fresh sterile rooting medium. your mention of trimming
    off the leaves got me thinking again. i just went and re-read the info on growing from cuttings on several .edu sites and a couple mentioned
    trimming leaves in half but not removing them besides what goes into
    the soil. on soft wood cuttings anyway, seems there'd want to be some photosynthesis happening to help to shoots root. the leaves were left
    whole but today i'm going to trim them in half per the docs.

    yes, you do not remove all leaves, but some, it really
    does depend upon the plant too as some are more easily
    done than others. you learn by experience but also look
    things up and go from there.


    process seems to be working this year, several of the cuttings give a
    bit of resistance when tugged on. :)

    :) good deal! :) i go by watching and seeing if there
    is any new growth. once i see new growth then i transition
    to their more natural future setting environment so that when
    they are transplanted they've got a chance to survive. after
    transplanting they need to be kept watered enough for some
    time (again i go by when i see new growth as to how well the
    plant might be doing).


    ob edible:

    first harvest out of the vegetable garden last week. scapes off about
    110 garlic plants. cut them up in several inch long pieces, flash froze
    on cookie sheets, and stored in a large zipper bag to be used mainly on salads and occasionally for pesto. yummy.

    i'm seeing some peas and beans and snacked on a few pods
    today. :)

    i always have enough demand for garlic starts that i leave
    all the scapes alone. in the kind of garlic i grow the scapes
    can be large enough to be worth eating or using to start new
    bulbs. i have some from the garlic i harvested last season
    which look pretty good considering how long they've been in
    storage. they'll get used up eventually for cooking. garlic
    is yum indeed and i also like green garlic but have found out
    i'm usually too busy to deal with it so i didn't plant any
    this past year for harvest this year.


    songbird

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  • From T@21:1/5 to All on Sun Jul 9 00:27:17 2023
    And I have gotten even sillier.

    I harvested a big white onion and cut the
    bottom six inches off. Then I clicked it
    up the middle. I planted the two halves.

    This will be "interesting".

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  • From songbird@21:1/5 to All on Sun Jul 9 08:37:53 2023
    T wrote:

    And I have gotten even sillier.

    I harvested a big white onion and cut the
    bottom six inches off. Then I clicked it
    up the middle. I planted the two halves.

    This will be "interesting".

    you could cut most of the bulb off and
    use the base plate (the part which attaches
    to the roots) for starting new plants by cutting
    it into multiple parts (like quarters or eighths
    depending upon how big it is) and replant those
    down about an inch. keep moist. some should
    regrow.

    though likely what will happen is that next
    year if you leave the results outside to
    overwinter is that you will get onions that
    flower and not the more simple bulbs that come
    from first year seeds or starts.

    all in my experience...

    in my onion patch this year almost every
    onion that overwintered has been flowering
    this year. i think it is because it has been
    so hot and so dry. i do plant onion starts
    and also some onions from seeds, but i did
    not plant any fresh seeds this spring so i
    have mostly flowers in what i was hoping to
    be more of a mixed garden.

    the other day i already cut off the seed
    heads from the earliest flowering green onions
    that i grow. tons of seeds. i won't even
    bother to sift them to remove chaff as i'll
    just shake the heads and use the seeds that
    easily fall off and discard the rest.

    it will be several weeks yet before i get
    the later bulbing onion seed heads harvested.


    songbird

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