22-06-2003, 12:08 AM
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Propagating rosemary
(Anne) wrote in news:95c06f42.0306211343.65e7ae4
@posting.google.com:
Does anyone know how to propagate rosemary by stem? I live in
Vancouver, Canada and have tried a few times with no success. The
stem and leaves just turned black after a few days. Thanks in advance
for your feedback.
What I did was snip a few cuttings probably 5" or 13 cm long from the top
branches (meaning use new growth), snip off the lower leaves (leaving
about 4-5 cm green at the top), cut the bottom at an angle and stuck some
in loose moist top soil, some in potting soil to a depth of 4-5 cm. If
the bottom of the stem is too woody, snip it higher up where it is still
brown (?) but not too hard and don't go too far up where it's still
silver or green. I don't know what variety it was, might have been Arp.
The total lengths might have been shorter, I just picked the cutting
location based on the condition of the stem. This was done in late fall.
They turned out pretty well even though I left them out all winter
(southeastern Virginia, temps got as low as 38F or 3-4C if I remember
correctly). I did not use rooting hormone and I don't think I used any
extra fertilizer (other than what was already in the soil), but I may
have let the stems soak in rain water for a while before planting into
plastic cups and milk cartons. After maybe a week or two of watering, I
neglected them, leaving them outside. Only 3 out of probably 20 turned
brown and they all lasted more than a few months. One I don't know why.
One didn't have good drainage with soil packed pretty hard around it and
was sheltered from rain, so it didn't get much water (hard topsoil in a
plastic milk jug with only razor blade slits in the bottom for drainage).
The last turned brown recently probably because the paper milk/OJ carton
it was in fell apart with soil leaking everywhere, exposing roots. I
managed to find a larger pot for the best one on Wednesday, but the rest
are still outside, root bound, but seemingly still alive.
I found this info on how to do this either on groups.google.com or
watching at TV show called Victory Garden.
- Salty
P.S. I've had the leaves turn brown but not black.
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