"Rodger Whitlock" wrote in message
...
gOn Tue, 6 Jul 2004 08:28:14 +0000 (UTC), Franz Heymann wrote:

The time for taking summer cuttings is approaching. This raises the
perennial questions which bother me at this time of the year:

Is the shelf life of last year's purchase of "Strike" powder long
enough for me to risk using it again this year?

I think I've read that the active ingredient decomposes fairly
quickly and that you should buy fresh powder annually. Do I
myself do this? No.

I've also read commments (perhaps here in urg) that for most
plants, rooting hormones are an irrelevancy, so the potency or
impotency of one's hormone powder is also irrelevant.

Still, I use the stuff just in case, but as time goes on my
methods become more and more primitive. Right now I've got rose
cuttings underway, powdered and dibbled directly into the soil
with a glass jar over them, just like grandma used to do.

******

They'll grow, - but the purists don't like them. They tend to grow scraggly
and are not considered to be a success. Accepted way is to bud or graft
them in spring on Rosa canina (dog-rose) cuttings put in the soil the
previuos autumn. I've done that with hedge-rose cuttings and with fair
success. At back-end of the season here in N/West England there are plenty
of Garden Centre potted roses with immature roots which are the product of
the Growers end of season field clearance procedures. They are half-price
but are a good buy if you can abide a first year mediocre blooming. They've
been just stuffed into pots of peat. What I do is carefully tip them out
onto my hand and see which have thin white root tendrils starting to drift
down the outside of the clump, the later the day in spring, the more there
will be, - they have had more time to develop. These will be successful
the first year, the others are OK but will need more time. .
However also will be on sale well-rooted roses left over from last years
unsold well-rooted plants.
They are the current for-sale plants, but are twice the price of the
immature ones I referred to,
Which doesn'yworry little me, - I just , - yet again, - stop Her Indoor's
gin money for a couple of days.
It's usualy enough to cover all eventualities.
Doug.

******


(Never mind how long it had been on the shop shelves before I bought
it)

Which is preferable, "Strike" powder or Bio "Roota" liquid?

I never had any luck at all with the various rooting-hormone
gels. The cuttings seemed to rot away almost instantly.

YMMV


--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
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