"Chris Hogg" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 13 Apr 2006 09:18:58 +0100, "Rupert"
wrote:

A load of bare rooted plants are about to be dumped on me from USA.
Some new DEFRA / USA regulations mean that they can not be shipped in
soil.
Any suggestions as to how Avocados (a few feet) should be treated on
arrival
to get them growing.
One suggestion is to cut leaves in half to reduce water loss but I would
have thought that this would result in a greater loss from the cuts.
As you can see this is not an area of my expertise

It is recommended that leaf cuttings of camellias are cut in half
(transversely, not lengthwise) to reduce transpiration.

....

Strangly enough one might have thought that drought-tolerant subjects
such as camellias wouldn't be so prone to water loss through evaporation
and transpiration as some other species.

But clearly this must be wrong.

....

Didn't cause
any problems when I've done this in the past and I sometimes do it to
other types of cutting if they're excessively leafy.
Whether avocados would benefit, I've no idea.

....

Rupert is importing rooted plants, not rootless cuttings in any case.

And on plants there's always the possibility of removing entire stems
if such drastic measures are eventually though necessary.


michael adams



--
Chris

E-mail: christopher[dot]hogg[at]virgin[dot]net