"Jeff Layman" wrote in message
...
Watching cuttings being taken on GW last night, and hearing the usual
advice to "cut the last pair of leaves in half if they are too big" for
the umpteenth time over many years made me think.

Why not simply cut one leaf off through its stalk rather than cut two
leaves in half? It would be a lot simpler, as other leaves lower down
would already have been removed in that fashion. Surely it would also
reduce stress for the cutting as it would lead to less water loss, and
give the advantage that a much smaller cut area would be far less prone to
suffer from fungal infections.

--

Jeff

In my experience it makes little difference to the strike rate, but cutting
the leaves in half makes handling and placing the cuttings easier if you are
doing a lot, so its like many bits of information on propagation - skewed to
the way a nurseryman would do it, another classic is "take internodal
cuttings" in fact they root just as well nodally as internodally but the
nurseryman will always favour internodal because you get twice as many
cuttings :~)


--
Charlie, Gardening in Cornwall
Holders of National Collections of Clematis viticella
and Lapageria rosea cvs
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk