Follow me as I journey through gardening and look for ways to incorporate tech where possible. Learn with me as I try and experiment new methods, or present new things I've learned about the wonderful world of tech and plants.
I never do but I know it helps people. My water conditions seem to be in the right places where I do not experience rot when water propagating. But there are others who need to callous the cuttings first
The bigger jar is gonna have longer roots because there’s room for them to grow long. Should try two jars same size, different water levels. I think dark glass roots better also. 💚🫶🏼
It would be a very interesting experiment to put the cuttings in 1) reverse osmosis water 2) 'normal' water 3) water with diluted fertilizer solution 4) normal fertilizer solution!
I was just negotiating with a Cannababy cutting. It did not want to grow roots because it claimed it was in too much water. So I drained it a bit. But some plants are just "smart" as a rock...
Orchids are not plants you should buy a ton of at once. Its better to grow one or two and grow for a year or two before getting more. They are not grown like other plants. ❤
I know this is an old vid but hopefully someone can answer my question. Do you need to callous the cutting before putting it in the water? I didn't see/hear you mentioned it and im scared it's gonna rot.
I never do but some people swear by it. I think it depends on your water parameters honestly cuz it's about 50/50 on who has success either way if that makes sense. If you can root pothos in your water with no callous you should be fine with monstera.
The way to really measure growth rate would be to weigh the cuttings each time and that'll be more telling of growth than measuring the length of the roots. IME, what makes the biggest difference in the speed of root development is how high up your cutting was on the plant. The apex (top bud) will have a higher content of endemic growth hormones in it and it'll root and grow faster than the one below and so on and so forth. Only the bottom cut has an advantage because it already has an established root system, so it'll grow and mature faster than the mid cuttings. That may be besides the point but water propagation is not a good practice, pros never use it because we know it's not efficient and it makes your cuttings vulnerable to root rot (most plants are not adapted to grow in water, so it just stresses them out, they'll grow slowly and become weaker. Furthermore, water-adapted roots have a higher risk of rotting once you transplant into soil which then stresses your plant even more). There is literally no good reason to be doing it. Pothos are tough as nails, so they can still handle it but any terrestrial plant will root and grow faster in soil. Setting up a propagation bin is not that expensive and yields much healthier plants at a faster rate. True hydroponics are a different animal than a glass of still water because yeah, hydroponics will get you faster growth but you have to optimize a couple of things to get there and not all plants will react well to it.
I'm guessing it's auxin. As a big water prop fan, I've observed that many plants prefer to grow their primary stem straight up and their primary root straight down, apical dominance. This only stops when the stem becomes heavy enough for gravity to pull the top horizontal or the root becomes long enough to reach the bottom of the pot, causing it to grow horizontal. When straight, auxin from the stem flows directly to the tip of the root, bypassing the rest of the plant. When the tip of the root starts growing horizontally, auxin begins to interact with the rest of the root, enlarging root cells and promoting lateral secondary roots. The water depth idea may still be valid, and I'm guessing it is, but pothos grow roots so fast that it didn't matter. If you did the same experiment with a slower rooting plant, and included one pothos cutting in each jar as an auxin source for the other plant, the results may be more revealing. Maybe something known for slow prop root growth, like a scindapsus treubii moonlight or a monstera peru.
I think you're misunderstanding what apical dominance means. What you're describing about the shoot going up and root going down is geotropism (positive and negative), also called gravitropism. The growing shoot can also be influenced by phototropism and might end up growing sideways if the light source is not over the plant. Most plants have apical dominance and it doesn't 'stop', if you remove the apex, a new lateral shoot will take its place and become the new apex. It has yet to be fully understood how the apical bud inhibits the lateral buds from growing but there's more than auxin at play, cytokinin and giberrellic acid are two other phytohormones with different roles that are also involved in this. Some plants have stronger apical dominance than others which is why some will branch out and some don't but the apex will almost always stay dominant unless it's damaged in some way. Epigenetics are also at play, obviously. Also, water propagation is malpractice. There are many good reasons why professionals don't do it, mostly because it's inefficient, it stresses your plant more, it makes it weaker and more susceptible to root rot. I've yet to hear any good argument in favour of water propagation and I've been studying and working with plants for a few years now.
This seems like a significant discovery, to put it lightly. Unless someone else has already covered it. It seems like we could use this knowledge to create even stronger trees or something.
What type of water did you use for the experiment here? Smaller pots of water will have less overall trace minerals/nutrients that will deplete faster. Was that variable accounted for?
@@TechplantChannel Not a plant expert, but from a science standpoint certainly could be a variable that could affect things somehow. Too bad we can't just ask the plants!
The roots in smaller containers with less water, look like 'root-bound' roots. I'd like to see what happens if you take those same cuttings and put them into a large container of water, as though you were re-potting them, so to speak.
It might be interesting to try something like this but with another cutting species, not an aroid, placed in with the pothos… just to see how the hormones affect the the rooting quality of other plants. Things that people commonly root in water, like Hoyas, Coleus, lipstick plants, pileas, peperomias, etc. I’ve noticed that the thinner-leaved, less-succulent types of Peperomia, like 'Frost', 'Rosso' or 'Piccolo Banda', root in water quite quickly from just leaves, with some petiole attached. I’ve put several 'Frost' leaves in a tall water bottle, and they rooted very quickly, and even developed baby plants underwater. But I wonder if pothos would make it even faster.
I had actually been assuming that when I saw lower water levels appearing to have more root growth was just an optical illusion caused by the roots clumping up closer together, but the theory about the bottom of the jar encouraging them to get bigger is interesting. There are a couple of different future experiments that could be done here, I think.
After watching this video I changed my neon and marble queen props to shorter vessels. Time will tell if I get thicker/stronger roots. Thanks for sharing your results.
I think more water = more Oxygen in the water Maybe an Experiment with an Aquarium Air bubble thingi?` I have an big Alocasia Dragon Scale in a 2Liter Jar and an Air Bubbler , its goin crazy
i tried an air stone a while back but i didnt like the results, id love to re do it because so many people have great success so i wanna figure out why i didnt!
An experiment I'd like to see is soil mixes effect on growth. Lots of people shove perlite into everything, but TBH I hate perlite. It floats, it's messy, it creates dust and I feel like all it does it make my plants dry out. I think it's trying to fix a problem (overwatering) that I don't have.
If you haven't, you should read Tapla's writeups about soil mixes. He invented gritty mix and the 511 mix. It's all about how particle size affects water retention and gas exchange.
Tiny, tiny jars is what I plan to use then! I'm currently using sphagnum moss and perlite, and they are in shallow vessels. Thanks for doing all the work. I really enjoy your videos!
I feel like hobby lobby would have the containers your looking for that or something like jeffery Allan's. Cheap ass glass cylinder, but it holds water. Love the video thank youuu
I wonder if the leaves being crammed down into the jar, vs being on top of the jar, impacts growth. From previous tests, I believe that it may be that when leaves are able to photosynthesize, the propagation is more able to focus on root growth, whereas when the leaves are non-existent or not able to access as much light, the cutting focuses some of the energy on new foliage growth, which stunts early root development. Hmmm, may I should test this, instead of letting you have all the fun. I love your content, particularly your experimental approach. You've given me more confidence in taking risks, which has improved my skill at plant care.
That was an interesting experiment! I propagate into water a lot and I never thought about the amount of water making a difference. I usually use pretty small jars for my propagations, so that makes sense why my plant's roots get thick. Your experiments are awesome! Keep it up!
What i recommend is maybe getting a large bucket or bin and then putting all the cuttings into it on some sort of stair construction. You would need something like a board with holes in it to hang all the cuttings from the same height and then just make the roots hit the stairs at different heights.
aww damn this is good, i didnt even consider something like that with a shared water pool, very very smart and much easier for me to implement. THANKS!
