Impromptu Propogation Thread

[Aggie]

Wasn't sure where else to put this, as the Pits thread has gone stale. 

Aside from planting random seeds (I've got something unidentified coming up at the moment, maybe persimmon?), I get a big kick out of rooting out anything that isn't fussy about the conditions. 

I've mentioned basil a few times before, but my current favorite supermarket-to-houseplant conversion is Rau Ram (Persicaria odorata) or Vietnamese Cilantro. I picked some up on Sunday night at the Asian supermarket and plunked a few stems in a glass of water. I thought I must have been dreaming when a few roots seemed to be evident last night, but they are all over the place at every submerged node after <48 hours!  I also direct-planted a few stems in some moist soil just for kicks, and suspect they may actually survive.

Supposedly it's a good hanging basket plant (trailing), tastes similar to cilantro, and is reputedly used by Buddhist monks to tame sexual urges.

[pieces o nine]

I've never been able to grow anything from the greenage leftovger from fruits and/or veggies I've bought.

On the other hand, I've got another very fetching pineapple top snorkeling up water on my windowsill again...

[Aggie]

Herbs tend to be the easiest, especially if they are Lamiaceae, but this one just looked like something that'd root out.

I shamelessly pinch shoots from various hanging-baskets and planters at garden centers and malls to get my collection going, so I have a bit of an eye for what's easy to propagate (most common houseplants are, that's why they're common).

[Scriblerus the Philosophe]

I tend to use rooting hormones when I do this stuff, but I found lemon geraniums to be a snap. They're hardy and not at all fussy.

[Aggie]

I keep a bit of rooting hormone around, but haven't noticed much of a difference, probably because I usually root in water and don't bother with perlite etc. and am skeptical that rooting hormone helps in that situation.  I'll have to up my game eventually, I suppose. I should give it a go with the two la lop (Piper sarmentosum) cuttings I have sitting in water on the counter - I did use it on the one that I dropped in a container of soil, but it's pretty much withered by now.

I'm currently doing some layering with some of my vines, by running 'em into a pot of soil for a couple of nodes and letting them root in.  This way, no transplanting is necessary when they are cut from the mother plant.


Any tips for rubber plants?  I need to cut the tips back (two branches are apically co-dominant and growing like stink), but the last cutting I took has remained dormant but alive since it was cut, despite bothering with perlite for a while and finally just plunking it in the soil. I'd like the next two to actually grow at some point, so that I can take 'em with me when I move.  I'll be packing a bunch of small cutlings into a large pot or two, and plant them out when I get settled.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Herbs tend to be the easiest, especially if they are Lamiaceae, but this one just looked like something that'd root out.

I shamelessly pinch shoots from various hanging-baskets and planters at garden centers and malls to get my collection going, so I have a bit of an eye for what's easy to propagate (most common houseplants are, that's why they're common).

Likely because the majority of herbs are primary growth plants-- i.e. weeds. 

Primary growth plants are the "first responders" of the plant world, anytime you get a gash in the soil, or a removal of the vegetation via fire, flood, land-slide, volcanic action, etc.   Primary growth plants tend to be quite hardy, have shallow roots, able to break-and-grow, and often do well in poor soil.   In good soil, with weeding of competition? They tend to thrive.

Secondary growth plants are the "colonizers" here to stay for the long-haul.

[Aggie]

It's the break-and-grow habit that makes for easy propagation in herbs (as they are often underfoot), and in the case of many tropical epiphytes, the ability to drop roots into any available patch of detritus. For the hanging-basket types, the trailing habit usually corresponds to the ability to root as the stems fall over and touch the ground, letting the plant creep.

From the bit of experience I've had with 'em, extremely r-selected herb species tend to be annuals or biennials that get in, produce a large seed load, and then die off; these guys are less likely to propagate vegetatively (but can sometimes seed at the drop of a hat if disturbed or damaged, like cilantro).  The transitional perennial species that form clumps and plan to hang around for a few years are the best at vegetative reproduction, as they are likely to co-exist with grasses and therfore get trampled underfoot by a grazer at some point in their life (immediately post-disturbance, there is little incentive for grazers to bother with sparse vegetation and pioneer species, many of which taste nasty or have physical defences like spines).

Also, a few of our domestic species are hybrids or do not produce much in the way of viable seeds, so they are completely dependent on vegetative propagation (think peppermint or strawberries). If they didn't propagate easily, they would probably not be common domestic plants.