Growing roses at home in potatoes
Everyone who loves roses at least once tried to grow them on their own, and the results were not always pleasing. As you know, the rose is a little capricious, and not everyone succeeds in getting a new seedling.
Cuttings, quite often used for reproduction, die during the rooting process: from a lack of oxygen when germinating in water, or they dry out when using the method of planting in the ground for germination. To avoid these mistakes, experienced florists advise trying to grow roses at home from cuttings in potatoes. Potatoes not only maintains the required level of humidity, but also shares starch with the cuttings. Read:how to grow a rose from a cutting at home?
Cutting preparation
For germination, you can use both cuttings from a bush growing in a flower bed, and cuttings from a flower in a bouquet. To prepare the stem for rooting:
- For a good healthy shoot, cut off a part up to 25 cm long with a sharp knife or pruner.
- The upper cut should protrude 1.5 cm above the kidney, and is made at a right angle.
- The bottom cut must be made at an acute angle.
- Remove the leaves from the cutting, leaving a few pieces on top.
- Process the slices with potassium permanganate (weak solution).
- Put the cutting in a growth stimulant solution (Kornevin or Heteroauxin) for a day.
The use of a biostimulant will bring the appearance of roots closer, and in a few weeks the cutting will already sprout. Without a growth stimulant, this process will take a month.
Planting cuttings in potatoes
Stick the prepared stalk into the potato tuber with a sharp cut. It should be free of damage and without eyes. One stalk is stuck into one potato.
Plant a potato with a shank in a pot with nutritious soil, put a drainage layer of expanded clay on the bottom of the flowerpot, and cover it with a glass jar. You can also use a plastic bottle.
The leaves remaining on the handle should not come into contact with the walls of the jar.
Cutting care
Place the pot with the planted cuttings in a warm place with good lighting. Water twice every ten days, avoiding stagnation of water, otherwise the cutting may rot. Spraying the leaves is good.
After the shoots appear (after two to three weeks), the jar must be opened periodically, gradually hardening the rose under normal temperature conditions. Each time, the residence time with an open jar is increased, and after two weeks it is completely removed.
If a stalk with new shoots also throws out a bud, it must be cut off so that it does not take away the strength of the flower.
Planting a rooted cuttings in a flower bed
Roses grown in potatoes, in comparison with ordinary seedlings, have a slightly reduced immunity. Therefore, it is recommended to transplant them into open ground in the spring, so that the bush has time to get stronger before the onset of frost.
For the winter, a young rose should be covered. To do this, you can take coniferous branches or sprinkle the bush with fallen leaves from fruit trees and shrubs, and put earth on top so that the leaves are not blown away by the wind. Insulate rose it is necessary only after a persistent cold snap (5 degrees of frost), if you do it too early, it will begin to germinate.