The currant and elderberry cuttings I got from you last fall are all doing great. They remembered where they came from and made it through the great Texas freeze. I just hope they survive our brutal summers.
So glad to hear they are thriving. Yeah, what was a devastating freeze for most of the plants naturalized to your area was a light frost for the currants and elders. A good reminder to always be adding diversity to any landscape! We had our elders in full leaf a few years back and in early April got a night at 9F, the next day 55F, the next night 5F... INSANE temperature swing. The elders dropped their leaves, made fresh ones and had a great season! Ha!
You have to really appreciate when someone works nature and don't try and buck the system, nature was doing this a much much longer time than was man.... God set the motion and man just keeps it going by following his lead... thx.
The honey tip is great!! We have been experimenting with that as well. Seems to work just as well if not better than rooting hormone. We also use molasses and real maple syrup in some cases. Great share!!
Thanks for this video! I should have mine up and going tonight. FARR smaller scale, but i think i've got less than 4 dollars into it, so i think it'll be a really great use of stuff that's just sitting idle. Always appreciate your videos and all the insight you offer to everyone!
Very nice video. While watching it and your mentioning of "many variables" promoted an idea for hopefully decreasing one of them. The heat bed you have, with the wires running, can be optimized with a thin layer of perlite and send and something like 1-2 inch a water blanket on the top and perlite and send again on the top of the water blanked, where you deep the plants. The water/fluid layer will uniformly distribute the heat in itself and that will allow the heat to be uniformly available for the top layer of perlite and sand too.
The cost for this setup was roughly $100 for the heat cable and controller, and the perlite/sand is about $50 a year. 15 cuttings that are successful will cover this cost, and it currently has at least 1000... Super useful tool for our scale.
A great concept that we played around with this winter (on a MUCH smaller scale!) thanks to your earlier videos on the Bottom Heat Propagator! Our budget and space allowed for a shallow rubbermaid tub with a 60/40 sand & perlite mix on a seedling heat mat. A neighbour's mulberry tree was heavily pruned by the city mid-winter when they were trimming around power lines and it was great to have a space to take this 'waste' and turn it into something potentially productive! Gooseberry and Currant cuttings have just gone in recently since the winter was pretty cold here this year and I was nervous about stressing the parent plants. A few months since putting the Mulberry cuttings in, and it seems like more than not, they are taking root, or at least beginning the callousing process :) Some failures of course, but we learned lots about the thickness of cuttings that seem to work! What are your thoughts about having a small set-up like this indoors? Ours was in our mudroom which stayed between 15-20 degrees C. It seems the ones that failed perhaps leafed out too early? Maybe the unheated shed would be a better bet for next winter? Thanks as always for the great content and for sharing your wealth of knowledge! It has been awesome to watch so many of your ideas develop and unfold over the years!
Definitely want to have the bottom heat setup in a space that is pretty darn cold... In C I'd guess something like 1-10C would be ideal. Our garage is unheated, drops below freezing during the winters, but is mild compared to outside, but certainly cold... I think that would help immensely in keeping them from leafing out early...
Today I harvested my first rooted cuttings from my bottom heat propagator. Very great and easy. I had great callus on pear, quince, nashi and already roots on artemisia and black currant. I used honey. Next time I will try to use honey with onions since I saw somebody using onions as rooting help. Did you make some changes to your system the last two years? An update video would be great. Thanks for your sharing!
I've seen a video from Fraser Valley Rose Farm, which outlined the effectiveness of different options, including willowwater. The effect is, by all good means, really neglectable. And yes, Fraser Valley Rose Farm is, apparently, by no means to be included into the "Permaculture" realm, but this video and the sources seemed pretty solid.
Thanks for sharing! I’m so curious about this. How do you know when the time is right to move the rooted cuttings out to a place where they can continue to grow? Also, I’m curious if you worry about damaging the plants by pulling them out to observe/interact with them. I’m getting some first time success with my blackberry cuttings and I’m not sure when I can move them outside.
We'll share notes as we go, but if you are getting mellow weather (nothing down below 25F lets say) then you should be able to transplant them into nice garden soil pretty soon. Put on a mulch to keep them protected a bit, and they should continue to root and then wake up in the garden. If you damage some roots as you move them, don't get too upset, they can recover and rebuild. Good to be careful but I break roots all the time and the plants figure it out. :)
I really appreciate your videos!! Are there certain plants that tend to root well without bottom heat and certain plants that really prefer the bottom heat?
Elderberry, currants, willow, poplar, all super easy and don't need the heat at all. Plants that are considered more challenging to root will benefit from this kind of setup.
Would you recommend putting raspberries, honeyberries and sea buckthorn cuttings in a bottom heat propagator or directly in earth outside works well?(I am starting a permaculture plant nursery in France and you are a great inspiration)
Seabuckthorn we have direct experience doing well with bottom heat, so that is recommended... Raspberry and honeyberry we have had limited success so that is an experiment. Stool layering for honeyberry works well and raspberries propagate amazingly well from root sections...
I have tried that and had things rot on me... Absolutely could have been user error, so don't take it as a definitive, but I have used honey water ever since and have been happy.
They develop according to the amount of growth hormone in each cutting Bud....or so I've always believed. That's why some are faster than others. I'm not a botanist so I could be wrong.
Couple of questions for you. Several other hardwood propagation videos I've watched showed burying the cutting by at least 2/3 and it looks like you're only burying only about 1/4 is that because of the addition of bottom heat or something else? Second, I see that you have a cat. We provide a shelter and water to a couple of local strays in the winter in the same garage as I'm thinking of putting a propagation setup like this (but smaller). Do you have problems with the cat bedding down for the heat and disturbing the cuttings?
I would imagine if there were cold cats they woudl be drawn to a system like this... Yeah, something to consider and design for... Cuttings could do well to go deeper, I like 1/2 and 1/2 at least when it works, deeper is generally better... Good luck!
how did those kiki cuttings work out? last year i had really great callousing on my kiwi cuttings, then almost all failed when i transplanted. operator error during transplanting i think
They rooted pretty well... Now I'm seeing a bunch die but that is because I don't think I've been keeping up with their watering needs like I should have :(. Operator error here too!
DOOOOD! Do NOT plant that horse radish in your garden. It will spread and you will NEVER get rid of it. Place it someplace out of the way or keep it contained.
The currant and elderberry cuttings I got from you last fall are all doing great. They remembered where they came from and made it through the great Texas freeze. I just hope they survive our brutal summers.
So glad to hear they are thriving. Yeah, what was a devastating freeze for most of the plants naturalized to your area was a light frost for the currants and elders. A good reminder to always be adding diversity to any landscape! We had our elders in full leaf a few years back and in early April got a night at 9F, the next day 55F, the next night 5F... INSANE temperature swing. The elders dropped their leaves, made fresh ones and had a great season! Ha!
You have to really appreciate when someone works nature and don't try and buck the system, nature was doing this a much much longer time than was man.... God set the motion and man just keeps it going by following his lead... thx.
The honey tip is great!! We have been experimenting with that as well. Seems to work just as well if not better than rooting hormone. We also use molasses and real maple syrup in some cases. Great share!!
A friend of mine researched rooting hormones and they are actually pretty nasty/toxic things so seems best to just skip them!
Thanks for this video! I should have mine up and going tonight. FARR smaller scale, but i think i've got less than 4 dollars into it, so i think it'll be a really great use of stuff that's just sitting idle. Always appreciate your videos and all the insight you offer to everyone!
Sounds like you got the right price!!!
Getting mine running tomorrow. I have willow, elderberry, black raspberry, kiwi, and maybe some others to go in. Thank you kindly for this idea.
I hope it works wonderfully for you!
Very nice video. While watching it and your mentioning of "many variables" promoted an idea for hopefully decreasing one of them. The heat bed you have, with the wires running, can be optimized with a thin layer of perlite and send and something like 1-2 inch a water blanket on the top and perlite and send again on the top of the water blanked, where you deep the plants. The water/fluid layer will uniformly distribute the heat in itself and that will allow the heat to be uniformly available for the top layer of perlite and sand too.
That makes sense. Probably a bit more complexity than I Need for this setup, but good to remember.
What a cool setup! Considering the mass amount of of cuttings you can do at a time, I imagine it will be well worth the cost. Thanks for sharing.
The cost for this setup was roughly $100 for the heat cable and controller, and the perlite/sand is about $50 a year. 15 cuttings that are successful will cover this cost, and it currently has at least 1000... Super useful tool for our scale.
@@edibleacres Definitely. I think I will be doing this on a much smaller scale, like you mentioned in the video. Thanks for the wonderful idea.
Thanks for the update!!!
Excellent progression! Thanks for sharing!
You bet!
Fantastic! Thank you for sharing your great setup and your knowledge. Super valuable and helpful! :)
Happy growing!
A great concept that we played around with this winter (on a MUCH smaller scale!) thanks to your earlier videos on the Bottom Heat Propagator!
Our budget and space allowed for a shallow rubbermaid tub with a 60/40 sand & perlite mix on a seedling heat mat. A neighbour's mulberry tree was heavily pruned by the city mid-winter when they were trimming around power lines and it was great to have a space to take this 'waste' and turn it into something potentially productive! Gooseberry and Currant cuttings have just gone in recently since the winter was pretty cold here this year and I was nervous about stressing the parent plants.
A few months since putting the Mulberry cuttings in, and it seems like more than not, they are taking root, or at least beginning the callousing process :) Some failures of course, but we learned lots about the thickness of cuttings that seem to work!
What are your thoughts about having a small set-up like this indoors? Ours was in our mudroom which stayed between 15-20 degrees C. It seems the ones that failed perhaps leafed out too early? Maybe the unheated shed would be a better bet for next winter?
Thanks as always for the great content and for sharing your wealth of knowledge! It has been awesome to watch so many of your ideas develop and unfold over the years!
Definitely want to have the bottom heat setup in a space that is pretty darn cold... In C I'd guess something like 1-10C would be ideal. Our garage is unheated, drops below freezing during the winters, but is mild compared to outside, but certainly cold... I think that would help immensely in keeping them from leafing out early...
Kittie thinking "Go away dad, I wanna try out my new litter tray!"
What's the one really large stick in your propagator? Love your videos btw!
Today I harvested my first rooted cuttings from my bottom heat propagator. Very great and easy. I had great callus on pear, quince, nashi and already roots on artemisia and black currant. I used honey. Next time I will try to use honey with onions since I saw somebody using onions as rooting help.
Did you make some changes to your system the last two years? An update video would be great. Thanks for your sharing!
That is amazing, great work!!! No key updates I'd need to share and clearly you have it working as well as it needs to already, kudos!
One stacked function you neglected to mention is that it's also a heated toilet for cats. :)
THere ya go!
Thank you for the honey tip I've never seen it before. Have you tried willow water as well, curious to see if it work as well
I've seen a video from Fraser Valley Rose Farm, which outlined the effectiveness of different options, including willowwater.
The effect is, by all good means, really neglectable.
And yes, Fraser Valley Rose Farm is, apparently, by no means to be included into the "Permaculture" realm, but this video and the sources seemed pretty solid.
I personally didn't get great results but other folks seem to!
Thanks for sharing! I’m so curious about this. How do you know when the time is right to move the rooted cuttings out to a place where they can continue to grow? Also, I’m curious if you worry about damaging the plants by pulling them out to observe/interact with them. I’m getting some first time success with my blackberry cuttings and I’m not sure when I can move them outside.
We'll share notes as we go, but if you are getting mellow weather (nothing down below 25F lets say) then you should be able to transplant them into nice garden soil pretty soon. Put on a mulch to keep them protected a bit, and they should continue to root and then wake up in the garden. If you damage some roots as you move them, don't get too upset, they can recover and rebuild. Good to be careful but I break roots all the time and the plants figure it out. :)
Thank you for such valuable information. Would sand alone as medium work without perlite?
You could certainly try it, I've heard good thiings.
Is there anything specifically wrong with rooting hormone or would you rather just work without it?
A friend researched them and learned they are pretty toxic, so I just quit using them.
I really appreciate your videos!!
Are there certain plants that tend to root well without bottom heat and certain plants that really prefer the bottom heat?
Elderberry, currants, willow, poplar, all super easy and don't need the heat at all. Plants that are considered more challenging to root will benefit from this kind of setup.
I love that kiln in the background. Do you guys use it?
Sasha makes pottery sometimes, but hasn't in a bit. We need to etch out more time for projects like this!
Definitely! Pottery is such a fun and relaxing project. I'd love to see a video on Sasha making some plant pots or something cool like that!
Would you recommend putting raspberries, honeyberries and sea buckthorn cuttings in a bottom heat propagator or directly in earth outside works well?(I am starting a permaculture plant nursery in France and you are a great inspiration)
Seabuckthorn we have direct experience doing well with bottom heat, so that is recommended... Raspberry and honeyberry we have had limited success so that is an experiment. Stool layering for honeyberry works well and raspberries propagate amazingly well from root sections...
any thoughts on dipping ends in 'willow water' or using water that has had willow clippings soaked in it as a type of rooting hormone ?
I have tried that and had things rot on me... Absolutely could have been user error, so don't take it as a definitive, but I have used honey water ever since and have been happy.
They develop according to the amount of growth hormone in each cutting Bud....or so I've always believed. That's why some are faster than others. I'm not a botanist so I could be wrong.
NNNNG...now I gotta look it up lol
Couple of questions for you. Several other hardwood propagation videos I've watched showed burying the cutting by at least 2/3 and it looks like you're only burying only about 1/4 is that because of the addition of bottom heat or something else? Second, I see that you have a cat. We provide a shelter and water to a couple of local strays in the winter in the same garage as I'm thinking of putting a propagation setup like this (but smaller). Do you have problems with the cat bedding down for the heat and disturbing the cuttings?
I would imagine if there were cold cats they woudl be drawn to a system like this... Yeah, something to consider and design for...
Cuttings could do well to go deeper, I like 1/2 and 1/2 at least when it works, deeper is generally better... Good luck!
how did those kiki cuttings work out? last year i had really great callousing on my kiwi cuttings, then almost all failed when i transplanted. operator error during transplanting i think
They rooted pretty well... Now I'm seeing a bunch die but that is because I don't think I've been keeping up with their watering needs like I should have :(. Operator error here too!
I just got some elderberry cuttings in mail and my soil is still super frozen. what should I do with them? pot of soil in the greenhouse?
Bottom heat is ideal, but sure, a nice pot of mild potting mix and the cuttings communally planted, kept moist and above freezing should be just fine.
Add some WILLOW water to your mix.
I've tried that and it didn't wow me... .But maybe it's worth trying again.
DOOOOD! Do NOT plant that horse radish in your garden. It will spread and you will NEVER get rid of it. Place it someplace out of the way or keep it contained.
His whole plot is 'garden'.
We have good areas to commit the horseradish to, don't worry :)
Your honey mixture is made of chemicals, as is everything.
Z