Ohio'sBest

You can also use a bubbler cloner(easily made) and use no chemicals at all.

Richard

Yes, in fact some plants do not root well but are an excellent choice for air-layering. The opposite is also true. Sadly, there are perennial plants for which neither works.

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Lagniappe

Thanks.
I've cloned many plants with my cloner,I've even thrown in bits of cabbage,basil, and other things from the market and had them to grow well, but I have mist beds that I've built for woody stuff and I'm getting ready to fill them with cuttings.

Air layering is not an option, I'm getting cuttings from other people's trees and hundreds from my own.

Richard

Please post some pics when the cuttings take off!

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Richard

As Chris was pointing out earlier, nutrient availability in a soilless media is optimal around pH = 5.8, while in soil media it is near pH = 6.2. An important point here is that if you are using hydroponic methods and start adding macroscopic soil minerals to your media for beneficial bacteria etc., then: you need to raise your pH from the high 5's to the low 6's, back off of the higher Calcium and Magnesium formulas, and introduce urea nitrates in proportion to the soil minerals you added.

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jenny1956

Hello Ohio's best, You were talking about air layering. What is it?
It was my birthday the other day and my workmates gave me bunch of roses and cards. The next couple of days i noticed new growth coming from different parts of the rose cuttings. Being an avid gardner i looked on the internet how to plant them. Eventually i came across something but i might not have done it to the book.

I cut the bottoms of the stalks off slanted. With a knife i marked along the side at the bottom of the stalked. Cut the heads of the stalks off. And dug a hole and planted them. Here are the pictures there not the best. [IMG][/IMG]

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Richard

Since this thread is about hydroponics, how about discussing air layering over here: Air Layering - Bananas.org

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damaclese

i have been using sea weed extract for about 2 years now i find that many times in the sumer heat that plants can become kinda exhausted and almost stop growing even decline so i started using the sea weed and they perk right up and start growing again i think it helps with heat stress i also use it on hard to germinate seeds for example i used it on coffee seed they normally take 90 days to grow with the Sea weed they sprouted in 30 iv not seen any improvement to Banana seed germination i think they have a mechanical process but who knows on that I'm sure some one dose but iv given up on Banana seeds except for the ones Scot give me already planted! if i ever get those Ingens to germinate all do a dance naked in my garden LOL fat chance of that happening!

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Ohio'sBest

LOL damaclese, might need a permit before you do some of that Exotic Dancing.


Actually Richard, as long as a soiless mix is used in the air layering wrap, it is considered Hydroponics.

Richard

Hmm ... It seems you and I have been exposed to very different definitions of Hydroponics. We should take a survey here in this thread and find out how many different, yet plausible definitions we can come up with!

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Patty in Wisc

........ If I need info on hydroponics, I'll ask Chris, Pete & Matt.
Pauly, if anyone can get those seeds to germinate, it would be you! (ooooh m'gosh, you were off topic!!)

Jenny, I do a lot of air layering on some woody plants & can help you with that. It's really easy. Joe Real, a member here (& friend), taught me how. I too got some cut flowers that started rooting & budding out! Except not w/ roses. It was a branch of a leafy squiggely cool looking 'filler' that I rooted in separate glass of water & it is now potted up & growing. I don't think you can root a cut rose though.

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OrganicBananac

Yes you are correct, seaweed is often recommended as a summertime de-stressing agent for plants and lawns going thru the rough summer months and drought. It does seem to help in the shedding of hard seed shells allowing very strong sprouting, from my experience. Glad things are working well! Keep it up.

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Ohio'sBest

I think if you need to know the definition of hydroponics, a dictionary would be helpful. I for one, already know.

sunfish

Here is what I found.

Hydroponics is a technology for growing plants in nutrient solutions (water containing fertilizers)

Patty in Wisc

and....soil-less. So, in air layering we use peat wetted down w/ water. Air layering was mentioned here at least a few times so I don't think Jenny was out of line to ask about it here. She's a new member & I think it was rude to direct her to another thread that was started after she posted her question.

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Ohio'sBest

Merriam-Webster


the growing of plants in nutrient solutions with or without an inert medium (as soil) to provide mechanical support


hydroponic - Definition from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

Lagniappe

Air-layering is an act of rooting, not growing. I see where an inert material like moss or perlite, attached to a limb would be like hydroponics, but it's not the same because the doner plant is being supported by soil or soiless medium. When the rooted section is severed from the doner and grown in an inert medium it could then match up with the definition of hydroponics. Just my opinion.

chong

It appears to me that everyone is arguing over apples and oranges. As a few have already posted, they have found various definition of hydroponics. And each one says it is a method of GROWING plants in mineral nutrient solutions, without soil. Growing is the "apple". Air-layering is a method of plant PROPAGATION. So, Propagation is the "orange".

The origin of air-layering was the observation that some types fallen trees after a storm, whose branches have touched or been embedded in the ground, continue to grow their own roots, and were able to be separated from the main, to live out on their own. Initially, this phenomenon was duplicated by partially breaking part of a branch, and wrapping the injured part in moist common soil wrapped in impervious material, e.g., old tin can, heavy canvas, etc., and enough openings for aeration and periodic watering. Nowadays, common soil is still used in Marcotting. I have a friend in the Philippines who is a full time farmer, and he has a video on how to propagate black pepper by air layering, that shows him putting "dirt" in a ziplock bag and wrapping the soil around node on the black pepper vine, before closing it off with the ziplock bag and rubber band. I believe in the US, practitioners of this method are mixed/divided between soil and soilless potting media.

Soilless potting media, I distinguish from just media. I use a soilless potting media for plants that I intend to send out of state - Fisons Sunshine Mix No. 1. It consists of coarse peat, perlite, vermiculite, and pumice. Using this for hydroponics would be counterproductive. The peat holds so much moisture that it would take several days for it to dry out. Watering it every 15 minutes alternatively would keep the medium wet constantly.

Hydroponics, as the name implies (hydros=water, ponos=labor), is a method using water with nutrients. When defined as "without soil", it does not preclude sand nor pebbles/pea gravel, which according to the USDA is, in fact, soil. So this growing method is mostly about the growing of plants in water containing the nutrients. The medium is only for support of the plant itself.

On propagating plants from cuttings in water, I'm sure there are many of you that have done this before. Especially, if you've ever ordered Plumeria cuttings. Besides Plumeria (Frangipani), I've done this with Cestrum Nucturnum, Carrissa Grandiflora, Wild Strawberries, some citrus, black pepper, Datura, Brugmansia, even orchid. And yes, with roses, also. With roses though, the plant will develop as the original, however, it would not be very cold hardy because the roots will freeze. So you will have to bring it in during the cold season. That's why nurseries graft them onto hardy rootstock. I suppose that, this can be considered "hydroponics" since the medium is in fact, water. With periodic changing of the water in rooted Cestrum N., I've had them grow in the water for over a year. But they got to be so spindly, though.

Richard

Jeez dude! Nobody is saying you don't know! It's a question of your working definition verses eighteen-hundred and forty seven other working definitions that people have adopted for themselves. I thought it would be fun to find out what passes for "hydro" in our neighborhoods.

For example, some hydroponics shops have been pushing themselves into the drip irrigation market by calling growth of plants via nutrient solutions in any media "hydroponics". I am getting a lot of these folks as fertilizer customers and I have to be careful to find out what media they are using.

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Ohio'sBest

Soilless potting media, I distinguish from just media. I use a soilless potting media for plants that I intend to send out of state - Fisons Sunshine Mix No. 1. It consists of coarse peat, perlite, vermiculite, and pumice. Using this for hydroponics would be counterproductive. The peat holds so much moisture that it would take several days for it to dry out. Watering it every 15 minutes alternatively would keep the medium wet constantly.

I use a mixture in a wick type hydroponic system that is simular to yours. 2 parts Peat Moss, 1 part Vermiculite, and 1 part Perlite. For every 5 gallons of mix add 1 cup of hydrated lime. This also works good as a stand alone mix.