Hi Gardeners
The oak tree is almost completely bare and the big maple in the
side yard is shedding heavily. Fall color came quickly and is going just as
quickly. Every night as I go to the barn,
I hear great flocks of geese honking their way south. The farm fields around me
are pretty well harvested. I can now see clearly across them and watch the deer
gleaning the grain.
I have the urge to clean and bake now, and hoard away food
like a squirrel. Hoarding this year
might be more urgent and practical than in past years. With the virus and a snowy winter predicted everyone
needs to stock up. Do you have enough toilet paper?
I turn my gardening to the inside now. Watering this jungle takes nearly an hour to do it right. The plants inside are blooming quite well, I have 2 hibiscuses in bloom, streptocarpus, bouvardia, pomegranate, lemon, begonias, geraniums, fuchsia, Ardisia, and gerbera daisies in bloom inside.
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| Streptocarpus |
The plants inside all look good right now. As winter drags
on some will get straggly but for now, everything is lush. The elephant ear on
the porch is thriving and I so want to bring it into the main house. But it’s
huge, the pot is huge, and even though I play around with new floor plans I can’t
seem to find room for it. If I could convince my husband we don’t need to see
the TV it might work. I do have a new grow light, Amazon deal. If I could just find a new place to plug it
in…
This weekend I dug up some cannas and to do so I had to take
out the sweet potatoes growing around them. The tops were mostly frost blackened
but underneath there was still some surviving foliage. I forced myself not to
pot them and rescue them. Instead I took some cuttings, which are rooting in
water on the windowsill. So, I decided to write about rooting cuttings in water
today.
I have been seeing and getting lots of questions about
starting cuttings in water. Many people seem to be under the impression that
you can take any piece of a plant, plop it in water and it will grow. That’s simply
not the case. While some plants will start from the right pieces placed in
water, many will not. And in many cases, it’s better to start cuttings in
potting medium and not water.
A cutting that you want to root needs at least one node. A node is a place along a plant stem where new growth can occur. It’s usually where a leaf will sprout along a stem, leaf joint. It can look like a thickened area, or a bump along the stem. Some plants can put out both leaves and roots from a single node, but it’s usually best if cuttings have 2 nodes, one to make the leaves and one to make the roots.
There are plants that can start from a leaf stem without
nodes or even from a leaf. But most leaf or flower stems without nodes will not
produce a new plant for you. Think of a bouget. How many of those flower stems
in the vase are going to put out roots? Not many. You can pluck a hosta leaf
and stick the stem in water but it’s almost never going to root. (Miracles do
happen.)
When plants produce aerial plantlets, like spider plants,
you don’t take a leaf from the plant and stick it in water, you take the whole
plantlet. Put the base in water, or better in soil. Plants like sanseveria (snake
plant) and African violets, which can be started from a single leaf are best
started in potting medium. Cacti and succulents are more easily rooted in sand
or coarse potting medium.
If you want to reproduce a plant from a cutting look up the
culture (care and growing) of a plant. Most references will list the best ways
to reproduce the plant. If stem cuttings are mentioned, you may be able to put
the cutting in water to root. But not all plant cuttings will root in water,
some do better when the cutting is inserted into potting medium, vermiculite or
sand.
In general cuttings that will root in water are from plants
with soft (herbaceous) stems. Many of the common plants rooted in water are
houseplants. Plants with woody and semi-woody stems root better in solid
mediums. There may be certain times of the year when cuttings are more likely
to root. In general, this is when a growth spurt is happening, usually in
spring.
If you will be keeping the plant growing in water then
starting it in water is the right method, providing it’s a plant that will root
in water. But if you are going to plant the cutting in potting medium or soil
at some point, then start it in soil or potting medium.
When plant roots begin in water, they produce certain kinds
of root cells to deal with the environment. When you take them out and pot them,
they have to shift those cells to deal with the soil environment. This takes
lots of plant resources. Many plants can handle this but there will be a growth
setback. Some plants though, will die.
So, if you are gong to try to start a plant cutting in water
here’s the basics.
Make sure it’s a plant species that can root in water.
Take the right kind of stem cutting. It should have at least
2 nodes, at least one that will be under water and one above it. Don’t make
cuttings too long -3-4 nodes long is best.
Cut your plant piece so that there is very little stem left
below the last node in the water.
You can leave the leaves on the cutting top, those parts
above water. Cuttings without leaves can
be started also. No leaves should be under water.
Containers should hold at least a couple inches of water. They
can be clear or any color. You’ll want heavy containers that don’t tip over
easily.
Use clean water to fill containers and keep them filled to
the same level as water evaporates. If the water starts to blacken or smell
dump it and refill with fresh water. You don’t need to use distilled or rainwater.
If cuttings are going to root in water, they probably don’t
need any rooting hormone, although liquid rooting hormones are now available.
Do not add fertilizer, copper pennies, Epsom salt, or homemade brews of various
things. Just use plain water.
If cuttings turn black and mushy discard them. Some cuttings
take longer than others to root but if you have seen no signs of rooting after
a month, the leaves have dropped off the top part and there are no new leaf
buds developing, it’s probably dead.
Keep the container of cuttings in bright light but not in
direct sun as they root. Warmer room temperatures, above 50 degrees F, are best
for the majority of plants.
Don’t use any fertilizer until the cuttings have good roots
and are growing new leaves. Then you must be very, very careful not too add too
much if you want to add fertilizer. You will burn the roots. Plants manufacture
their own food but can benefit from some trace minerals in fertilizer from time
to time when growing in water. Use commercial water-soluble fertilizers, not
things like fish meal or manure, which can cause bacterial rot and certainly
smell up a house. A tiny pinch, like wetting your finger and picking some
fertilizer up on it and dipping it in the container, is all that’s needed.
If you decide to pot the cutting in potting medium you don’t
need to add soil gradually to the container. Just pot it up. Keep the soil moist
but not soggy. Soggy soil will rot the roots, even if they were used to water. If
you are going to grow the plant in soil or potting medium get it out of the
water and into that medium as soon as you see roots developing.
Here are some plants that will start easily in water. Pothos, philodendron, bridal veil, inch plant, purple passion plant, Boston ivy, Swedish ivy, coleus, wax begonias, sweet potato, pilea, setcreasea, zebrina, geraniums (Pelargoniums), impatiens, mints, tomatoes, lucky bamboo, thyme. Some of these plants will need transplanting into soil fairly soon after rooting in water to continue to grow.
In general plants with long stems, like many trailing plants
or prominent nodes along a fleshy stem are candidates for water rooting. Plants
where the nodes are producing little “bumps” around them are also prime
candidates.
Some succulents like jade plants and holiday cacti might
root in water but are more likely to successfully grow if rooted in a solid
medium.
Plants with no easily seen stems, (crown type plants) and
plants with woody stems are not likely to root in water.
Do you know what the country’s most dangerous animal is? Yep,
Bambi. A report done last year indicated that the number of car-deer collisions
averages 1,332,322 each year. The number of human deaths from such collisions
averages 440 each year with about 229,000 additional injuries each year. Elk,
antelope and moose also cause a few deaths every year.
October through December are when the highest number of deer
collisions occur. So of course, all drivers should take extra precautions this
time of year. Dusk is the most likely time for a collision to occur, but deer
can magically appear in the road at any time of the day. Slow down, especially
in rural areas. Areas with farm fields on one side and wooded areas on the
other are prime crossing areas.
Because deer are often chasing each other this time of year
they don’t pay as much attention to roads as they normally do. And when you see
one deer cross the road, slow down drastically or stop. This time of year there
are almost always more deer coming.
If you see a deer in the road brake but do not swerve. Most people who die from deer collisions swerved and hit the deer anyway, plus something else. Some deaths that were caused by people swerving to avoid deer may never be counted as deer collisions deaths because the deer didn’t get hit and disappeared from the scene.
Deer damage in your garden may increase
It’s rutting (mating) time for deer and gardeners should
take steps to protect their gardens from deer damage done by bucks rubbing their
antlers on small trees. They can scrape the bark off, killing the tree, or they
can bend and break small trees. And since winter is coming and deer and other
animals may eat the bark off trees, girdling and killing them during winter, it’s
time to protect your trees.
Young trees are most at risk for both rutting damage and
winter girdling. Deer like trees with soft bark and diameters of less than 12
inches both for rubbing on and eating. Trees that have an open area around
them, such as ornamental trees in the landscape, are preferred for rubbing. Sapling trees on the outer edges of woodlands
are also targets.
Young trees should be protected at planting if you are in
deer country – and few places aren’t in deer country anymore. This can be done with a “cage” of wire fencing,
or for trees that go dormant in winter, a tree tube. To keep small animals like
rabbits or voles from eating bark at the tree base, the bottom 3 feet of your cage
should be wire with small openings, like ½ inch hardware cloth. Chicken wire
can keep out rabbits but not voles.
As a temporary aide to keeping deer from rubbing on trees
you could put things close to and around the tree like lawn chairs, buckets of
earth, lawn art and so on. They may or may not be kept away by spraying commercial
products on the trees like “PlantSkydd.” It depends on the deer population in
your area. Bars of soap, human hair,
peeing on the tree rarely work to stop rubbing.
If you are in an area with a big deer population and have
experienced deer damage in the garden, stop fooling around and get a good fence,
wire or electric. Or learn to live with the damage.
Deer eating your plants
Autumn also means winter is near and winter and early spring
is when most deer feeding damage occurs to landscapes. It’s time to protect
your plants. The only way to stop deer damage completely is to eliminate the
deer from your garden with an 8 feet high fence. Barring that, electric wire is
the next most reliable option. Shorter fences and spraying with commercial deer
repellants help to some extent. Repellants must be applied frequently.
Folk remedies like Irish Spring soap, bloodmeal, various
scents and urine products, human hair and so on, may work for a short time, but
ultimately will fail. In areas where deer are used to human activity, noises, dogs
barking, tin pans flapping in the breeze and so on, are often ignored by deer.
Some favored trees and shrubs can be protected with plastic netting
or chicken wire. Burlap on strong stakes can offer wind protection as well as deer
protection. There must be no gaps in netting or burlap barriers, they must be
tall enough and far enough from the plants that deer can’t lean over it to
reach the plants. There should not be so much space between the barrier and the
plant that deer can leap over and land safely. About 3 feet of space seems to
work.
I have had some success with strands of solar powered twinkle
lights set on a “chasing” mode and strung on posts around the garden as a
barrier. They come on automatically at dusk. Lights on a steady mode or just blinking
don’t work. It has to look as if the lights are moving. The solar panel needs
to be in the sun and on a post, so it doesn’t get buried in snow.
A problem with the lights is that deer sometimes run through
them, in daylight probably, and break the wires. Then the lights don’t work. If I don’t catch that right away damage gets
done. And some long stretches of dark skies can also cause outages, although even
a partly cloudy day is usually enough to power them.
I’m in a rural area and the lights don’t bother any
neighbors. You might get complaints if you have close neighbors and the lights
are bothering them. I use the lights all year around and all I can say is that
when they are working, I don’t have deer damage to my ornamentals surrounded by
them.
In the summer the sprinklers that detect motion and turn on
with a noise and water spray are pretty effective. You need an electric and
water hookup for them, and they don’t work when temps are below freezing.
Do not feed the deer if you like your garden undamaged
You can never feed the deer enough to keep them from eating
your garden. They can eat corn for an hour,
then decide they feel like a bit of arborvitae for dessert. Deer like variety
and there are some plants they crave whether plenty of food is available or
not.
The more food you put out for the deer; the more deer will show
up. Soon you will have hordes of deer, at least in winter when they are not
very territorial. They will trample plants as well as eat them, leave piles of
poop for your dogs to roll in and empty the bird feeders.
You may think it’s fun to watch the deer come and eat from
your yard. But if you are a gardener who likes a variety of nice ornamentals
and spends a bit of money on them, you’ll soon need to decide which thing you
like the most- your garden or watching deer. Deer do not understand that the
corn and apples you put out are ok for them to eat but they should leave your arborvitaes
and tulips alone.
When you feed deer, you aren’t doing them a service. Experts tell us it’s not good for the deer’s
digestive system to eat corn and other grains. In winter their body normally
adjusts to get nutrition from browse, that’s young trees and vegetation left
above the snow line. If your grain suddenly stops it will be very hard for their
digestive system to quickly adjust. Yes, deer glean grains form harvested fields
but that usually is gone before winter. They also have to expend more energy
finding it than eating from a pile.
Feeding deer habituates them to humans and makes them easier
targets for hunters, it makes them more likely to damage gardens in summer too,
when there is plenty of food. Where deer are crossing roads to get to feeding
stations, they endanger drivers. Where deer congregate to eat, they also spread
disease.
Some deer are meant to starve in winter, it’s natures
population control. But in most rural agricultural areas and suburban areas deer
rarely starve over the winter, even if people don’t feed them. And extra food
means extra babies, does have triplets instead of singles or twins. This is not
sustainable over time. Eventually they do begin to die from disease and
starvation due to over population.
And to those people who say –“the poor deer- where do you
expect them to go? We took over their habitat”,
the answer is we didn’t take over their habitat. Instead we have created more
habitat, protected it from hunting and added extra food. There are far more
deer in this country than there were when Europeans arrived here.
In a great many areas of the country the deer population is
a big problem, the numbers exceed what is healthy and sustainable for the area.
They are destroying native endangered plants and diminishing habitat for other
animals. They are bringing in ticks to backyards and diseases to livestock.
Plants deer don’t like
Every gardener who has had deer damage gets the idea to just
grow plants deer don’t like. That’s often not a good solution. There are very
few plants deer won’t eat if they are hungry. And what they will eat in one
area they may not eat in another. And that’s the reason deer proof plant lists
vary from area to area and person to person. Native plants are not immune to
deer feeding. In fact, some natives, like trilliums, are their favorite
foods.
There are certain plants deer seem to dislike more than
others but just remember they are not deer proof, no matter what some people
will tell you. I’ll list some of those here that are perennial. Intermingling
these plants can help protect others in some cases, but don’t count on that
either.
Spring bulbs; alliums, daffodils and narcissus (I have had
deer eat the flowers but rarely), fritillaria, snowdrops, star of Bethlehem, hyacinth,
grape hyacinth, crocus (I have had deer eat these), corydalis
Herbs- mint, rosemary, sage, lavender, catmint, tansy, lemon
balm
Onions, garlic, chives, horseradish
Ferns- ostrich, bracken, most ferns are safe from damage
Trees and shrubs; Many pines- white pine is eaten when young,
spruce, junipers, hollies, paper birch, katsura, boxwood, sassafras, witch
hazel, barberries, paw paw- deer will eat the fruit
Other perennials; ajuga, iris of most types, foxglove, peonies-
(I have had occasional damage), poppies, ligularia, Bishops weed, bleeding
heart, baptisia, pulmonaria, dames rocket, larkspur, bamboo- many types escape
being eaten, yucca, Russian sage, salvias, buddleia, potentilla, sweet woodruff
Natives; Jack in the Pulpit, lilies of the valley, mayapple,
bayberry, bearberry, elderberries
This list doesn’t include all plants that deer avoid and
reflects my own growing area. In the south and west there may be other species
deer avoid.
More reading
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1544&context=hwi
Larger pumpkins are easier to clean out and you want a
pumpkin with a sturdy stem for a handle. Pumpkins with longer stems tend to
last longer. Lighter colored pumpkins
are said to be easier to carve but they will not last as long before rotting.
Pumpkins don’t change color after they are picked so
whatever color your pumpkin is when you buy or pick it, that’s the color it
will be when you carve it.
Don’t carve your pumpkin too long before you want to display
it. Keep it outside in the shade or in a
cool until you do carve it. Pumpkins
should be kept from freezing. They can turn to mush if they freeze solid.
After cleaning and carving, soak the pumpkin in a mix of 2
teaspoons of bleach to a gallon of water for a few minutes. Note: this
amount of bleach will not harm any animal that eats the pumpkin. Pat dry
inside and out, or dry carefully with a hair dryer, and then coat your carving
cuts with a thin layer of petroleum jelly.
Use small electric lights or solar lights instead of a candle
to light pumpkins. It’s safer and the pumpkins last longer.
Consider painting your pumpkin or using decorative stickers
or tape on it instead of the mess of carving it.
Take your pumpkin out to a field after Halloween for animals
to eat. Livestock and chickens love them. Or compost it.
“October is a fallen leaf, but it is also the wider
horizon more clearly seen. It is the distant hill once more in sight, and the
enduring constellations above that hill once again.”
- Hal Borlan, This Hill, This Valley
Kim Willis
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copyrighted and may not be used without permission.
And So On….
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