everyone here I always notice is always so fixated on having clean water and doing water changes whenever you see cloudy or murky water yes I would agree but if you can find equilibrium for your cuttings in their environment they root faster i find and you don't have to pay much attention to them at all. actually I just don't even think about them and just come back weeks later to roots. To find that equilibrium balance here's how I do it. I go into my backyard and find dirt growing near plants where the sun doesn't dry up the soil all the way it stays relatively moist because that's where I figure the most amount of bacteria are colonizing within that dirt. so what I do is I collect that moist soil and I put it on the bottom of a vase and then on top of that I put a layer of sand to keep it from mucking up the water then I gently pour in rain water that I've collected and then I look for a container that is infested with cyano bacteria and then I pour that in with the rain water. After that I just add whatever cuttings so far I have rooted rose cuttings, dracaena lime light, and I have a rooted brugmansia but brugs are a given they're very easy to root regardless. all I'm saying is bacteria should not be villainized it can work to your advantage. you just want to make sure the water within the containers are exposed to adequate light every day and in turn that cyanobacteria doesn't grow out of control because of all the other bacteria living in the container they all keep each other in check and personally I think it reaches equilibrium. providing a hospitable environment favorable for your props the cyano bacteria create oxygen as long as they're exposed to light and the mixture of soil at the bottom provides natural food to your cuttings if the water gets too low that's the only time I add water. The rose cuttings inside the vase I'm showing you I've never even added any new water to it. Thank you for coming to my TED talk
by CabbageShoez
5 Comments
https://preview.redd.it/awunj1hwcshg1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5db6d4306cc316f23b59c8ae17e069159d782b14
you can also see on this particular dracaena cutting it is now piercing through the sand and wanting to get into that dirt
I’ve always done the set and forget due to extreme adhd lmao. But it works for me as well. I tried taking a picture of my rose props but it won’t seem to let me..
you just described a beneficial hydroponic system. It’s very cool that you found a somewhat usable way to create that. No one is saying that using beneficial bacteria in a hydroponic system doesn’t work. It’s actually super well studied! The sentiment that you reference to change water at least weekly/often, though, is because normal people propagating plants aren’t using beneficial bacteria, and so the oxygen in the water gets used up and it becomes an anaerobic environment.
I think there should be an emphasis here that beneficial bacteria work, and are very helpful for hydroponic systems and semihydroponic systems not being run with sterility. Do you need them? No. Is this super cool? Yes 🙂 But if you don’t have them, do still change your water often 🙂
I love the ingenuity here. Awesome problem-solving and really cool experiment!
Wow
Appreciate you sharing the info!! I never be able to propagate anything. I will try it out. Would it rot or work every time? I’m on limited plants so putting in water always rot so I haven’t done so in long time. Thx again. Update you if it works.
As far as I understand the roots produce hormones called auxins which accumulate in the water. That’s why propagating plants in the same jar as pothos produces root growth. Presumably because they grow so prolifically their roots produce more auxins. It’s the same thing in some commercial propagation drops (along with seaweed and other proprietary blends).