Proceedings Library

The Dutch propagators split the base of a difficult-to-root cutting and inserted a wheat grain. The "prepared cutting" was stuck into a medium, and rooted faster and in higher percentages. Today, we know that the reason for this response was that as a wheat grain germinates it releases auxins or plant hormones. As the auxins were released by the germinating grain they were absorbed by the cutting and rooting was stimulated.

Auxin is another term for the natural hormone produced in plants. This natural hormone produced in the young leaves and in the buds of the plant, moves down the cutting to the base. If the cutting was left on the parent plant, the auxins would just keep moving down the stem. However, as soon as

Accordingly, experiments were initiated in the greenhouse in 1956 with cuttings being stuck in late December or early January. Over the four year period the effects of bottom heat, type of cutting, size of cutting, wounding, interval of mist and shade were studied with the variables being adjusted on the basis of current results.

In addition to the intermittent mist bench, cheesecloth, and in some instances, polyethylene covered propagation beds were used for purposes of comparison. These propagation benches were installed on the standard

The following year we liked the system so well that we increased the facility to measure four lines wide, without dividers. Burlap was placed around the sides which let through a little too much air, thus giving us poor coverage along the edge. These were five foot beds with about a ten-inch walkway in between them.

The following year we changed over to the electronic leaf control. We had quite a little trouble with this system at times, so we changed over to the interval timer in 1957. We used Florida mist nozzles primarily, although we had to use a few John Rust nozzles.

In 1941 and 1942 we experimented on a small scale in a covered cold frame, using a constant spray from Hudson type spray nozzles. The results were just encouraging enough to continue experimentation.

In 1943 and 1944 we experimented with a small, head-high structure, completely covered with lath shade fencing, using a continuous spray from short throw greenhouse nozzles, fitted on two stationary pipes hung along the upper two sides. This time the results were more satisfactory and warranted the added expense of setting up for

The system is essentially a cold frame type rooting procedure with provision to permit the rooted cuttings to grow on and develop a full season without disturbance.

Initially, let me say that just about every idea that we have incorporated in this procedure has been borrowed from other members of the Plant Propagators Society. I want to mention Harvey Gray, in particular. A few years ago I took rather vociferous exception to Harvey's poly tent device because of the problems which existed under my particular set of conditions. A year or two later Harvey got me straightened out and we have had good success ever since by applying his principles. You can, of course, see in our procedure ideas lifted liberally from Templeton, Wells, Fillmore, Coggeshall, Hancock, Van Hof and many other members.

A vaporproof chamber, as I visualize it, is made of polyethylene plastic, as was first brought to the Society's attention in Cleveland several years ago by Roger Coggeshall. I have modified some of the points that were originally presented by Roger in an effort to make sure that the area is really vaporproof.

I mean to say that if this case, which is rarely ever 12 inches high (the width and length of the case is immaterial but the height I feel is quite important) is down on the ground, as in the case of a ground bed, then we are only concerned with sealing this vaportight by stretching our plastic to the ground over the top, over the ends, and sealing it with soil.

However, if it is on an elevated structure, such as a bench, with wet pipes quite likely underneath for

This tent is constructed just as Harvey Templeton's tent is constructed, using the concrete reinforcing steel with plastic stretched over the top and sides.

We use beds that are made on the ground, and since our propagation is conducted under a lath shade structure, these tents are located underneath this unit. Now this works out quite well for us because we don't have the extreme cold to combat. We have used these tents both with and without bottom heat.

Now the medium that we use is made quite simply. We go out into the field and pick a sandy spot. This is hauled in and worked with about

Two factors in our

One cannot hope to cover the general topic of "media", without overlapping into the general areas of watering

Everyone who grows plants appreciates the necessity of an adequate supply of water for good growth, but we seldom give much consideration to the reasons why water is essential. This is unfortunate, because the more one knows about the role of a factor such as water in plant growth the easier it is to manage it efficiently and deal effectively with the problems which arise in connection with it.

There are two principal aspects of plant water relations, that is the effects of too much water, and the effects of too little water. I will deal first and in most detail with the effects of too little water, that is, the effects of water deficits on plant growth, because this is the most common problem.

I will deal with the problem under three headings; (1) why water deficits injure plants, (2) why water deficits develop in plants and (3) how to measure and prevent water deficits.

Most of the illustrations must come from crop plants because little research has been done on ornamentals

Years of experience has taught many of you the technique of preparing a seed bed, propagation frame or nursery field. You can prepare them in such a way as to insure most of the physical features desired for best plant performance. Obviously, we don't all do it the same way. We

We found very little difference in the per cent rooting between the no treatment, the concentrated dip, or talc applications. We did find some difference in the quality of rooting. We found that with no treatment we had an average of 6.2 roots per cutting. With the concentrated dip treatment we had 9.5 and with talc 6.5 roots per cutting. With the Pfitzer the same response was obtained, i.e. 4.4 roots per cutting with no treatment; 10.4 with concentrated dip, and 7.2 with the talc application.

In the rose, no treatment averaged 10.6

1. Soil analysis — in order to determine the supply of minerals in the soil.
2. Plant analysis — in order to determine needed levels in plant tissue.
3. Field and pot culture experiments — to compare effects of different fertilization rates.
4. Direct treatment of the plant, by spraying or injection, in order to induce a growth response.
5. Diagnosis of nutrient deficiencies by visual symptoms.

When a mineral nutrient element deficiency in a plant is shown by visual symptoms, the deficiency is quite severe. It has been established that low levels of mineral elements can cause a reduction in plant growth without the appearance of visual symptoms.

Before expanding this topic, let us briefly review our knowledge about the essentiality of the nutrient elements. Prior to 1900, ten elements

Excepting unusual winter conditions such as floods or ice storms, winter injury may be directly attributed to either desiccation of above ground portions of plants, formation of ice within the tissues, or both.

Desiccation due to water loss from stems of deciduous plants and leaves and stems of evergreens without replacement from the soil, may be particularly serious in container plants. Soil volume and root extension is limited, the medium may dry out relatively rapidly, and the soil ball may remain frozen for long periods of time. This type of damage is most common on

Our houses, for those of you who have not seen them, are the old-fashioned kind of Dutch greenhouse. They are low double span houses, joined side by side. They are 100 feet long and 16 feet wide, I believe. The glass begins at the rear of the bench, at a point about 15 inches above the bench and then goes up to a gable overhead.

Now we have two sash houses 25 feet long and they are 12 feet across. In addition to that, we have a lean-to house which is 178 feet square plus a pit type of house which also is 45 feet long.

Now in these houses we have a total propagating area underneath polyethylene plastic of 716 square feet.

It is a method of rooting summer cuttings in ordinary sandy nursery soil by using light portable wooden frames with burlap covers. From experience it has been found that the best practicable length for these frames is twelve feet, and the width three feet nine inches outside measure. Because burlap comes in forty inches standard width, it has not been practicable to have the frames any wider. The lumber used is 1" × 10" × 12 feet Pacific Coast cedar for both sides and ends. To give the frame rigidity, a cross bar of 1" × 3× lumber of the same material connects the two sides of the frame exactly at the point of balance, which also enables one man to carry a frame easily. Similar

During the past few years outdoor misting has taken a definite step in producing quality stock and is now our main method of propagation.

The propagation of perennial stock is done primarily within the greenhouse and seedbeds as it involves divisions, stolon cuttings, hardwood and semi-hardwood cuttings, hardwood, because of lack of material during the summer months and those varieties that do well from seed. Most of the evergreens, deciduous and broadleafs are taken care of under mist.

A schedule, dealing with a specific group of plant materials in production, is taken care of through a set pattern. For instance, the greenhouse

Now later in the season, at a winter meeting in Cleveland or Philadelphia perhaps, when this fellow is questioned on the results of a particular strike, he will calmly reply, "Oh, 85–90 per cent." What he really means, of course, is that he stuck 12 or 13 hundred, guessed it was a 1000, rooted 700 and figures he was doing pretty well. I am sure that any of you in this audience, who have had the experience of keeping an accurate record for one season, of an operation that was deemed highly successful in years past, can testify to the shock that is in store for the grower who has been guessing at his very comfortable percentages.

I feel that the main reason more records,

More recently, Garner (3, 1) published a description of "Double Shield Budding" in which a blind shield of the compatible variety is inserted into the stock so as to be an intermediate between the stock and the varietal bud. He states, "The resulting trees have developed stronger unions

The techniques used today are essentially the same as the one described in 1665 by John Rea (1). He wrote "I have found out another expedient to help them (dwarf trees) forward, that is, by grafting the scion of the Paradise Apple in a crab, or other apple stock, close to the ground, with one graft, and when that is grown to the bigness of a finger, graft thereon, about eight inches higher, the fruit desired … and will cause the trees to bear sooner, more and better fruit."

Some of the schedules and methods in use today are as follows:

Our quick-dip liquid treatments make use of a two per cent stock solution made by taking two grams of indolebutyric acid and dissolving this in 100 cubic centimeters or milliliters of 95 per cent ethyl alcohol.

The indolebutyric acid is made available to us at approximately one dollar a gram from the Eastman Organic Chemicals Co., Rochester, New York.

A simple way of making up a stock solution of two per cent is to order a five gram quantity of the material and place it in a dark glass, stoppered bottle. To this would be added 250 c.c. of the ethyl

Crataegus phaenopyrum, previously called C. cordata or Washington Hawthorn is used for the understock. This species provides a good root system, it transplants easily, and the bark peels well over a long period of time. Seedlings are easily raised from fresh, clean fall sown seeds that have not been allowed to dry too much. Dry seeds may become dormant and require stratification for a year.

Seedlings can be lined out in the early spring and budded during August or the first half of September. Hawthorns vary a great deal in the size and shape of the buds making peeled buds difficult to lit and tie. Therefore, all buds are cut out with a sliver of wood attached to the bud, some refer to this as a wood bud. Buds are tied with a rubber band and waxed with paraffin

This report concerns an investigation started in the spring of 1958 to determine the influence of some factors which affect the formation of roots on marcots. Studies were also made toward developing a satisfactory technique that might possibly assure a fair degree of rooting with certain conifers.

Air layers were placed on terminal shoots of lateral branches of seven-year old Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) and nine to twelve-year old White spruce (Picea glauca). The needles were stripped from a portion of the stem on one-year old wood about six inches back of the apical bud. In the center of the

Through trial and error we have found that indolebutyric acid has been the most satisfactory chemical for our purpose. We have used alpha naphtaleneacetic acid and napthaleneacetamide in test work only. They have proved to have a very narrow effective range while IBA has a much wider spectrum. A wider range means less chance of injury due to inadvertent errors. The results obtained from the three chemicals were quite similar.

We use 95 per cent ethanol as the solvent but are endeavoring to find another carrier not subject to the beverage tax which will act as a solvent for IBA and still be miscible with water.

The general formula for making up the concentrate is one gram of IBA per 100 C.C. of 95 per cent ethanol. This results in a

Although we have been using this quick dip method for a relatively long time I have had the same results as Harvey Gray has had, that is, inconsistent rooting.

For one of the concentrations that we use, I take 10 c.c. of the stock solution and mix this with 90 c.c. of tap water. We use five, ten, and twenty per cent solutions.

Our cuttings are made, dipped and

When this substance was obtained we made some tests, diluting crystals in alcohol in approximately the same percentage range as the Hormodin powders, namely ½, 1 and 2 per cent. It turned out that dipping in these straight alcohol solutions was not satisfactory and resulted in considerable burning. Adding small quantities of water to these solutions gave more encouraging results but we soon found out that adding too much water to the 1 per cent and 2 per cent alcohol solutions resulted in the recrystallization of the indolebutyric acid.

Our source of seed is from the native dogwood, which is abundant in our area. These berries are gathered in the early fall and are brought to our packing shed where we buy them, from collectors, by the pound.

We prefer that the berries be well ripened and find that the best test is to press the berries between the thumb and fore finger. If the seed presses out freely, the berries are ripe and are ready to be cleaned. We use a Dybvig Seed Cleaner for this process and find it very satisfactory.

After the seeds are cleaned, they are placed in the open air and sun to dry for a few hours and are then stored in bags in lots of 25 lbs., which is a convenient quantity to handle, since it will not mold, if hung from a rafter.

When weather permits in late October and early November, we plant in a fertile, well prepared seed bed directly in the field. Our standard row

We do not produce our own seedlings but rather buy 18 to 24 inch, 3/16 - ¼", caliper seedlings. We prune the roots severely, leaving only four to five inches of the original root. Side roots, if any, are also pruned back severely. The tops of the seedlings are cut back with a band saw so that not over 18" of top is left above ground after planting. This

There is some evidence in the literature to support the use of mist for the propagation of conifers during the summer. Fillmore (1) reported on the successful rooting of Chamaecyparis pisifera under mist outdoors in Nova Scotia. He also reported 100 percent rooting of Taxus media