Late transplants--Too late to separate? Prune and bury?

[TheWaterbug]

I have "leftover" plants from the Great Gardener Giveaway that I don't have room for, so I'm giving two to my Mom and two a friend. I should have given them away a month ago, because now they look like this:



That's Indigo Apple on the left, and Sweet Carneros Pink on the right. Both are about 15" tall above the soil.

Are the Indigo Apples too mature to try and separate? No doubt the root balls are completely intertwined. If she were to attempt this, should she try to tease the root balls apart? Or just slice down the middle and hope each gets half?

And if she wants to deep-bury the SCP, should she prune off that largish branch at the bottom? It seems a shame to prune off so much foliage.

[JayPoc]

Hmm....if it were me, I'd cull the weaker of the two IAs...just snip it all off that the soil. For fun, maybe try to get the rest of it going as a cutting. I'd just be afraid that trying to separate the two would ruin them both. As far as the other variety, I'd snip that lower branch and bury it deep...

[applestar]

The Indigo Apple can be separated but they will experience some set back, and TYPICALLY one will end up with better rootball mass than the other.

To preserve most root mass --

Soak thoroughly, then remove from pot and start by unwinding any roots that have wound around. Then if you have one, use a hand fork (looks like garden fork) to start teasing and dividing the root ball in half from the bottom and sides. I use a shallow stab and wiggle motion followed by teasing out. Barbecue fork or meat fork might be a good substitute, or chopstick.

Once you have them reasonably divided, grasp the two plants at the base and start steadily pulling apart while moving them up and down, back and forth. You will feel some roots tearing and others pulling loose. Trick is NOT to hold the roots too tightly so they can slide through your grasp. This is when typically, through difference in applied force or the way they are entangled, one plant ends up with better preserved larger rootball and the other one ends up with more broken, lost roots and smaller rootball.

Water well and keep in shade for 24 hrs to let them recover after repotting.

I wouldn't hesitate to cut off that lower side branch on the SCP. You could root that and grow a clone, if you want.

[TheWaterbug]

Of course a 3rd option is to just let both IAs grow. I'm assuming that they'd crowd each other quite a bit though.

I'm leaning towards telling her to cut both the twin IA and the SCP side shoot and put those both in a jar of water to see if they grow roots.

[TheWaterbug]

So Mom cut one twin and put it in water, and she just left the other twin planted. I don't know how they're doing yet.

But I did some cutting of my own, and here's a Lush Queen side-shoot, 5 days after putting it in water:



and here are the roots!



I'm pretty impressed as to how quickly they grew.

My AAA Solano cutting (same day) is _just_ starting to put out 1/16" rootlets, but it's still green and not wilting.

And then there's this Lush Queen. I hesitate to call it a "cutting," as I basically cut down a whole plant. I'd transplanted twins a month ago, and they were getting really crowded, so I just cut one off:



It's got big roots, and some of them grew out above the waterline in the jar:



So Lush Queen is living up to its name, foliage-wise. I hope it makes some tomatoes!

[JayPoc]

Coolness....thanks for the update. You just put those cuttings in plain water? Water with a little fertilizer? Something else?

[TheWaterbug]

Just plain water! I'm too lazy to do anything else.

I mist them when I remember to, or when they look a little wilted. The big Lush Queen, which I left outside due to space concerns, looks very wilted in the afternoons, but perks up overnight. The other two I have in a bay window area, and they're fine.

[applestar]

Looking good!

Don't leave them in the water too long -- it's fun to see them grow, I know .

Water roots are different from soil roots and they'll experience a set back/shock during transition. Better for them to grow soil roots. A loose potting mix in a container with a support stake stuck through a drainage hole into the ground would do the trick -- situate under a tree or somewhere with noonday/afternoon shade.

[TheWaterbug]

Water roots are different from soil roots and they'll experience a set back/shock during transition. Better for them to grow soil roots. A loose potting mix in a container with a support stake stuck through a drainage hole into the ground would do the trick -- situate under a tree or somewhere with noonday/afternoon shade.

Ah, thanks! I need to find time to do this. I just realized I mis-read last year's pumpkin notes, and I need to get 25 sites prepped and planted in the next 10 days.

Regarding these types of cuttings, has anyone tried taking cuttings near the end of the season and then carrying them over to the following season?