Death bed birthing? Good to know but... yechhh!

Here's 'Pacific Magic Night' having a bloom-fest after flower stalk removal. There are some mysterious buds lower down, and some even lower down than can be seen in the picture, that were there long before blossoming started. I'll bet those bud out. In any case, this one is just experimental as there are some healthy offsets growing nicely nearby.


Here's what's left of 'Jewel Case' and 'Silverine'. These are the two bloomers where I only had one rosette. I decided to try the leaf approach with these. Each leaf bunch has some stem attached to it. I'll leave these out for a couple days and lay them on bare soil with some moisture and see if they root.

I am so excited about your new experiment Tim. I am really looking forward to updates on how they are doing.

Yes, will be great if this is successful.

Uh... ok... a new thread... why not. I didn't think of this myself, I read someone else's mention of it. I don't remember who but I think that person also said that it may require a piece of central stem to be attached. I think someone else may have done this already?

I remember that too, were was that. Seems like it was Terri that did that or Margo?

But this is going to be the tutorial thread on the experiment.
Just remember Tim, you are the professor, we are the students. Don't leave any information out on what you are doing.

As if I have any idea what I'm doing. I did a little googling last night and found unanimous opinion that this didn't work on Sempervivums, but was useful on Echeverias and various other succulents. Seems to me if it did work it would be in practice and it would be known by now. But that's not always the case. Sometimes it takes a clueless ignoramus to try something that goes against conventional wisdom to discover something unconventional. What have I got to lose.

OK, I left those semp pieces out in the open air for 48 hours, in a bright but shaded outdoor area. Hopefully to dry up the wounds in the stem. I then selected a modestly sunny area and laid the pieces out on the soil. I made little slopes in the soil so that the semp leaves could stay upright and the stem portion would contact the soil instead of being lifted in the air.
Last night I watered the area moderately. This soil is sandy, drains fine, and remains moist but not sticky in any way. I will keep it lightly moist.



Last night at "planting" time the pieces were moderately limp and feeling pretty anemic. This morning they are much firmer and feel alive. Maybe they took in some water through their leaves overnight or maybe it's just the coolness of the nighttime air... I couldn't say. But it does suggest that they are at least alive and that's all I'm asking for at this point.

I am watching Tim. I like the way you think this through.

Nice job Tim! And yes this is possible, I have done it will several semps, but Packardian worked the best for me - have done it twice now!! Good luck

Another ATP person - Twitch I think - had occasional success with this. I wonder if dosing them with Quick Start at some point would help?

Patty said:Another ATP person - Twitch I think - had occasional success with this. I wonder if dosing them with Quick Start at some point would help?

Maybe. Although I would have liked to try some rooting hormone if I had any.

Here's one of Twitch's post from way back regarding semp propagation:

http://garden.org/thread/view_...

That's good info Bev... seems like this has been done before... I had no idea. Although I have a vague recollection of Greg mentioning this some months ago.
BTW... Greg... seeing as you have had some actual experience and success with this... maybe you could give some details on the process you used.

tcstoehr said:That's good info Bev... seems like this has been done before... I had no idea. Although I have a vague recollection of Greg mentioning this some months ago.
BTW... Greg... seeing as you have had some actual experience and success with this... maybe you could give some details on the process you used.

Tim, my situation was a leaf fell near the plant, and stayed there, next thing I notice it is growing roots, then after a while it grew a little ball at the same end where the roots were growing, this ball was a small rosette...The next time I just placed another leaf in the same place, making sure a bit of the end was in the chicken grit, it did the same thing, rooting and then growing a rosette

gg5 said:
Tim, my situation was a leaf fell near the plant, and stayed there, next thing I notice it is growing roots, then after a while it grew a little ball at the same end where the roots were growing, this ball was a small rosette...The next time I just placed another leaf in the same place, making sure a bit of the end was in the chicken grit, it did the same thing, rooting and then growing a rosette

That's quite surprising in light of the internet results I found claiming it to be impossible. You weren't even trying and it just happened. I asked the MCG folks if they did this and they said no and seemed (to me) puzzled at the very idea. Maybe this would be more common if semps didn't so readily produce offsets.

I don't know if it would help sempervivum leaves to sprout roots at all, but you can brew up quite a potent rooting hormone with either seaweed or willow branches.

I have noticed some buds on the leaf cuttings from two weeks ago. But I was disappointed in finding no roots at all. I had hoped some roots would miraculously form on the remaining bits of stem. But no such luck yet.



I would also not be at all surprised if these buds turned out to be flowers. I think actually that results would have been better by simply using the standard flower-stalk decapitation method. I think I may be seeing that same thing except the plant bits have no "mother" plant to draw from.

Tim the main thing is bright shade helps them to be less dry and that way more energy can go into root or leaf production.
That one could easily be a new rosette

Tim,

I think those are successful! Congratulations!

Kevin

I am embarrassed to say that I kind of lost interest and forgot about this little project. By the time I went to check on it recently I was only able to find two of the pieces I was working with. The rest blew away or were eaten by squirrels.
Here they are, 'Silverine' and 'Jewel Case'. 'Silverine' has sprouted at least four decent looking rosettes and I'm confident I could get a couple plants off of this. 'Jewel Case' sprouted some more flowers as well as several tiny rosettes that could turn out to be flowers or rosettes, I'll never know.