Viewing post #2162507 by Gina1960

You are viewing a single post made by Gina1960 in the thread called Encountering some rot with Variegated Monstera Albo Borsigiana Propagation.
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Feb 22, 2020 6:51 AM CST
Name: Gina
Florida (Zone 9a)
Tropical plant collector 40 years
Aroids Region: Florida Greenhouse Tropicals
You are welcome! In answer to your questions, I see two healthy roots emergent and the leaf scar at the node seems to be producing a third.
In all honesty, IF that all white leaf is the lowest leaf (I can;t actually tell from your photos) I personally would cut that leaf off and bury the stem up to just over the leaf mode it came out of.

I would put it in a nursery pot, the smallest diameter you can, but as tall as you can get. Until it is well rooted and growing, you may have to sacrifice esthetics for practicality. If you can locate one, a 4" pot that is 6-8" tall, like a vase. would be perfect. These aren;t really garden variety though, but a florist or a nursery might have an extra they could hook you up with...we call them 'bullet' containers, sometimes they are square on the bottom and sometimes rounded like a bullet. They are commonly used to root things, especially palm seedlings, that need to develop good deep root systems before being transplanted to regular nursery pots. It will probably be top heavy so setting it inside another empty pot to stabilize it would help. If you can;t find that, an orchid pot with slits, or even a wood slat orchid BASKET would be great. I root many epiphytic anthurium in baskets...you can line it with netting so the media doesn't fall out, and it can be carried to the sink and watered in the sink. This has an extra benefit in that the media dries even more quickly, and you can actually see and feel a lot better how much water is getting retained and therefore keep it more evenly moist, not sopping wet. Once it is well rooted, you can just leave it in the wood basket and media and bury that in a container of substrate.

In looking at your photos, the meristem of your plant is HIGHLY VARIEGATED. The degree of striping on the stem is what determines the degree of marking on the leaves. It should grow into a beautiful highly marked specimen. This is what you always need to look for when buying cuttings of variegated plants. Pass on any that have poorly marked stems, the leaves will be less that stellar. Pass on any that have really HUGE bands of white...these may produce a dead ends of too many all white leaves, which cannot photosynthesize. You want a really good mix in the stripes.

I will also mention this to you....some people have had success with the following 2 methods of rooting these cuttings....I myself have not tried this, for MONSTERA (although I have used the moss method for a lot of stuff). You can try to root in straight perlite, but you have to be very watchful not to let the plant dry out. You can also try to root in nothing but damp sphagnum moss. I have several epiphytic anthuriums that I actually grow in nothing but moss, as well as epiphytic orchids. The moss has to be left evenly moist, not too wet. And the exposure of the cut end to the damp moss always presents another opportunity for rot to set in. So some people dip the cut end in melted candle wax. But, I have seen them come back and say it rotted ANYWAY with the wax. I have seen people do this, particularly with Anthurium warocqueanum (the Queen) with good results....I actually grow my Queen in a chunky mix but wrap all the new emergent roots in moss. When I have seen this done, they have used a tall cylindrical clear glass vase. This also has the advantage, like the orchid basket, of letting you really keep an eye on the rooting process. But it is a sealed container so you have to be careful.

Even if you are very careful, rot can still set in again. That is why I suggest dipping the cut end into a fungicide powder. I myself use CAPTAN, because it is what I always have on hand to soak and pot up single start bare root heliconia, calathea, etlingera and other rhizomes, which are also very prone to rot in the rooting stage. Some people will say use cinnamon, but, the concentration of the active anti fungal agent in cinnamon is not sufficient in this case to make any difference.

The methods I use are what would normally be used in a growing operation, not in a houseplant scenario. This is how places like Ecuagenera root plants. They take the bare root stem cuttings from their huge stock plants and pot them directly into the growing substrate. I figure what works for them, will work for me, and it does. But I have been doing this a long time, and have found what works for ME, PERSONALLY, in my conditions. It may not work for everyone.
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