(10)Kiwi Phils Gardening Corner..1 of11 photos on making babies

[Kiwi Phil]

This photo shows 3 types of plants for cuttings.<br />The 1st 2 on the left are Gardenia. Left shows one with leaves stripped off the bottom (cut just below where leaves joined). 2nd Photo show remaining leaves cut back, and this is the one I will put in to the mix to propogate.<br /><br />The next 2 are Rosemary. Left one is how it came cut from the bush. Right one I have just stripped the leaves of with fingers. I will put that one in the mix.<br /><br />The last 2 on the right, are Night Scented Jasmine (not climber but bush) (Cestrum Nocturnum). Once again the left hand one is before I prepared it, the right one ready for putting in mix.<br />(they are a good strong dense green bush with insignificant flowers. At night time them give of a very strong but nice scent, all night. Fantastic as a hedge or specimen plant.)<br /><br />As a side note, all cuttings are on foam which covers my Coriander seeds (in 2" pots). I wet them well then cover them with this faom (can use sack or even mix). In summer I leave them for about 1-2 weeks, and keep checking. When they shoot thatey are pale, but maybe 1" long. Then I take cover off and the light gets them standing up straight and they develop green leaves. At this point they are moldy looking, but that's OK.<br /><br /><br />

<br /><br />Cheers<br />Phillip

 

[Kiwi Phil]

Re: (10)Kiwi Phils Gardening Corner..1 of11 photos on making babies

This photo shows Rosemary cuttings.<br />In the front are Parsley seed, done 4 days ago. I have not covered them. Seems to work Ok, but are trialling going back to covering seeds, to see if they germinate any faster. <br /><br />

<br /><br />Cheers<br />Phillip

 

[Kiwi Phil]

Re: (10)Kiwi Phils Gardening Corner..1 of11 photos on making babies

Front right and back left are Kaffir Lime trees, done from semi-hardwood cuttings. They are slow in strike-ing, so you have to be persistant.<br />I have the same issue with Port Wine Magnolia too.<br />In the 2 red trays I have Yellow Gardenia's. These are NOT in 2" pots, (they take up too much room as I have to do a lot) so I cram then into these trays with a peat mix. They are real close together. Young Hayden digs them out with a table knife, so they are pretty much bare-rooted (no mix around roots) and pots them into a 3 or 4 inch pot. When their roots fill that pot, they go up to 8" tubs.<br />They are a beautiful dense shrub with large scented flowers.<br />Back right are Chives, once again not covered with mix.<br /><br />

<br /><br />Cheers<br />Phillip

 

[Kiwi Phil]

Re: (10)Kiwi Phils Gardening Corner..1 of11 photos on making babies

These are Gardenias ready for sale. They are a good size for $5 (flea market) and when we are not experiencing a drought, we can get through a few.<br />Young Hayden can't pot up to these 8" pots as they are too heavy for him, but he wants to "get bigger" so he can, and sell them in to the buyer for our Supermarkets.<br /><br />I have just put 50 out for a hedge on both sides of the Nursery driveway. Should look good. <br /><br />

<br /><br />Cheers<br />Phillip

 

[Kiwi Phil]

Re: (10)Kiwi Phils Gardening Corner..1 of11 photos on making babies

These are this weeks mint cuttings.<br />Good old fashioned big leaf mint is a good learner-cutting. <br />Use the soft end tips, about 2+" long. Don't have to be too careful with where you cut them, so long as there is a node (where leaves come off - remove these 2 leaves of course) below the dirt, and at least 2 leaves on the piece of stem above the ground.<br /><br />Each black tray holds 90 x 2" pots, and 2 of us put down 12 trays per week in 2hrs. Big seller.<br /><br /> All our opposition use seed for their mint (faster) but it is the "new" 5 Mints variety, with small leaves and not the old fashioned strong flavour.<br /><br />

<br /><br />Cheers<br />Phillip

 

[Kiwi Phil]

Re: (10)Kiwi Phils Gardening Corner..1 of11 photos on making babies

This is Sweet Basil, 4 days old. We do over 20 trays per week.<br />We put plenty of seeds per 2" pot, so it growns dense and bushy...good value for the customer.<br />We do not cover Basil.<br />In summer it is ready to plant out in 7 days (or less) but in the winter around 21 days. Remember we are sub-tropical.<br />When you grow it, keep putting down seed maybe every 3-4 weeks, as it is beautiful when stems are soft and green, but it can develop hard stems that are not really edible, so you have to pick the leaves off. <br />Just keep rotataing it. <br />Use excess in Pesto, and that is one nice spread/topping etc. <br /><br />

<br /><br />Cheers<br />Phillip

 

[Kiwi Phil]

Re: (10)Kiwi Phils Gardening Corner..1 of11 photos on making babies

This photo show "vermiculite" which is a whiteish material we use when we have to cover seed. We use No1, which is very fine. It is quick to shake out and cover seedlings, and you can put just the right amount for the size of the seed on. It is a good product. <br /><br />

<br /><br />Cheers<br />Phillip

 

[Kiwi Phil]

Re: (10)Kiwi Phils Gardening Corner..1 of11 photos on making babies

Look at the BLUE tray.<br />This is how we do our flower seedlings.<br />Each red open tray has a different variety of flower seeds in it.<br />2nd from Right is marigolds. I don't know what the rest are, probably Vinca, Cosmos etc.<br />Anyway my wife puts hundreds of seed in each tray, spreads them about and gives these a very light cover of vermiculite. <br />These are about 1-2 weeks from digging out and potting up.<br />Our potted colour sales and down below 5% of what we use to do due to the drought. We use to need 3,000 per week.<br />They are not hard to grow from seed.<br /><br />

<br /><br />Cheers<br />Phillip

 

[Kiwi Phil]

Re: (10)Kiwi Phils Gardening Corner..1 of11 photos on making babies

These are the seedlings from the "blue tray" system in last post.<br />They have been potted up in to "party-packs" (10 per pack with handle).<br />The front ones are Vinca (exceptionally hardy and colourful) and the ones at the back are Marigolds a few weeks behind.<br />The Vincas are ready for a gardener to put in to the ground, with fertilizer too, as looking at this photo, they are in need of a feed. Opppps <br /><br />

<br /><br />Cheers<br />Phillip

 

[Kiwi Phil]

Re: (10)Kiwi Phils Gardening Corner..1 of11 photos on making babies

I am now going to introduce you to another form of Propogation....DIVISION.....which means you divide an existing plant.<br />If you can see from this photo, each of these plants should have 'babies' (or pups) coming off the bottom of them. When they get a bit bigger, remove the plant from the pot/ground, and carefully tear off the 'pup, making sure you leave it with some roots. <br />Then re-plant it. Bingo....That gives you an extra plant.<br />These have all been taken off parent plants. <br />We will normally put them in a really big pots, let them grow dozens of pups, and break them up and pot them in to small pots for sale.<br />These need all the dead leaves taken off the bottom, but I have a lot of them and will use them as a boarder in front of the gardenia hedge I have put in.<br />Division is a good and easy way of propogating.<br /><br />

<br /><br />Cheers<br />Phillip

 

[Kiwi Phil]

Re: (10)Kiwi Phils Gardening Corner..1 of11 photos on making babies

This is just general info about what we do.<br />This is the largest of our 2 propogation tunnes (closed the other down due to drought).<br />We do 64 black trays (90x2" pots ea) per week. My wife does the seeding-up and me and the worker the cuttings. Takes 3 of us around 3-4 hrs.<br />We water them 3 times per day for 3 minutes each time during summer (really hot) and reduce the frequency to 2 times and time to 2 minutes in cooler months.<br />We have good ventilation vents which are open in summer, closed in winter.<br />If you have any questions, will be happy to try and answer them. <br /><br />

<br /><br />Cheers<br />Phillip<br />I've had enough!!!!!

 

[stan_deezy]

Re: (10)Kiwi Phils Gardening Corner..1 of11 photos on making babies

Good work Phillip: great photos.<br /><br /><br />Love the idea of a Gardenia hedge, that sounds excellent.

 

[87Aggie]

Re: (10)Kiwi Phils Gardening Corner..1 of11 photos on making babies

Hey Phillip, excellent descriptions and photos. I have a small greenhouse and tinker with plant propagation a little bit too. Could you explain the Gardenia cutting process a little more in detail? Me an the Mrs just love the smell and look of Gardenias!

 

[Kiwi Phil]

Re: (10)Kiwi Phils Gardening Corner..1 of11 photos on making babies

Righty-ho 87A..<br /><br />When you look at the Gardenia bush, start at the end/top of the little branches.There will be a minimum of 2 leaves coming off them.<br />Then go down to the next set of leaves coming off the stem. Cut the stem just below these leaves. (where the leaves come out of a stem, that is called a node, so you cut immediately below it).<br /><br />That gives you a basic cutting in your hand.<br /><br />Then strip (with finger and thumb) the bottom set of leaves completely off the stem.<br />You should now have a cutting the same as the one on the left of the photo.<br />Then you cut the top leaves in half, so they look like the photo 2nd from the left.<br />What we do, is just, between finger and thumb, press all the top leaves together, and cut the the top half off.(if there is a bud between these top leaves, carefully cut it out).<br /><br /><br />Now what you have to look for when propogating <br />is this:<br /><br />1). When propogating, the growth/stem at the very tip of the shrub is soft-wood or Tip cuttings . It is usually nice and green and a little soft and a little flexible.<br /><br /><br />2). If you follow the stem down, the stem will become harder, less flexible, and less green. That is semi-hardwood .You can feel and see the difference.<br /><br />3). Continue further down the stem and you will come to hardwood , and that is not normally green, not very flexible and hard. This is in fact a true old branch or the trunk of the bush.<br /><br />So when someone tells you to use tip cuttings or soft-wood cuttings, then that is 1 above.<br /><br />I do Gardenias with tip or softwood cuttings.<br />You can use a rooting hormone (powder or liquid) to dip the cat stem in to before you place it in the growing mix. I don't bother.<br />When in the mix, water well, then when you water daily, make sure you wet the leaves.<br />(you cut the leaves in half because it reduces transpiration by 50%)<br />You can use a decent sized pot full of mix, and just push many cuttings in to it.<br /><br />These basic instructions should cover most plants.<br /><br />My Gardenias take maybe 6-8 weeks to strike. Best to start at beginning of spring when new growhth on parent bush appears.<br /><br />Once you tip prune a bush for cuttings, keep an eye on the bush because it will all of a suddent have mass new growth, which is another source of more cuttings.<br /><br />Does this cover it clearly for you?<br />Let me know if it dosn't.<br />Sorry the reply is long.<br />Cheers<br />Phillip

 

[87Aggie]

Re: (10)Kiwi Phils Gardening Corner..1 of11 photos on making babies

Hey Phillip, so sorry getting back so late. That covers it most excellently!! Thanks so much for the info. Did you go to Horticulture School or did you get your mastery through hands on training?

 

[Kiwi Phil]

Re: (10)Kiwi Phils Gardening Corner..1 of11 photos on making babies

No, I don't have a formal education in this field. Came out of the Army at 28, and spent 12 yrs in a variety of my own businesses.<br />On moving to Aussie, I decided to go in to this field as a business. Started reading books, asking questions, and growing things.<br />It just grew from there.<br />At the very start woke up to the fact the household $$$ that was spent on plants was a "recreational $$$", and that seemed restrictive to me, so decided I would produce a product that would be sold in the Fruit and Veg Dept of a Supermarket, so I could tap in to the "weekly food $$$".<br />I feel coming from a different past was beneficial, as we were not restricted by a formal training, and see things very differently to others in the field.<br />As you do things and make mistakes, you learn. My wife and I, and even young 12yr old Hayden: whenever we go anywhere, the 1st thing we look at and discuss between ourselves is plants and what they are being used for etc etc. It has been a passion in this family for probably 16yrs now.<br />The most rewarding part is the solitude. You can work 10hr days with them and they never answer you back, and their condition is a direct result of what you did.<br />We enjoy working together too, even tho there are some "moments" that could not be described as "passionate".<br />So to answer you, it is a passion, and that leads to anything, and the hours just fly by, and we need more of them in the day, and i am not looking forward to retirement.<br />Cheers<br />Phillip

 

[neumanns]

Re: (10)Kiwi Phils Gardening Corner..1 of11 photos on making babies

I'm sill with ya kiwi...Trying to soak in some of your knowledge. Just wanted to let ya know I'm the one in the back of the class that don't ask many Questions at this point but I am paying attention.

 

[87Aggie]

Re: (10)Kiwi Phils Gardening Corner..1 of11 photos on making babies

Passion is definately the word for it. I'm a forester and it's that way with me when it comes to trees. Keep the good info coming, my wife and I appreciate and enjoy it very much!

 

[Boomyal]

Re: (10)Kiwi Phils Gardening Corner..1 of11 photos on making babies

Surprised to see that you use a greenhouse in the land o' sunshine. Maybe that's what I need for my tomatoes.

 

[Kiwi Phil]

Re: (10)Kiwi Phils Gardening Corner..1 of11 photos on making babies

The Greenhouse is a 8mx6m by 3.4mhigh propogation tunnel, covered in plastic film. <br />In the winter I can keep the internal temp well over 21 degrees C which allows me to propogate summer type plants in winter. <br />It keeps a high humidity level and lets 85% light thru, and stops wind, so I have no problems with drift from my misters (water jets). <br />I didn't have one for years but now i am a little bigger, I have to have consistancy, and this was the cheapest/most effective option. Has to be well vented in summer though.<br />Cheers<br />Phillip