Gallatin County, MT - In the Garden Now

Most people simply place cuttings in water and hope for the best. While the shoots of species such as the lipstick plant or creeping Charlie will root in water, many species won’t. Even when a shoot roots in water, they must be repotted into soil quite soon or they won't thrive.

"Herbaceous stem cuttings" are made by clipping a 4- to 5-inch long piece of stem from the parent plant, with leaves attached. Make the lower cut just below a node, or the point of attachment of a leaf. Remove any leaves on the bottom 1.5 to 2 inches of the stem. Dip the base of the stem in water and then into a commercial rooting hormone, which is usually a dry powder. Shake the excess hormone from the stem. With a pencil, pen, or small stick, make a hole in your potting media, and place the stem into the hole. This allows the rooting hormone to remain undisturbed on the stem. Firm the media and moisten it. Place your cutting in a warm place. If you are taking cuttings from plants with sticky sap, allow the base to dry for a few hours prior to dipping in the hormone to reduce infection.

"Leaf cuttings" use healthy leaves from the mother plant. For some plants, you can simply stick the stalk of the leaf, its "petiole," into the potting media. New roots and shoots will form from the base of the petiole. For other plants, such as Bryophyllum, jade plant and begonia, you need to lay leaf blades flat on the media, with their lower surface pressed gently into the media for good contact. New roots and shoots will form from the leaf, which eventually will decay.

Using just a leaf of some plants will produce only roots and no shoots. In this case, a "leaf-bud cutting" is in order. Take a leaf plus its nearest bud and a portion of the stem. Dip the stem portion into rooting hormone, make a hole in the media with a pencil, and stick the cutting into the hole.

When you propagate houseplants, you should not use garden soil unless it has been sterilized. There are microorganisms in garden soil that could damage your houseplants or reduce the possibility of successful rooting. Use a mixture of sand and peat or of sand and vermiculite in which to root cuttings, or a good potting soil blend. Do not add fertilizer to the rooting media.

Whatever container you use for root cuttings, be sure it is clean, particularly if you have used that container before. Wash it in soapy water, rinse in clear water, disinfect in a 10 percent bleach solution, rinse again and dry prior to use. After placing the cutting in the media, firm and moisten it around the base of the cutting and cover the container with plastic to maintain a high relative humidity. A plastic sandwich bag works well placed over your container. Leave the bag loose at its base to allow for some air flow.

Some houseplant species become overcrowded in containers. Simply dividing the crowns into several segments provides plenty of planting material to fill empty pots. Be sure the soil is moist when you divide the clumps to help it remain intact against the root surfaces. Remove the rootball from the container and gently tease apart individual plantlets.

Are you enjoying thumbing through the many seed catalogs that have come to you lately, or browsing the Internet for seed sources? Of course, the photos are beautifully presented and wonderful to look at, but some of the terminology can be confusing. For example, just exactly what constitutes an heirloom variety, and why are they so popular these days?

Fifty years ago or more, the best vegetables were saved for their seeds. This is because the old, open-pollinated cultivars produced new vegetables true to type from their seeds. Seeds of heirloom vegetables were often moved from country to country by emigrants who wanted to bring along plants from home. These seeds "came true" to the original plant in their native country, as long as there was no other variety within a certain distance to contaminate the seed. For instance, if we planted seed from a healthy ear of the 1890 heirloom "Country Gentleman" sweet corn we got "Country Gentleman" again, so long as there were no other corn cultivars within a mile or so. It "came true."

Corn, spinach, chard, and beets are pollinated by wind, and also need that mile of isolation from others of the same kind for their seeds to "come true." Other open-pollinated vegetables, like radish, carrots, brassicas, leeks and onions, and rutabagas, are pollinated by insects and need only about 200 yards of isolation. There are some open-pollinated vegetables that are self-pollinated and need no isolation at all. These include peas, beans, lettuce, and tomatoes. Just as a caveat, while these vegetables are self-pollinated, if you intend to save seed, we suggest you plant different cultivars at different ends of the garden.

They may also have some pretty neat names, like the 1810 "Lazy Housewife" bean and "Bulls Blood Beet" from the early 1800s. Heirloom varieties were often delicious, but at the same time, they did not produce consistent yields or uniform fruit, were disease prone, and generally had a short shelf life.

Nowadays, more often than not, gardeners choose to plant hybrid vegetables for the improvements breeders have made in one or several of the vegetables' characteristics, so we eat the best vegetables instead of saving their seed. Hybrid vegetables, often listed as "F1 hybrids" do not produce the next generation true to type. If you save their seeds to plant the following year, you are likely to have a plant that does not resemble the one you so enjoyed the previous year.

F1 hybrids are produced by breeders to emphasize certain characteristics, like color, hardiness, ship-ability, and vigor. The crosses that are made for desirable characteristics are only good for one generation. But what sometimes happens is that during these breeding efforts, some of the desirable characteristics of the vegetable are lost. For example, a breeder may be able to breed a tomato with tougher skin so it ships well, while excellent flavor is sacrificed.

During the 1950s and 1960s, breakthroughs in vegetable breeding resulted in hybrids. These hybrids were more vigorous and pest resistant and produced nice uniform fruit, characteristics that were all very important for commercial growers. But if you plant seed in the spring saved from "Kandy Kwik" F1 hybrid sweet corn last fall you'll get a mutt in summer as the corn genes segregated out in the second, or F2 generation. As it turned out, hybrid seed was plentiful and cheap, so growers didn't mind buying new seed every year. But something happened - the old cultivars started disappearing, and folks started getting concerned that these older varieties were being lost, and started saving and even multiplying their seed. The term, "heirloom vegetable" was coined and a concerted and organized effort was made to save, share, and perpetuate these old, imperfect vegetables.

Growing heirloom vegetables is not for everyone. Their ripening season is often frustratingly long. They can be finicky about their growing requirements. Some have too much plant for the amount of vegetables they produce. Some heirloom tomatoes crack, catface and zipper making them unsaleable at the local Farmers' Market, and some heirlooms, like "Black Sea Man" are just plain ugly, but delicious.

All this being said, there are a number of heirloom vegetables with characteristics that make them possibilities for our northern gardens. Let's name a few names of these vegetables. Plenty of gardeners think heirloom refers only to tomatoes, but boy, are they misinformed. Lots of folks are pretty excited about "Lemon" cucumbers, thinking they are a pretty new development. However, this 58 - 70 day kid-pleasing cuke has been documented since 1894. "Detroit Dark Red" beet is a 55-60 day beet that is good for canning and the table. It's been documented since 1892. The 1863 kale, "Ragged Jack," was brought to Canada by Russian traders. Its leaf veins and stems are reddish purple, and it's hardy to 10 below zero! And my all-time favorite lettuce, "Black Seeded Simpson," documented since 1850, has also been known as "First Early," "Earliest Cutting," "Carter's Long Standing" and "Longstreath's Earliest."

There are a number of other heirloom lettuces available. "Red Deer Tongue" was grown in most pioneer gardens, and the small butterhead "Tom Thumb" has been around since 1830. Of the tomatoes, don't limit yourselves to the famous 1885 "Brandywine." Literature says it's arguably one of the best-tasting heirlooms, but don't forget cultivars like "Bloody Butcher," "Black Sea Man" and "Riesentraube."

Have you noticed the days getting subtly longer? Many of our landscape plants have had their chilling requirement fulfilled and are waiting for spring. At this time, it is possible for them to awaken in response to warm temperatures and once again become vulnerable.

Temperature fluctuations and thaws are particularly difficult for plants at this time of year. Just how warm the temperatures must be for our plants to respond depends on the species, but 27 degrees is a good ballpark temperature to remember. If temperatures become mild for several days, followed by subzero temperatures, you can expect some winter damage symptoms come spring.

If grafted plants such as roses and fruit trees awaken, they may die above the graft union. If this occurs, it's best to replace the plant. Root stock of grafted plants, when allowed to grow, usually produces unacceptable fruit and flowers.

Winter scorch is also commonly seen this time of year on conifers. Needles on the south and west sides of the trees turn reddish brown. This is not to be confused with the reddish winter hue of some junipers, which is normal. In an area with good snow cover, sun and reflected sun dry out the needles. Since the soil is frozen, the roots can't absorb water to replace the moisture that has been lost. Strong winds in an area can worsen winter scorch on conifers. So the combination of intense, reflected sunlight and prevailing westerly winds results in reddish needles on the south and west sides of conifers.

The big question is, "Will my plants die if they are showing these symptoms?" Unfortunately, we have to adopt a wait and see attitude until spring. For now, feel the needles. If they are brittle and break easily in your hand, it's likely they are dead and at least that branch probably won't make it through the winter. However, if they're brown but flexible, they just may green back up in spring and survive. The tree, however, will be stressed. The discoloration that is showing up now is from damage that occurred some time ago, and additional damage might show up as the season progresses.

Even though it's tempting, do not cut out limbs you're not sure are dead until about the Fourth of July. They may not be dead, and may take longer in the spring to green up due to the stress they've been under. Be sure to water your plants well in spring and summer, and next fall, remember to water deeply prior to the ground freezing.

Hopefully you gave your deciduous trees a good drink of water after their leaves fell and before the ground froze. Since they aren't active through winter as conifers are, they won't benefit as much from additional water in a midwinter thaw.

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