You may make your green thumb even greener by rooting many of your cuttings under a new propagation system called constant mist.
In this system, cuttings are bathed continuously in a fine mist of water, in full sunlight, for the entire rooting period. Special atomizing nozzles provide the mist.
It can be made or purchased, and it’s simple for the home gardener to set up the system and keep it operating.
All needed are one or more flats or a propagation bench, one or more atomizing nozzles (the system is completely “elastic”), and a hose or pipe. And a continuous water supply at adequate pressure to operate the nozzle.
Advantages Of The Constant Mist Method
This system, now under test at the Florida Agricultural Experiment Station, has several advantages over the usual rooting methods.
According to Dr. H. N. Miller and Austin Griffiths. Jr.. of the Florida station. It affords almost 100% percent freedom from the usual insect pests and diseases of the propagating bench, including damping-off.
This greatly saves labor and time because it eliminates the need to sterilize or fumigate the planting medium and the necessity of dusting or spraying the plants.
The only attention required is an occasional check to ensure the mist nozzles are working properly.
Other advantages: the humidity of the constant mist system maintains your cuttings in tip-top shape, with no wilting, and in the case of many plants.
Cuttings root faster and yield a higher percentage of well-rooted plantlets. Also, this system succeeds with many normally hard-to-root cuttings.
An extra dividend is that the system can also be used to harden off new transplants at the mist edge.
In Warmer Sections
The constant mist can be used most of the year outdoors in more northern areas. However, the system would have to be moved indoors under glass in winter.
When the system is set up outdoors, wind protection will likely be needed at the Florida station. Dr. Miller and Mr. Griffiths accomplished this by using a windscreen covered with cloth or transparent material and placing the propagation bench between closely spaced buildings where the air currents swirled enough to distribute the mist equally over the cuttings.
However, Griffiths points out that wind protection seems optional when the proper type of nozzles are used and placed seer the cuttings directly.
These nozzles provide a heavy mist of -the right distribution to compete successfully with interference from wind.
The rooting medium did not significantly affect most of the plants used in the tests. A mixture of equal parts vermiculite and peat, however.
It was about the best in most cases. Sawdust and sawdust-peat also proved good general-purpose rooting mediums. Good rooting, however, was obtained with all media.
The Florida tests showed that when a bench is under constant mist for a long time. Deposits of soluble salts from the water may collect on the rooting media and sometimes on the plants themselves. However, these salts do not injure the cuttings and can be flushed away with water.
Plants That Can Be Rooted
To give you an idea of the variety of plants that can be rooted under constant mist, here’s a list of some of those which have given good results in Florida:
- Azalea
- Boxwood
- Camellia
- Croton
- Common fig
- Gardenia
- Ivy
- Holly
- Common and California private
- Myrtle
- Oleander
- Fire-thorn
- Roses
- Blackberry
- Raspberry
- Dewberry
- Blueberry and various haws
In some cases, several cuttings of clones and species were used; in other cases, only- single representatives were used.
Most cuttings were standard, current-wood, stern propagations from average plants.
Austin Griffiths, Jr., left, and Dr. Howard N. Miller examines the root system of a coning rooted under constant mist at the Florida Agricultural Experiment Station.
Azaleas, gardenias, hibiscus, privet, and haws were some of the more readily rooting plants which responded most rapidly to the constant mist, while among the usually hard-to-root plants which reacted favorably were holly, myrtle, and roses.
The good results obtained with azalea and fig cuttings discount reports that hairy-leaved materials can’t be rooted under this system.
One Constant Mist System
Here’s a description of one constant mist system the Florida station scientists set up. The men laid four lengths of 14” inch galvanized pipe, connected by three T’s, down the middle of the propagating bench just above the rooting medium. They connected the pipe at one end to a hose, closing the other end with a cap.
They then affixed three 14” inch-long perpendicular pipe arms to the T’s and connected an atomizing nozzle to the end of each arm. The nozzles used were standard faucets turned upside down.
A copper plate with a tiny hole in the center was then secured to each faucet by a screw ring, and a small baffle plate was fixed directly overhead.
Water from the tiny hole hit the baffle plate, producing a heavy water mist. Baffle-plate nozzles such as this can be made at home or purchased for less than $2.00.
A modified baffle nozzle has a regulating screw with a sharp point that may be run down toward the tiny hole to produce a mist. This and the other commercially produced baffle types are all non-clogging and will pay for themselves in convenience and water saved—they use only about a gallon of water per hour.
In contrast, homemade baffle types may use considerably more. Another type of nozzle produces mist in an internal mixing chamber.
A study of the constant mist system is still going on in Florida. Scientists are attempting to find out more about the light intensities needed and are working to refine the system’s mechanics.
They also plan to test intermittent mist controlled by a time-clock device. Also, scientists are trying to determine why constant mist eliminates disease and insect troubles.
44659 by William G. Mitchell