Cuttings update

Back at the end of November I did some major houseplant pruning when I hacked one of my lanky Dracaena into pieces.

It's been seven weeks, and I've been patient, but there's finally something worth showing you.

***

The cuttings have been sitting in water for that entire time, one in my kitchen window, the others in a bucket of water on the living room floor. Besides the kitchen one growing algae every week or so and my one cat who insists on pushing the cuttings aside and drinking out of the bucket in the living room, there's been nothing to report. The cuttings aren't rotting or dying, but they haven't been doing any noticeable growing either.

Until this week!

The cutting in the kitchen has finally decided that it would be good to have roots! It also looks like it's starting to grow a new stem -- that little bump is surely the start of something:

About a week ago I made some slits in the stem of this cutting with a knife, hoping some damage would trigger root formation. At first thought it seems to have worked, but with only one data point this is not a good experiment. Luckily I have more data..

A couple of the cuttings in the bucket have started producing roots too:

Since those were undamaged by me, I can conclude that making the slits did not contribute to the formation of the root in the kitchen cutting.

This one also looks like it's got some new growth happening mid-way up the stem:

This cutting was from the top of the plant so it already has a growing tip -- apparently it will have multiples now.

The plant "stumps" that were left in the pot (and the one cutting inserted into the soil there) don't seem to be doing any growing yet, but maybe I just haven't looked closely enough.

More on this these cuttings in another month or two. These sure are slow!

.