Saving Cuttings for Later Propagation Dates

Saving cuttings for a later propagation date is rather easy. Heres a few items you will need.
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• A Suitable Cutting
• Foodsaver Vacum Canister FoodSaver® Vacuum Sealer, America's #1 Selling Brand of Home Vacuum Packaging Systems
• Vacum Sealer or Equivalent (they sell hand pump in cabelas)

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Step 1: Take your healthy cutting and put and remove any decaying matter or leaves.



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Step 2: Place a very small amount of water in your canister



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Step 3: Make sure you have enough water so the stem can absorb something



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Step 4: Time to vacum, i do the extended draw on this cheaper model, if you have one with settings, 1/30th atmosphere works best for me in the past.



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Step 5: Sealed and ready for the fridge.

Thursday, June 05 , 2008, 5: 04:28 PM



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Update: Today, June 10, 2008, 7:13:16 AM (picture taken)

Still very viable and in suspended animation

reserved for later pictures

ineresting

Just a question, will it try and grow roots like that? Or just kinda sit there and not do anything?

how long do you think it could stay in there before it starts dieing?

titanium3g said:

Just a question, will it try and grow roots like that? Or just kinda sit there and not do anything?

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Its in a vacum and chilled down to about 45° so its essentially in a state of suspended animation. once you release the vacum you would then start your rooting process

ipleedthe5th said:

how long do you think it could stay in there before it starts dieing?

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I forsee about 10 days for this geranium, i misted the container and added about 7ml of water.

If you were going to save something more prized and demand a longer duration i would advise these steps.

1. Take your cuttings in the early morning or when your lights come on
2. After taking stock, mist the leaves with water or jumpstart
3. Apply an anti-wilt spray or wax
4. Add 10ml of water to the canister
5. Vacum and chill somewhere around 45° (I read a study where they chilled to 33° and were very successful so if you got a spare fridge try it out!)

Just like everything, each species reacts differently so there may be some trial an error for longer durations.

That's good stuff! This would be good for mailing cuttings, too.

I cant edit post 2 anymore...

Monday, June 16, 2008, 11 : 03:38 AM
Still good and viable!!

update....

taken from another board

http://forums.fogponics.com/showthread.php?t=349

The last experiment, just concluded, had sixty (tomato) cuttings taken 3 months ago!
Out of 60, three did not make it. One I take responsibility for one, I dropped a TDS/EC pen meter on it the first day and bent its stem. The other two I can't explain, but damn that is a real low failure rate. Over 90 days in suspended animation and less then 5% lost. I always allow for 10% loss with fresh cuttings, so this is going great!

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