The Variegated Thumb

I wrote about my cuttings of Silver Buttonwood (Conocarpus erectus var. sericeus) in my Florida acquisitions post a couple of weeks ago.  It has now been about 7 weeks since I prepared my cuttings and put them into the sealed container of vermiculite.  I have uncapped the top a couple of times to check and see how they were doing, removing any dead leaves from the stems, but otherwise leaving them alone.  The good news is that only a couple of leaves have fallen off the cuttings and they seem to be pretty happy.  The cuttings that I put directly in water began to rot within a couple of days and they quickly lost all of their leaves.  So I was feeling pretty good about my sealed container of cuttings.

Silver Buttonwood cutting with one root starting

Last night I decided it was time to pluck one of the cuttings and see if there was any root growth started.  I was expecting either a bunch of tiny, fibrous roots or nothing.  This is based solely on my past experiences with rooting semi-hardwood cuttings.  What I found, instead, was one thick little root starting.  Not fibrous by any stretch of the imagination.

First root emerging from a Silver Buttonwood cutting

I’m really happy to see this root emerging and now I have an idea about the rate of growth.  7 weeks = 1/2 cm.  Pretty slow.  However, it’s possible that the root really just started to emerge recently and will grow much quicker now that it has started.  It’s also possible that these cuttings want something different – substrate, light, temperature, water.  Who knows.  I’m glad I’m getting some results.

I carefully replaced the cutting in the container and left the others alone.  I will give them another month or so, before checking again.  Hopefully at that time, they will be ready to transplant to individual pots and start life as little saplings.