The seedlings of red pine, which I seeded in the middle of Feburary, are growing well and it is time now to do seedling cutting. The way is the same as black pine. Not too difficult.
Of course you need red pine. I seeded them in the middle of March, they sprouted in the middle of April. Maybe you can start from seed even now. It is warmer, so they may grow faster.
This is current situation.
See the true leaves in the center. It is time to do seedling cutting when they grow this much. It may be earlier or later. Anyway when the true leaves started to grow, it is time.
Pots
I need plenty of small pots, so I use following ones this time.
“Jiffy pot”. They are made from paper and you can plant the seedlings with the pot. I used this because I needed many small (and cheap) pots. I chose smallest one, 5.5cm diameter.
Soil
I used the special soil for seedling cutting.
In this soil, rooting accelerator is included. Sounds nice! Though I use rooting accelerator anyway.
Razor
I bought it in “100-yen shop” where everything is sold with 100 Yen. It is cheap but the important thing is that it is VERY sharp.
7 rasors are included. It is quite cheap, so maybe I can dispose it after use.
Small piece of wire
They are remainings of wires when I did wiring before. Thick one’s diameter is 1.5mm, thin ones 1mm. I use thin ones this time.
Cut it to 2~3cm long.
Bend it to V-shape. I need one for one seedling, so I had to make many of them.
Rooting accelerator
I always use this one, called “Rooton”. Quite small bottle but I don’t use it so much, so it remains for long time. Somebody says that it is not absolutely necessary, but I always use it anyway.
Preparation
There’s not so many things to do for preparation. Put the soil in the pot and make it wet.
The soil is quite soft, so I pressed and squeezed the soil into the pot by finger.
Then, make the soil wet enough. You see the pot at at back? The pot is made from paper, so it also absorbs water and color changes to dark.
There’s no hole in the bottom, but the pot has two small slit. Extra water goes out from this slit.
Done!!
Seedling cutting
Now let’s start seedling cutting.
Open a hole into the soil
Use a piece of wire or tooth pick or anything, open a small hole at the center of soil. Depth should be 5mm ~ 1cm.
It should not be too deep but maybe I made holes too deep…
Cut off the root of red pine seedling
Pull out the seedling gently from the nursery.
Do not use nail and pull it out. The end of root is cut but don’t mind, it will be cut anyway.
Cut the root. Length of remaining is around 1~2cm. It seems like I cut not ‘root’ but I cut stem of the seedling.
Do not “press” to cut the seedling. Move the razor and cut it sharply. It is very important NOT to press and squash the cut end.
Planting the seedling
Put rooting accerelator to the cut end.
Actually I should have put the seedling in the water around an hour and make it absorb the water. I didn’t do it though..
“Rooton” should be made into a paste, but I usually don’t do so. Just put the cut end into the powder and that’s it!
Put the seedling into the hole in the soil.
Press the soil around the seedling in order to stabilize it. I tried not to touch the seedling.
Use V-shape wire to fix the seedling.
Important thing is that after re-planting seedling cutting, It must be fixed and never moved. Without the V-shape wire, the seedling turns around when you give water.
Put water gently… and done!!
Notes
What to take care of
As I wrote, important thing is to keep seedlings stable, not move them. So I need a care when I water them. I have to water them gently to each pot so that the water doesn’t move the seedlings.
I put each pot to the water the bucket so that the soil can absorb the water. The problem is that it takes too much time…
How to maintain the seedlings
Put the pots somewhere, where no direct sunshine comes (but bright enough). In few weeks the true leaves in the center start to grow. It is the sign of the roots started to grow.
You have to give water when the surface of the soil gets dry. If you water too much the seedling will be spoiled. On the other hand it has no roots so far, so it is difficult for them to absorb water and they are quite weak against the dry condition. It is also important to watch the condition of the soil and seedlings often..
Continuation
There’s a new article about this written on May 20th, 2018;
コメント