[mpod001]

Hey guys,

Im pretty new to this site and the whole gardening and self sufficiency thing, and I'm wondering what cuttings can I take now in mid September? I have a range of fruit trees and bushes and lots of herbs and plants! I have also just invested in an aeroponic thingimibob too...will they enable me to grow anything in the winter indoors?

Thanks

Martin

[Kristen]

Most of the cuttings I am taking now are tender ornamentals that won't survive below about 5C, and bringing large plants into the house is not viable, so a pot full of 10 cuttings, or so, will not take up too much space.

Strawberries will have runners that can be rooted into pots and then planted out later on.

Tip cuttings of herbs should be fine - if you need more plants.

Most soft fruit bushes you can probably just take a cutting and put it in a V trench (about 6" deep) with sand in the bottom and leave it until next year.

Fruit trees are usually grafted (the rootstock is chosen according to the vigour required for the final plant

[gobs]

I don't know the thingimie... Post info, please!

Am I right that you want to grow things through the winter in it?


As for cuttings, as Kristen already said: what do you need? What do you need taking cuttings from? (ie: need multiplying, need saving from winter weather).

As for herbs, again depends, what you like using, eating, just about any can be grown indoors. But then, so many are self-sufficient outside.

[mpod001]

Hey,

Thanks for the the reply! Link the video about the aeroponic system below...

I would like to propagate more figs, red currants and blueberries...also elder and apples! As for herbs I

[mpod001]

...would like more camomile, sage, thyme and rosemary!

SAEjobYD-VA

[gobs]

All of them can be propagated, however, the success rate as to quality of fruit and production or worthwhile will be different.

Some, who are experienced with them might advise on elder and apple. The berries, can be propagated readily, depending what sort they are... Unless some fancy hybrid/grafted, all figs, currants, berries can be taken and multiplied by cuttings.

So most herbs. Sage, thyme and rosemary you can take cuttings from. Camomile will readily multiply by root division.

Just about none of these jobs you need this thingamie though. Try to peruse it for something hard to grow on our climate. Early fancy veg(aubergine, etc. sowing), I'd say.

 

[mpod001]

Thanks for the information! So could I grow on things like aubergines or tomatoes over the winter using the aeroponic unit do you think? And keep them all indoors in a warm environment?

[Kristen]

Thanks for the information! So could I grow on things like aubergines or tomatoes over the winter using the aeroponic unit do you think? And keep them all indoors in a warm environment?

The aeroponics unit (particularly if you have a fogger, rather than just a mist spray, in the bottom) is just for propagation.  I have one, used it for Fuchsias, got 100% success with no bother - but then Fuchsias root easily anyway. I always wanted more cuttings than the number of stations in the aeroponics unit so I ditched it in favour of just using compost in pots the conventional way. I also found that transitioning from fog/mist as the root medium to soil/compost was traumatic for the plants, so that also causes me to favour striking cuttings in compost now.

You won't grow Aubergines / Tomatoes (nor similar crops) productively through the winter unless you have heat and light.  You won't get enough light from the sun, so you would need to supplement with a growing lamp. That won't be anything like cost effective, you need a really high value crop  to make that pay.

I use a Metal Halide growing lamp to overwinter some plants, and to bring on others. They are all tender and tend to be rare or precious, and thus the cost is justified to me.  Lamp costs £100-150 and costs about £100-200 to run for the winter season (depending on number of hours per day).  It will light an area of about 2 sq.m.  Other options available, in particular LED and Fluorescent tube type lighting rigs which are ideal for seedlings (as they have to be within a inch or two of the plant), where Metal Halide / Sodium has much better canopy penetration and thus is suited to taller plants.

I do find the supplemental lighting very useful for seedlings started early, particularly in a lousy spring, with such low light levels, like we had tin Spring 2013. I sow early, and bring on strong plants ... but ... as soon as they need to be potted on I don't have enough illuminated area to grow them on, so they have to go into greenhouse ... so growing space under lights is limited.

[polly nator]

I did successfully overwinter some tomato "cuttings" - sideshoots actually  and they were brilliant. They were my first to ripen this season and are still going strong.

[Kristen]

I did successfully overwinter some tomato "cuttings" - sideshoots actually  and they were brilliant. They were my first to ripen this season and are still going strong.

I've often thought of this, but worried that I might overwinter their bugs too.  Did you have any such problems?