[New shoot]

Here's one to get the brain cells working.

The garden centre I work for organised a trip today for us planty types to Blackmoors - big fruit growers, packers and suppliers of soft fruit & fruit trees. Despite the rain it was a great few hours and we learned loads.

Then we got to their propagating tunnel for blackberries, tayberries and the like.  They plant their cuttings upside down as they reckon the shoot starts to grow, does a quick U turn and the resulting shape under the compost makes for much better rooting.

They discovered this by accident when some of their seasonal workers planted some trays upside down by mistake and they decided to leave them to see what happened.

The guy who was showing us round said it works just as well for cuttings done at home in a slit trench, but only for the berry type stuff. I was amazed and dying to try it - anyone does this already ?

[tode]

He's probably right, cos blackberries do it by themselves: it's the tip that takes root. 

[Spana]

Left to their own devices, thats how the plants do it, sort of.  
Look at old neglected allotments, what started out as one blackberry planted by someone turns into a thicket by the tips of shoot pushing into the ground.

[DavidT]

All plants root at the leaf nodes, so it should work for anything.

[Goosegirl]

Presumably it works in Australia too! Also, I've just wondered if their bean plants twine around the canes in the same direction as ours...?

[tode]

Wasn't ther a song about the left-handed bindweed an the right-handed honeysuckle ?   

[DavidT]

In France, maybe.

[New shoot]

I've just googled it and Tode is actually right   

It's called Misalliance by Michael Flanders and Donald Swann. 

A bag of fresh bindweed roots to the first one that can sing it 

[tode]

I'm a little hoarse this evening,  but . . . .

the left-handed bindweed

[DavidT]

I remember my granny telling me about Flanders and Swann.

[tode]

I have always had great respect and admiration for Grannies   

[Spana]

I can remember seeing them They also sang the mud song

[tode]

Thank you, Spana      

[arugula]

Presumably it works in Australia too! Also, I've just wondered if their bean plants twine around the canes in the same direction as ours...?

Probably anti to our clockwise..

[tode]

So what do they do at the Equator, then ?

"Climb straight up, and fall flat on their face"  as Swann said ?