I started putting a thin layer of pebbles in my water prop jars purely as an aesthetic reason. To my surprise I noticed rooting seemed to happen faster and the roots were thicker than I'm used to seeing.
@@rebeccascotland7339 My props were marble Pothos and a Silver Hero Scindapsus. The pebbles used were a top dress sized river rock. All the best to your victim(s) 😁
I was happy to see you weigh the cuttings to start. I was hoping you would weigh the end results. That way, we can see the total growth of roots and new foliage. I really like being able to see data, because my eyes play tricks on me.😊
The roots in smaller containers with less water, look like 'root-bound' roots. I'd like to see what happens if you take those same cuttings and put them into a large container of water, as though you were re-potting them, so to speak.
im guessing the next experiment will be jars with the same volume capacity but varry in height. The amount of plants also seemed to make a small difference too, that crammed jar had the beginnings of the secondary roots and i didnt see that with the other jars
Yes! This was what I was thinking for his next experiment - same water height, but different height jars, in case airflow is making a difference in rooting or new leaf production. And, is it water height or water volume that makes a difference? 🤔
I had actually been assuming that when I saw lower water levels appearing to have more root growth was just an optical illusion caused by the roots clumping up closer together, but the theory about the bottom of the jar encouraging them to get bigger is interesting. There are a couple of different future experiments that could be done here, I think.
The way to really measure growth rate would be to weigh the cuttings each time and that'll be more telling of growth than measuring the length of the roots. IME, what makes the biggest difference in the speed of root development is how high up your cutting was on the plant. The apex (top bud) will have a higher content of endemic growth hormones in it and it'll root and grow faster than the one below and so on and so forth. Only the bottom cut has an advantage because it already has an established root system, so it'll grow and mature faster than the mid cuttings. That may be besides the point but water propagation is not a good practice, pros never use it because we know it's not efficient and it makes your cuttings vulnerable to root rot (most plants are not adapted to grow in water, so it just stresses them out, they'll grow slowly and become weaker. Furthermore, water-adapted roots have a higher risk of rotting once you transplant into soil which then stresses your plant even more). There is literally no good reason to be doing it. Pothos are tough as nails, so they can still handle it but any terrestrial plant will root and grow faster in soil. Setting up a propagation bin is not that expensive and yields much healthier plants at a faster rate. True hydroponics are a different animal than a glass of still water because yeah, hydroponics will get you faster growth but you have to optimize a couple of things to get there and not all plants will react well to it.
After watching this video I changed my neon and marble queen props to shorter vessels. Time will tell if I get thicker/stronger roots. Thanks for sharing your results.
That was an interesting experiment! I propagate into water a lot and I never thought about the amount of water making a difference. I usually use pretty small jars for my propagations, so that makes sense why my plant's roots get thick. Your experiments are awesome! Keep it up!
Ive got some pothos cuttings in a 10 gallon tank that I kept the water a bit on the low end. Been a month, and one of the two cuttings that were in there to start with has a nice thick root with the smaller roots growing out of it. I think you're right on the depth being the cause of that.
Tiny, tiny jars is what I plan to use then! I'm currently using sphagnum moss and perlite, and they are in shallow vessels. Thanks for doing all the work. I really enjoy your videos!
Yea I always found water cuttings to generally be a waste of time, using substrate roots just as fast, no transplant shock, no “water roots” etc, but I did come from growing succulents initially and water rooting is a no go for most of them, I’m sure I’m biased because of that
I have been growing lucky bamboo in jars for a while and found something out about jars. I use aquarium gravel in them to give the roots something to grow into. Fill it half way with gravel, plant the plant, fill the rest with more aquarium gravel. The benefit of this is there is LESS water in the jar. It helps because glass jars have little to no oxygen exchange and this method allows it to dry out some before you refill it, while maintaining enough moisture to continue growing. In order from worst to best was the jar with no gravel because the roots bunch up and don’t have anywhere to grow, the jar with the plant at the top of the gravel, because the main root ball dries out easier, and then the one planted halfway in the jar with gravel filling the rest has a significant edge on the rest. I think it could work with cuttings that have some amount of roots. I’d like to see you do an experiment on it.
I think the experiment was met with an undesirable variable. By propagating them with different water depths and not simply less water volume you promoted the root bound expansion style found in shorter pots making shorter but denser growth on foliage and roots, the jars with more water depth ended up promoting spindly roots that didnt expand and bush out, and as above so below the growth pattern of the foliage was less dense but prominent in size/length. This experiment can only achieve the exact same variables by choosing skinnier containers and proportionally changing the water volume without obstructing the length, a shorter container than the one used for the largest water volume would be too tall for this experiment to achieve the unified growth patterns of both types of roots established, i am keen to believe 2/3 the height and variable diameter should yield consistency and rule out the root length in the results.❤ i hope to see you try a second experiment of this just to get a really good measure of the volume variable specifically!
What i recommend is maybe getting a large bucket or bin and then putting all the cuttings into it on some sort of stair construction. You would need something like a board with holes in it to hang all the cuttings from the same height and then just make the roots hit the stairs at different heights.
aww damn this is good, i didnt even consider something like that with a shared water pool, very very smart and much easier for me to implement. THANKS!
I have some cuttings in a green glass bottle and was very suprised about the long and thick roots. Another tinted glass vase I have seems to do well for rooting as well. Using just tap water
I would love to see a test on how much putting aeration in the container would increase the rooting rate. I root most of my cuttings in my fish tank and I have observed that the cuttings with strongest roots are the ones above a bubbler.
It might be interesting to try something like this but with another cutting species, not an aroid, placed in with the pothos… just to see how the hormones affect the the rooting quality of other plants. Things that people commonly root in water, like Hoyas, Coleus, lipstick plants, pileas, peperomias, etc. I’ve noticed that the thinner-leaved, less-succulent types of Peperomia, like 'Frost', 'Rosso' or 'Piccolo Banda', root in water quite quickly from just leaves, with some petiole attached. I’ve put several 'Frost' leaves in a tall water bottle, and they rooted very quickly, and even developed baby plants underwater. But I wonder if pothos would make it even faster.
I haven’t found anything faster to propagate my cuttings then putting it in my freshwater aquarium. Twice as fast as it used to be with many more roots. I was shocked how fast it worked. Such an interesting hobby although I am pretty new at it
If your aquarium happens to have goldfish in it that would be why. Goldfish are dirty and create a lot of ammonia. Pothos in particular loves ammonia and tends to soak up all the ammonia and the aquarium
If your aquarium happens to have goldfish in it that would be why. Goldfish are dirty and create a lot of ammonia. Pothos in particular loves ammonia and tends to soak up all the ammonia and the aquarium
If your aquarium happens to have goldfish in it that would be why. Goldfish are dirty and create a lot of ammonia. Pothos in particular loves ammonia and tends to soak up all the ammonia and the aquarium
If your aquarium happens to have goldfish in it that would be why. Goldfish are dirty and create a lot of ammonia. Pothos in particular loves ammonia and tends to soak up all the ammonia and the aquarium
If your aquarium happens to have goldfish in it that would be why. Goldfish are dirty and create a lot of ammonia. Pothos in particular loves ammonia and tends to soak up all the ammonia and the aquarium
Have you ever done one that compares water types. I have all my propagation jars with rain water and some rooting in my fish tank. It would be cool to see tap water vs rain water vs fish tank water
My theory has always been about the depth of the cutting in water given same humidity. If its deeper, more outside pressure to prevent root immersion. Can see it on something like fig or okinawa spinach. Really deep hardly roots.
water depending on where you are has levels of hardness and trace elements so thats a factor not considered. increased volume equals increased micro amounts of minerals especially if you add water in some and not others. roots will also grow down to seek water if you have partially submerged/suspended
It would be a very interesting experiment to put the cuttings in 1) reverse osmosis water 2) 'normal' water 3) water with diluted fertilizer solution 4) normal fertilizer solution!
An experiment I'd like to see is soil mixes effect on growth. Lots of people shove perlite into everything, but TBH I hate perlite. It floats, it's messy, it creates dust and I feel like all it does it make my plants dry out. I think it's trying to fix a problem (overwatering) that I don't have.
If you haven't, you should read Tapla's writeups about soil mixes. He invented gritty mix and the 511 mix. It's all about how particle size affects water retention and gas exchange.
There’s many other things you can use besides perlite, it definitely can be used effectively but many other inert /mineral products can be just as good and has different properties. Honestly oil-sorb from Napa auto has been my hidden gem, but it all depends on where you live, chicken grit works ok, decomposed granite is better if it’s around. Weight is a big factor… many production growers are using a lot of decomposed and even lots of not decomposed wood products, just wood shavings which is terrible but light and cheap, but with irrigation tgey can keep the ph stable long enough to make the sale
You may try putting your cuttings inside a long tray. However, you may raise the floor under few of the cuttings by putting different obstacles at the bottom. Also, when experimenting with different volumes of water, it is important to measure the differences in oxygen level, because the roots don't photosynthesize and they need oxygen. Many cuttings crammed inside a small volume of water will affect oxygen level much more than few cuttings in a bigger one. You can do the same experiment with an aquarium air stone and water circulation.
I was just negotiating with a Cannababy cutting. It did not want to grow roots because it claimed it was in too much water. So I drained it a bit. But some plants are just "smart" as a rock...
This seems like a significant discovery, to put it lightly. Unless someone else has already covered it. It seems like we could use this knowledge to create even stronger trees or something.
What type of water did you use for the experiment here? Smaller pots of water will have less overall trace minerals/nutrients that will deplete faster. Was that variable accounted for?
@@TechplantChannel Not a plant expert, but from a science standpoint certainly could be a variable that could affect things somehow. Too bad we can't just ask the plants!
I think more water = more Oxygen in the water Maybe an Experiment with an Aquarium Air bubble thingi?` I have an big Alocasia Dragon Scale in a 2Liter Jar and an Air Bubbler , its goin crazy
i tried an air stone a while back but i didnt like the results, id love to re do it because so many people have great success so i wanna figure out why i didnt!
I wonder if the leaves being crammed down into the jar, vs being on top of the jar, impacts growth. From previous tests, I believe that it may be that when leaves are able to photosynthesize, the propagation is more able to focus on root growth, whereas when the leaves are non-existent or not able to access as much light, the cutting focuses some of the energy on new foliage growth, which stunts early root development. Hmmm, may I should test this, instead of letting you have all the fun. I love your content, particularly your experimental approach. You've given me more confidence in taking risks, which has improved my skill at plant care.
I feel like hobby lobby would have the containers your looking for that or something like jeffery Allan's. Cheap ass glass cylinder, but it holds water. Love the video thank youuu
The bigger jar is gonna have longer roots because there’s room for them to grow long. Should try two jars same size, different water levels. I think dark glass roots better also. 💚🫶🏼
I started putting a thin layer of pebbles in my water prop jars purely as an aesthetic reason. To my surprise I noticed rooting seemed to happen faster and the roots were thicker than I'm used to seeing.
That’s so interesting. I would love to know why
Rocks, stones, pebbles etc all have their stories to share
Wow! That's awesome! I'm going to try that.
Hmmmm, which victim should I choose? *looking through my plants with sharp blade in hand.*
@@rebeccascotland7339 My props were marble Pothos and a Silver Hero Scindapsus. The pebbles used were a top dress sized river rock. All the best to your victim(s) 😁
Same happened to me, I added a thin layer of leca!
I was happy to see you weigh the cuttings to start. I was hoping you would weigh the end results. That way, we can see the total growth of roots and new foliage. I really like being able to see data, because my eyes play tricks on me.😊
The roots in smaller containers with less water, look like 'root-bound' roots. I'd like to see what happens if you take those same cuttings and put them into a large container of water, as though you were re-potting them, so to speak.
I will have to restart the experiment to do this but I'm curious too
im guessing the next experiment will be jars with the same volume capacity but varry in height. The amount of plants also seemed to make a small difference too, that crammed jar had the beginnings of the secondary roots and i didnt see that with the other jars
yeap lots of new experiments!
Yes! This was what I was thinking for his next experiment - same water height, but different height jars, in case airflow is making a difference in rooting or new leaf production. And, is it water height or water volume that makes a difference? 🤔
I had actually been assuming that when I saw lower water levels appearing to have more root growth was just an optical illusion caused by the roots clumping up closer together, but the theory about the bottom of the jar encouraging them to get bigger is interesting. There are a couple of different future experiments that could be done here, I think.
yeap, same here!
I really appreciate these comparative tests. Reminds me of gaming or PC hardware tests.
The way to really measure growth rate would be to weigh the cuttings each time and that'll be more telling of growth than measuring the length of the roots.
IME, what makes the biggest difference in the speed of root development is how high up your cutting was on the plant. The apex (top bud) will have a higher content of endemic growth hormones in it and it'll root and grow faster than the one below and so on and so forth. Only the bottom cut has an advantage because it already has an established root system, so it'll grow and mature faster than the mid cuttings.
That may be besides the point but water propagation is not a good practice, pros never use it because we know it's not efficient and it makes your cuttings vulnerable to root rot (most plants are not adapted to grow in water, so it just stresses them out, they'll grow slowly and become weaker. Furthermore, water-adapted roots have a higher risk of rotting once you transplant into soil which then stresses your plant even more). There is literally no good reason to be doing it. Pothos are tough as nails, so they can still handle it but any terrestrial plant will root and grow faster in soil. Setting up a propagation bin is not that expensive and yields much healthier plants at a faster rate. True hydroponics are a different animal than a glass of still water because yeah, hydroponics will get you faster growth but you have to optimize a couple of things to get there and not all plants will react well to it.
Oh thank the propagation gods! I've been searching high and low for a prop "pro", and here you are!
Totally agree about weighing the results for a more objective result.
the root thickness difference is interesting 🤔
yeah there was something going on and cant wait to explore it further
After watching this video I changed my neon and marble queen props to shorter vessels. Time will tell if I get thicker/stronger roots. Thanks for sharing your results.
please let me know if you see changes!
That was an interesting experiment! I propagate into water a lot and I never thought about the amount of water making a difference. I usually use pretty small jars for my propagations, so that makes sense why my plant's roots get thick. Your experiments are awesome! Keep it up!
same here typically i use small ones just to save space!
Ive got some pothos cuttings in a 10 gallon tank that I kept the water a bit on the low end. Been a month, and one of the two cuttings that were in there to start with has a nice thick root with the smaller roots growing out of it. I think you're right on the depth being the cause of that.
I get so excited for your experiments!
always happy to hear this!
Tiny, tiny jars is what I plan to use then! I'm currently using sphagnum moss and perlite, and they are in shallow vessels. Thanks for doing all the work. I really enjoy your videos!
I use a thin layer sphagnum moss and then normal soil, works as a charm. Much faster growth.
Yea I always found water cuttings to generally be a waste of time, using substrate roots just as fast, no transplant shock, no “water roots” etc, but I did come from growing succulents initially and water rooting is a no go for most of them, I’m sure I’m biased because of that
I have been growing lucky bamboo in jars for a while and found something out about jars. I use aquarium gravel in them to give the roots something to grow into. Fill it half way with gravel, plant the plant, fill the rest with more aquarium gravel. The benefit of this is there is LESS water in the jar. It helps because glass jars have little to no oxygen exchange and this method allows it to dry out some before you refill it, while maintaining enough moisture to continue growing. In order from worst to best was the jar with no gravel because the roots bunch up and don’t have anywhere to grow, the jar with the plant at the top of the gravel, because the main root ball dries out easier, and then the one planted halfway in the jar with gravel filling the rest has a significant edge on the rest. I think it could work with cuttings that have some amount of roots. I’d like to see you do an experiment on it.
I think the experiment was met with an undesirable variable. By propagating them with different water depths and not simply less water volume you promoted the root bound expansion style found in shorter pots making shorter but denser growth on foliage and roots, the jars with more water depth ended up promoting spindly roots that didnt expand and bush out, and as above so below the growth pattern of the foliage was less dense but prominent in size/length.
This experiment can only achieve the exact same variables by choosing skinnier containers and proportionally changing the water volume without obstructing the length, a shorter container than the one used for the largest water volume would be too tall for this experiment to achieve the unified growth patterns of both types of roots established, i am keen to believe 2/3 the height and variable diameter should yield consistency and rule out the root length in the results.❤ i hope to see you try a second experiment of this just to get a really good measure of the volume variable specifically!
What i recommend is maybe getting a large bucket or bin and then putting all the cuttings into it on some sort of stair construction. You would need something like a board with holes in it to hang all the cuttings from the same height and then just make the roots hit the stairs at different heights.
aww damn this is good, i didnt even consider something like that with a shared water pool, very very smart and much easier for me to implement. THANKS!
I have some cuttings in a green glass bottle and was very suprised about the long and thick roots. Another tinted glass vase I have seems to do well for rooting as well. Using just tap water
I should try some tinted glass
I would love to see a test on how much putting aeration in the container would increase the rooting rate. I root most of my cuttings in my fish tank and I have observed that the cuttings with strongest roots are the ones above a bubbler.
Nice I'll test it out
So interesting!!! I hope you do more experiments!
It might be interesting to try something like this but with another cutting species, not an aroid, placed in with the pothos… just to see how the hormones affect the the rooting quality of other plants. Things that people commonly root in water, like Hoyas, Coleus, lipstick plants, pileas, peperomias, etc.
I’ve noticed that the thinner-leaved, less-succulent types of Peperomia, like 'Frost', 'Rosso' or 'Piccolo Banda', root in water quite quickly from just leaves, with some petiole attached. I’ve put several 'Frost' leaves in a tall water bottle, and they rooted very quickly, and even developed baby plants underwater. But I wonder if pothos would make it even faster.
I will get that on the list!
Should consider the air saturation of the water, it has a correlation between the volume and surface area, thanks for the video
I haven’t found anything faster to propagate my cuttings then putting it in my freshwater aquarium. Twice as fast as it used to be with many more roots. I was shocked how fast it worked. Such an interesting hobby although I am pretty new at it
If your aquarium happens to have goldfish in it that would be why. Goldfish are dirty and create a lot of ammonia. Pothos in particular loves ammonia and tends to soak up all the ammonia and the aquarium
If your aquarium happens to have goldfish in it that would be why. Goldfish are dirty and create a lot of ammonia. Pothos in particular loves ammonia and tends to soak up all the ammonia and the aquarium
If your aquarium happens to have goldfish in it that would be why. Goldfish are dirty and create a lot of ammonia. Pothos in particular loves ammonia and tends to soak up all the ammonia and the aquarium
If your aquarium happens to have goldfish in it that would be why. Goldfish are dirty and create a lot of ammonia. Pothos in particular loves ammonia and tends to soak up all the ammonia and the aquarium
If your aquarium happens to have goldfish in it that would be why. Goldfish are dirty and create a lot of ammonia. Pothos in particular loves ammonia and tends to soak up all the ammonia and the aquarium
Have you ever done one that compares water types. I have all my propagation jars with rain water and some rooting in my fish tank. It would be cool to see tap water vs rain water vs fish tank water
Interesting experiment. Could you please do a follow up video comparing actual growth of each version? After all, that’s what matters at the end.
The root thickness difference is interesting. The cuttings in less water also developed secondary roots 🤔🇨🇦
yeap, all things i wanna sorta test and prove out
My theory has always been about the depth of the cutting in water given same humidity. If its deeper, more outside pressure to prevent root immersion. Can see it on something like fig or okinawa spinach. Really deep hardly roots.
water depending on where you are has levels of hardness and trace elements so thats a factor not considered. increased volume equals increased micro amounts of minerals especially if you add water in some and not others. roots will also grow down to seek water if you have partially submerged/suspended
Now I'm wondering if restricting the roots with LECA, or even wrapping a wad of paper towel, or newsprint around them would thicken roots.
It would be a very interesting experiment to put the cuttings in 1) reverse osmosis water 2) 'normal' water 3) water with diluted fertilizer solution 4) normal fertilizer solution!
An experiment I'd like to see is soil mixes effect on growth. Lots of people shove perlite into everything, but TBH I hate perlite. It floats, it's messy, it creates dust and I feel like all it does it make my plants dry out. I think it's trying to fix a problem (overwatering) that I don't have.
If you haven't, you should read Tapla's writeups about soil mixes. He invented gritty mix and the 511 mix. It's all about how particle size affects water retention and gas exchange.
There’s many other things you can use besides perlite, it definitely can be used effectively but many other inert /mineral products can be just as good and has different properties.
Honestly oil-sorb from Napa auto has been my hidden gem, but it all depends on where you live, chicken grit works ok, decomposed granite is better if it’s around. Weight is a big factor… many production growers are using a lot of decomposed and even lots of not decomposed wood products, just wood shavings which is terrible but light and cheap, but with irrigation tgey can keep the ph stable long enough to make the sale
You may try putting your cuttings inside a long tray. However, you may raise the floor under few of the cuttings by putting different obstacles at the bottom. Also, when experimenting with different volumes of water, it is important to measure the differences in oxygen level, because the roots don't photosynthesize and they need oxygen. Many cuttings crammed inside a small volume of water will affect oxygen level much more than few cuttings in a bigger one. You can do the same experiment with an aquarium air stone and water circulation.
I was just negotiating with a Cannababy cutting. It did not want to grow roots because it claimed it was in too much water. So I drained it a bit.
But some plants are just "smart" as a rock...
This seems like a significant discovery, to put it lightly. Unless someone else has already covered it. It seems like we could use this knowledge to create even stronger trees or something.
New experiment! Do nodes that are closer to the roots vs farther from the roots of the mother plant root at different rates?
damn, i like this
damn, i like this
Wow! Just like the old days 🙏
lol thanks! I have more coming down the pipeline
Did you keep them outdoors or indoors? Wondering if an air bubbler in each jar would help with oxygen exposure?
Indoors he's in MI so they'd die outdoors in his climate
I think more oxygen in the fuller one helped initially…
I usually start as low as possible and keep adding more water each week for oxygen.
Good stuff. Have you done an experiment with changing out the water or leaving it? Or rooting another plant with a pothos added or without one?
ive done some along those lines, still want to explore it further
What type of water did you use for the experiment here? Smaller pots of water will have less overall trace minerals/nutrients that will deplete faster. Was that variable accounted for?
no, no mineral depletion is accounted for, it is well water that is 30 degrees of hardness so there is a significant amount of minerals
@@TechplantChannel Not a plant expert, but from a science standpoint certainly could be a variable that could affect things somehow. Too bad we can't just ask the plants!
Dose adding brown sugar or molasses to the water help cuttings grow roots?
I can test it
What kind of water and or conditioners you use. I bought a little one leaf monsters. I didn’t realize it takes so long to grow
I think more water = more Oxygen in the water
Maybe an Experiment with an Aquarium Air bubble thingi?`
I have an big Alocasia Dragon Scale in a 2Liter Jar and an Air Bubbler , its goin crazy
i tried an air stone a while back but i didnt like the results, id love to re do it because so many people have great success so i wanna figure out why i didnt!
are the plants in the biggest jar closer to the light source? wouldnt that influence the results?
I wonder if the leaves being crammed down into the jar, vs being on top of the jar, impacts growth. From previous tests, I believe that it may be that when leaves are able to photosynthesize, the propagation is more able to focus on root growth, whereas when the leaves are non-existent or not able to access as much light, the cutting focuses some of the energy on new foliage growth, which stunts early root development. Hmmm, may I should test this, instead of letting you have all the fun.
I love your content, particularly your experimental approach. You've given me more confidence in taking risks, which has improved my skill at plant care.
I also wondered because it was creating a more humid environment with all the leaves together and down in the jar.
I feel like hobby lobby would have the containers your looking for that or something like jeffery Allan's. Cheap ass glass cylinder, but it holds water. Love the video thank youuu
dang you are absolutely right, they have a huge variety, thanks!
Which jar had the top cutting?
I mean it makes sense, the plant will seek water if there isn't any
Interesting experiment, and interesting results. Keep experimenting! 🪴
Thanks! More in the pipeline!
Big Pokémon trainer energy today (/pos)
Wondering if water composition matters like adding some hydrogen peroxide
interesting!!!
I would think that the larger water volume would have more minerals available for plant growth.
maybe i can repeat with distilled
Should've labelled the jars no. 1 to 6 instead of using "massive" "half filled" "previous"
yeah my bad it was not very easy to follow, even for me i was struggling to compile the footage! I will get more ridged with labeling going forward
I think this opened a window for another experiment.
for sure, possibly a few!
The bigger jar is gonna have longer roots because there’s room for them to grow long. Should try two jars same size, different water levels. I think dark glass roots better also. 💚🫶🏼