Thistlehook Internship (Week 2)

MONDAY

Monday, we visited Sheilah’s farm to take cuttings from her willow trees. We used these cuttings to make willow water for our blueberry cuttings that we will take on Wednesday.

According to a Deep Green Permaculture article entitled Home Made Plant Rooting Hormone–Willow Water, willow water works in improving rooting in cuttings because of two substances–indolebutyric acid (IBA) and Salicylic acid (SA)–found within the Salix (Willow) species.

“Indolebutyric acid (IBA) is a plant hormone that stimulates root growth. It is present in high concentrations in the growing tips of willow branches. … Salicylic acid (SA) (which is a chemical similar to the headache medicine Aspirin) is a plant hormone…involved in the process of “systemic acquired resistance” (SAR) – where an attack on one part of the plant induces a resistance response to pathogens (triggers the plant’s internal defences) in other parts of the plant. It can also trigger a defence response in nearby plants by converting the salicylic acid into a volatile chemical form.

When you make willow water, both salicylic acid and IBA leach into the water, and both have a beneficial effect when used for the propagation of cuttings. One of the biggest threats to newly propagated cuttings is infection by bacteria and fungi. Salicylic acid helps plants to fight off infection, and can thus give cuttings a better chance of survival. Plants, when attacked by infectious agents, often do not produce salicylic acid quickly enough to defend themselves, so providing the acid in water can be particularly beneficial” (Home Made Plant Rooting Hormone – Willow Water).

How to Make Willow Water:

1. Collect young first-year twigs and stems of any of willow (Salix spp.) species, Will be green or yellow bark. Don’t use the older growth with brown or gray bark.
2. Remove all the leaves.
3. Cut twigs into roughly 1″ (2.5cm) pieces.
4. Add water water. Can use either method
   1. Place the chopped willow twigs in a container and cover with boiling water, (similar to making tea), allow “tea” to steep overnight.
   2. Place the chopped willow twigs in a container and cover with room-temperature water, let soak for several days.
5. Separate the liquid from the twigs. The liquid is now ready to use for rooting cuttings. You can keep the liquid for up to two months if covered and left in the refrigerator.
6. To use, just pour some willow water into a small jar, and place the cuttings in there like flowers in a vase, and leave them there to soak overnight so they take up the plant rooting hormone. Then prepare them as you would when propagating any other cuttings. (Home Made Plant Rooting Hormone – Willow Water)

Additionally, Monday we picked up free wood chips from an arborist in Black Lake (where we met really cute and super sweet goat friends) and used the chips to mulch the paths between peony beds. We also dug up and cleaned more yarrow to be divided later on. Finally, we built the structure for the greenhouse within the garage. We used insulation as walls and plastic over the ceiling to create a sealed off section. It’s a little slipshod but should do the trick. Even without the heaters or grow lights in there yet, it was noticeably warmer within the enclosure.

WEDNESDAY

Wednesday we pruned Doug’s neighbors’ blueberries and in exchange for that work, we were able to take cuttings to propagate more blueberry plants. To get viable cuttings, we had to ensure there were only vegetative buds and not flower buds on the cuttings, snip off the apical bud, and keep 5-10 leaf buds on each cutting. We then stuck the cuttings into a mix of 2 parts sand, 2 parts peat moss, and 1 part pearlite that was watered to saturation. Hopefully they root, although we won’t know until the end of the quarter if even!

Wednesday afternoon we continued to cut and divide yarrow. Hopefully next week we will be done with that and can start actually potting the yarrow up!

RESOURCES:

Home Made Plant Rooting Hormone – Willow Water

How to Propagate Blueberries from Cuttings