Hello all,
We are starting Part 6 here because, thanks to a lot of good participation and activity, the message thread, It can be fun to breed your own zinnias - Part 5, was getting long and unwieldy. Please feel welcome to post pictures and comments about zinnia activities here. This is a picture of a grouping of several of my cutting propagated zinnias.
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{{gwi:16607}}Incidentally, it is my intent to keep all of the pictures posted here in Part 6 no wider than 986 pixels, for the convenience of readers whose monitors are no wider than 1024 pixels.
All of these plants were taken as cuttings from the same purple scabiosa flowered zinnia. I picked it because it had a decent amount of cutting material available and because it had the characteristic of partially exposed stigmas in the florets. You might be able to see some of those stigmas in the pictures on the left.
As you can see, all of the flowers are similar, although there are some variations. In previous parts of this series, I have noted that the stress of a cutting developing into a separate plant sometimes seems to be able to induce some rather odd variations. However, this grouping of plants doesn't seem to display any very noticeable changes.
My main motivation for developing the ability to propagate my zinnias from cuttings is to be able to produce a large number of seeds from a hybrid specimen to give me a better chance of getting specimens similar to the parent.
The more seeds you can save from a particularly good specimen, the better your chances are of getting something similar despite the tendency of seedlings from recombinants (F2s, F3s, and various hybrids between hybrids with complex ancestry) to vary wildly.
I expected my recombinants to be mostly rejects, and that is proving to be the case. As soon as you take the next step after raising your F1 hybrids, by saving seeds from them or by recrossing them with other F1 hybrids or whatever, you enter the phenomenon of genetic recombinations. I don't fully understand it myself, but recombinations tend to produce mostly rejects. However, you can get a few specimens that resemble the hybrid parents, despite their complex ancestry, and occasionally you can get an entirely new combination of genes that gives you a specimen better than either original parent or any of their ancestors.
For me, it is that rare chance of "hitting the jackpot" with something really new and good that makes the gamble of raising recombinants worth all the weird rejects. I do consider the possibility of raising zinnias from cuttings to be an important tool in our toolkit of techniques for de-hybridizing a complex hybrid into a seed-propagated strain.
Another benefit of the asexual propagation of zinnias is that it lets you propagate any sterile hybrids that you might produce. For example, if JG were to cross some of her Z. violaceas with her Z. peruvianas and if she got interesting but sterile hybrids from those crosses, she would have the option of taking cuttings from those sterile hybrids and getting more plants that way.
And, once again, the numbers game comes into play. If you have a lot of clones of a sterile hybrid, you have a better chance that one of them will "accidentally" produce a few viable seeds.
There is nothing particularly hard about raising zinnias from cuttings. I do sterilize the cuttings by dipping them in diluted Physan 20 (1 teaspoons per gallon) to prevent any bacterial rot of the cutting. However, that step may not be necessary.
I have had success with several commercial rooting products, including Rootone, Hormex #1, Hormex #3, Hormex #8 and Dip 'n Grow (a liquid product that you dilute differently for hardwood, softwood, and soft cuttings). The powders are a little more convenient if you are starting just a few cuttings. The Dip 'n Grow is more convenient if you are starting a lot of cuttings at once. But once you dilute a batch of Dip 'n Grow, the diluted hormones are good for only about 24 hours. So Dip 'n Grow involves some waste if you are starting only a few cuttings at once.
It is necessary to keep the zinnia cuttings under lights under a humidity dome, or an equivalent, for the first week or so, until they get a few roots. I usually remove any buds on the cuttings, so they don't waste their energy trying to build a flower and roots at the same time. Just remember that, if you need to for whatever reason, you can grow zinnias from cuttings.
MM
jackier_gardener
holtzclaw
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