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I accidentally made baby rootings out of Radio Times rose

strawchicago z5
12 years ago

When I removed the winter protection (leaves) from Radio Times rose, I could not remove the 6" of soil that I dumped on top through the winter. All side branches of Radio Times rooted firmly in the soil mound, and surrounding the own root are many small plants green with leaves.

The other 9 Austins planted last June/July are one cane wonders, but they survived our warmest winter in over a decade. Krista gave me the great idea of fall fertilization, rather than spring. This is supported by the Canadian Agriculture Research on wheat that nitrogen fertilizer is best applied in the fall, rather than spring, to prevent insects and pest infestation.

This past winter I mixed horse manure with top soil, alfalfa meal and peat moss. I mound this mixture on my Autins, and put a bucket (bottom off) to retain the soil. I checked the pH and it was too alkaline, so I took out the horse manure for Radio Times, Mary Magdalene, Pat Austin, and William Shakespeare. I should had listened to my intuition at the horse farm NOT to get that stinky manure late fall.

Mary Rose and Eglantyne hate alkalinity. They actually shrank with that mixture with horse manure on top. The others without horse manure are green to the tip. In early December I tried to bend Radio Times' branches to fit into the bucket. It's too wide, so I threw the bucket away, mound soil up to 6", then pile Corkscrew Willow Branches on top to winterize Radio Times.

I accidentally rooted ALL Of Radio Times' branches through the winter. Radio Times was released in 1997, still under patent. What I accidentally did was "Soil Layering", a rooting procedure done by bending, or nicking the branches slightly, then cover with soil so they would root. The alfalfa meal has Triacontanol, a natural plant growth hormone. Corkscrew Willow branches has rooting hormone.

I checked pictures of basal breaks on roses, they are not. Radio Times is own-root so they are not suckers either. They are definitely baby plants surrounding the mother own-root in a circumference.

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