Garden Experiment One

I apologize for being silent for so long. I've been busy working. I work at a plant research lab now, and seeing all kinds of research going on around me has inspired me to do some of my own. My research question is: is propagation by cuttings more effective when cuttings are started in water or in soil?

I've read a lot and talked to a lot of people about cuttings. Some say to place the cut end in water; some say soil. I've had the soil method work for me before, but only when rooting hormone was used. For my research I'm using purslane (Portulaca oleracea), which I got for free and which grows everywhere, so I don't feel the need to purchase rooting hormone. Since purslane is so vigorous, I'm going to see if it can take root without fancy hormones.

My research design is simple, though by no means perfect. I've got three cuttings of purslane (I wish I could have gotten bigger ones, but I couldn't find any) in a cup of water and three in a pot of soil. The soil is mostly clay and not very good, but purslane is said to grow in even the poorest soils.

Here are my water cuttings. There are a couple of problems with this setup: it is difficult to keep the cuttings out of the water (which I want to do so bacteria won't alter the results), and I don't want to put this cup outside. That means the light quality isn't the best, though this is right next to a window.

These are the soil cuttings. They're outside, and they're being watered as needed (which shouldn't be much until they grow roots). If these don't take and the water cuttings do, I'll plant them here when they're ready.

Oh, and you may be wondering, "Why are you growing purslane? Isn't that a weed?" Why, yes, it is a weed. It just happens to be an edible and pretty yummy weed that doesn't grow in my immediate vicinity. I would love to cook it up with some Swiss chard for greens.

I will post on the topic of my experiment again when I have updates. But speaking of the chard...

Next post: plant update time!