Cutting Propagation and Seedling raising techniques of Colored Leaf Grass

Colorful leaf grass is an excellent potted foliage flower, can also be used in summer and autumn flower beds, bright colors, very beautiful. At the same time, you can cut branches and leaves to do cut flowers, or the ingredients of flower baskets, and can also be planted in the same pot with duckweed, which is a good material for decorating the living room and study.

Propagation of Colored Leaf Grass is commonly used by cutting methods. Cutting in the growing season to select not too old branches 2-3 nodes, cut in loose soil or vermiculite, 1 week can take root. When the seedlings grow to 2-4 true leaves, they need to be transplanted once. When transplanting, the seedlings are dug up with bamboo sticks and transplanted into a collapsed basin with a suitable density that the leaves do not touch each other; when the seedlings grow to 6-8 leaves, they are then transplanted into a small basin with a diameter of 10 cm, and 2-4 leaves are kept for coring.

The basin soil can be mixed with 2 parts of rotten leaf soil, 1 part of garden soil and 1 part of sand. When the seedlings are larger in July, the basin should be changed again, and a small amount of bean cake should be added to the bottom of the basin as base fertilizer. During the growing period, there are several times of coring to promote branching, make the plant shape plump, and adapt to the requirements of ornamental. For the mother plant, it is necessary to reduce the number of coring, so that it can complete the flowering and fruiting process before the beginning of winter. Plants with bright leaves should be selected and isolated to prevent hybrid degradation.

Key points of cutting techniques:

1. Select 3-5 nodes with terminal bud. Stem nodes 5 to 10 cm in length are used as cuttings. After cutting, the local leaves are trimmed to avoid the failure of cuttings caused by the water loss of too many branches. Usually, all the leaves in the lower part of the branch should be cut off, and it is enough to keep the upper leaves.

2. The color leaf grass grows rapidly, and the sturdy branches can be cut in a flowerpot with a diameter of 7.5 cm. After the cutting is successful, it can be maintained directly in the flowerpot. If the space in the home is larger and the environment is suitable, it can be cut in a larger flowerpot.

3. Color leaf grass takes root very quickly, and the root system can grow about a week after cutting. after cutting for 2 weeks, thin liquid fertilizer or slow release fertilizer is applied to make the color leaf grass turn to the initial growth stage. After the color leaf grass grows normally, it is necessary to pick the heart once to promote the branching and improve the ornamental value of the small potted plant.

The method of raising seedlings by cuttage in burrowing dish:

1. Cuttings: twigs with no diseases and insect pests, moderate maturity and exuberant vitality should be selected. At the 1~0.5cm above the leaf bud, the incision is tilted to the bud, and a branch with 2 or more axillary buds, about 5~7cm long, is cut as cuttings with a sharp knife (shears).

2. Acupoint disk: the acupoint disk with long 54cm, wide 28cm, high 5cm, aperture 3cm or 2cm and deep 5cm can be selected.

3. Substrate: choose loose and permeable substrates, such as peat and perlite (3 ∶ 1), rotten leaf soil and sawdust (1 ∶ 1) or peat and garden soil (1 ∶ 1).

4. Cuttage: the cuttage in greenhouse can be carried out from March to October, and more than from April to September in the open field. The density of cutting is that the leaves do not cover each other and does not affect photosynthesis, and the cutting depth is 2cm, which should not be too deep, so as not to affect rooting. After insertion, the acupoint disk is placed under the shade net with a shading rate of 70%, the temperature is 25 ℃ ~ 32 ℃, and there is a breeze.

5. Watering: after cutting, determine the time and times of watering according to the weather conditions, spray water to the surface of the substrate every 2 hours in sunny days, spray less or not in cloudy or rainy days, and keep the air humidity at about 90%. Pay attention to the phenomenon of stagnant water in the matrix. After cutting about 10 days to grow new roots, gradually reduce the number of spraying, half a month later transplant or colonization, enter the normal management.

Time: 2019-06-09 Click: