Archive for February, 2010
How To Create New House and Garden Plants By Using Stem Cuttings And Rooting Hormone
A good gardening tip is that you can make more plants from your existing house and garden plants. This will cut out the expense of buying new house and garden plants. Look around for healthy plants to take the stem cuttings from to plant in a peat moss mixture using rooting hormone. This is what is called the mother plant. Make sure the mother plant has enough stems so the cutting will not kill the mother plant.
If you start your house and garden plants from stem cuttings instead of seeds it will take half the time to root. There a just a few things you will need : a mother plant, a flat for potting with a peat moss mixture, a sharp knife or razor blade, rooting hormone, containers for holding water and rooting hormone, alcohol, pencil or a stick, and a plastic bag.
Common sense tells you that you should take a stem cutting from the plant’s thickest green non flowering stems. The spot where the leaf attaches to the stem, known as the node, are the best place for you to take the stem cutting. The plants growth rooting hormones are concentrated there. Choose green, non-woody stems for taking the stem cuttings from the mother plant. Newer growth is easier to root than woody stems.
Cut with a sterilized instrument, either a very sharp knife or a razor blade, just below the node and then make another slanted cut about two or three inches further up the plant. This should provide you a stem cutting about three inches in length with two or three nodes. Trim off the side shoots and remove most of the leaves leaving a few since the stem cutting will need the leaves to provide food. Any large leaves must be removed as their wilting stresses the stem cutting and will definitely slow down the rooting process.
With your sterilized instrument make a clean cut in the bottom node. The roots will be formed from the sliced node.
Fill a clean plant pot or container with a peat moss potting mix to hold your stem cuttings for rooting. By using a peat moss potting mix you are giving the plant an atmosphere where the cutting will stay moist, not wet and sloppy.
You can make your own peat moss mixture; here are a couple of recipes:
½ sand and ½ peat moss or
½ perlite and ½ peat moss or
½ sand and ½ vermiculite or
½ perlite and ½ vermiculite or
Equal parts sand, perlite, vermiculite or peat moss instead of vermiculite.
Start by dipping the bottom inch of the stem cutting into the water and then the rooting hormone. This will help to speed up the creation of roots. The rooting hormone stimulates the stem cutting to send out new roots from the node. You will need to dip the cutting into the water and then into the rooting hormone. Tap off the excess as to not jeopardize your success with this stem cutting. If, after you have finished with your stem cuttings you have some of the rooting hormone left, throw it away. Once a stem cutting has touched it the rooting hormone becomes activated.
Moisten the peat moss potting mixture and poke holes in it to accommodate your plants. By making holes in the peat moss rooting medium with the pencil or the stick it will ensure that the rooting hormone remains on the cutting, not on the potting mixture surface. This will improve chances of rooting the stem cuttings and creating new house or garden plants. After you have successfully placed the stem cutting in the medium, gently press the potting mixture around it. You should plant your cuttings about 4-5 inches apart to allow for air circulation and room to root.
Place the container into a plastic bag and put it in a warm spot in the house. The reason for the bag is to keep the stem cuttings in high humidity and to hold in heat. You are creating a mini Greenhouse that takes up very little space. Don’t seal the bag as you need to allow for air circulation. Only after you see new growth should the cuttings be placed in a sunny area. Keep checking you stem cuttings. If the bag shows condensation you are likely giving it too much moisture. Take off the bag and let it dry out a little.
The way to test for new root growth is to gently pull on the plant after a few weeks. If there is resistance the plants are ready to be transferred into individual pots. Now you will have a new plant that you have cultivated from the mother plant.
Now use all these gardening tips and grow some new plants using stem cuttings.
Happy Gardening!
Copyright © 2006 Mary Hanna All Rights Reserved.
This article may be distributed freely on your website and in your ezines, as long as this entire article, copyright notice, links and the resource box are unchanged.
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Tags: Kitchen Appliances – Make Life Easy
To possess a lavish lifestyle our home appliances needs to be equipped with latest gadgets. After a tiresome day’s work, we return to our homes, where we search for comfort and seek to do our household works with ease. Today, the technology is advancing day by day and is offering kitchen appliances that enable us to have a lavish style. We always strive to possess those appliances that provide us with optimum facilities. Be the advanced refrigerators or the microwave oven that gives us the freedom to cook and store our food without any hassle would not only drive our concerns regarding healthy food but also our prime anxiety for health. Equip your household with the latest kitchen appliances to lead a happy life.
You can now have the freedom to party any time with your friends in your sweet home, as dish washers come to you to clean all you’re messed up utensils, without any hassle. Have a great party time, as you do not have to invest any of your precious time after the party to clean the dirty vessels.
These smart dish washers come up with various features that would seriously never leave you exhausted.
You can now certainly switch over to renovate you kitchen by enhancing it with various advanced appliances. If you are reluctant to do so, do not worry, as there are various options to drive away your anxiety. Online shopping is creating a new trend these days, as this type of shopping are a boom to our busy lifestyle. Everybody nowadays plunge into internet shopping to save his or her precious time. These online shopping not only provide us products of multiple brands but also enable us to enquire about their features. This type of internet shopping provides you with advanced gadgets and that also in affordable prices.
Kitchen appliances need to be selected carefully because if they do not satisfy your requirements it becomes irritating at times. They should make your lifestyle simple and uncomplicated. To possess an advanced gadget is no longer considered luxury but they have become our necessity, as it helps to make our life simple and comfortable. Possess those appliances that are affordable and perform all your basic needs.
The new generation appliances come to satisfy all your requirements. The advanced food processor permits you to chop your vegetables, grate and strike them at ease enabling you to have a delightful cooking experience.
Then there are the microwave ovens that would keep your food warm and are enhanced with features to grill and bake your food item. Refrigerators have become the most essential gadget these days as it comes packed with varied features. The refrigerators would minimize your concerns regarding healthy food items.
Appliances that are designed with great efficiency not only appeal you but also enable you to perform your daily work at ease. Knives and cutting boards are the prime tools of your kitchen. If chosen wisely it would save lot of your time in kitchen. Then there are the efficient choppers that come to serve your need to chop vegetables and nuts that is not possible through ordinary knives. Attractive bowls give an extra stylish look to your kitchen. You can search the internet and visit various cookery sites to avail the stylish and attractive bowls. The spoons and spatulas are the tiny tools that come in various curved and straight designs. Get the ones that appropriately suit your requirement. Pick up the simple and the latest kitchen tools to have a wonderful cooking experience.
Various online stores are now available that permit the users to surf through the wide range of products before plunging into a decision. The consumers can browse through the internet, to compare the products features and also their affordability factor. These online stores also come up with the reviews of the customers, which can serve as an informative use to its new consumers. As such, enquiring and then purchasing your favourite tool would enable you to have the best shopping experience.
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Your Home School and Family Style
Organizing a harmonic relationship between home and homeschool requires thought and prioritizing. Determine what is important to you and your family and set the goals you want to achieve before you start.
When setting up your home along with your school, determine what values and priorities will govern the environment. Do you want clear cut and predictable tasks? Or do you want a free-flowing style?
Make a list of what’s important to you and your family and lists the items in order of priority. When you list and prioritize your values, you declare and acknowledge your family style and create a lifestyle that accommodates and reflect your values. Take this task seriously, as it is the first and most important step in creating harmony in your family. Blend together your life requirements along with the education of your children with clear cut modes and responsibilities for each. When you synchronize your values with your lifestyle, you will have a perfect environment in which all participants will flourish.
To avoid conflicts between your home and homeschool, you must establish and adhere to a family style, so that roles, expectations and requirements will be understood by all.
Here’s some examples of family styles. If you value traditional methods with a focus on manners and respect, then your family style will require that the whole family spends a lot of time together learning and reinforcing behavior. As you know, you can tell your children over and over to behave a certain way but if that behavior is not modeled by you, the parents, you are wasting your breath. The old saying “do what I say, not as I do” never works! On the other hand, if creativity and self expression is your valued goal, your family and school style should be relaxed and free flowing, which requires independent play and unconventional teaching methods.
Remember to keep it simple. Organize all spaces to reflect your style while still promoting curiosity and energy. Make your home and homeschool a respite from the confusing and demoralizing outside world. Create a pleasant place to live, educate your children, share meaningful experiences and create permanent bonds. Make it a place that everyone truly enjoys.
Others will see how you live and learn in harmony. They will take note of your calm and purposeful environment and want to emulate it.
Put harmony into your family life by defining the values and priorities of your home style. A well-organized home and school provides a harmonic foundation in which your family will flourish. This harmony and peace will affect everything you do. Your family will work, rest and play with clarity and purpose. When you organize your homeschool around your values and priorities, you will reduce stress and achieve cooperative behaviors. Everyone will feel more self-assured as they live and learn.
Next, organize your space to reflect your individual family style. Streamline distracters to create functional order, and most importantly, eliminate clutter. Your home and school should be clear and purposeful.
It will take planning and thought at the beginning but I assure that you and your family will be better for it. Do it and you will feel like a million dollars!
