How to Propagate Cordylines (Ti plants)

the Ti-house today!
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View attachment 25627 Experiment #2 - Fresh Ti seed soaked for 48 hours in seaweed water VS the fresh Ti seed soaked in water. Seed now in soil and the seaweed soaked seed will stay on the liquid seaweed diet. Water soaked seed will stay with water. Lets see what happens here.
Update! Fresh seed soaked in water sprouted in late May. I see nothing from the seaweed soaked seed.
 
Ken - just curious - do you know anyone who has managed to keep the common green Ti alive in SoCal?

there's a couple of houses that have green Ti plants, I'm assuming they're the common green Ti, the 2 that I can recall are about 5-6' tall with 1-1.5" diameter canes. right now I only have 5 different varieties but I'm starting to actively look for more since some of my palms are finally going to start providing a little shade. I started gathering bromeliads earlier this year and in a couple of short months I now have a bit over 100 varieties ... I'm hoping to start up on Ti plants to fill that mid level area.

anyone have a good source for cuttings or smaller plants? I've never tried propagating but it seems pretty easy and straight forward
 
We started our society three years ago. Three of us organized it, but then one had marital problems and didn't have time to work on it, then the other found a very time consuming job, and so I was left to try to keep it going. Another fellow is helping me out quite a bit now, but it's hard to keep a club going. I wanted to pass the hat onto someone else, but there were no takers. A majority of the people want to attend the gatherings but do not like to volunteer for jobs. Many are involved with other plant groups and so are already stretched too thin. Fortunately we have had people volunteer their gardens so we can have meetings. I guess it's much the same way with most plant groups. We do have a ti forum that was set up , but the posting was nil since a lot of our members do not use the computer very much.

We are getting more than $500 worth of wholesale canes in from Hawaii to give out to members on April 7. Those types of meetings are the most popular.

did the SoCal Ti Society make it? do you guys have a site or forum?
 
Kenny, Check out the Ti cuttings that Shogunnhawaii has to offer. This has to be the best selection available on line.
 
Kenny, Check out the Ti cuttings that Shogunnhawaii has to offer. This has to be the best selection available on line.

thanks! .... what do you think about starting cuttings now? like try rooting them indoors now and then putting them up and putting them in a little hobby greenhouse over the winter so i can get a headstart since I'm itching to give this a shot. I don't really get frost out here and the lows don't really dip under 40°F but when it does it doesn't stay down there too long
 
Kenny,
That sounds like an excellent plan. It would be great to have more SoCalifornians growing Tis. I am sure there are many varieties that would make it in the better climates like yours. But so many people don't try them, because many of them do not do well.

I would not hesitate to try some in your more sunny areas. You are close enough to the coast to tolerate a lot of sun. They may burn at first, but the extra heat may help a lot.
 
BTW - I just admitted a new member - "silent witness" who found Tropiscape searching for Ti Propagation. Maybe she will see this conversation and chime in. I told her about you ScotTi because she is from Florida as well.
 
thanks! .... what do you think about starting cuttings now? like try rooting them indoors now and then putting them up and putting them in a little hobby greenhouse over the winter so i can get a headstart since I'm itching to give this a shot. I don't really get frost out here and the lows don't really dip under 40°F but when it does it doesn't stay down there too long
I have never tried rooting the logs this time of year. I use to wait till April and May, but this year I started with them in Feb. and they did fine. I have taken top cuttings with leaves all 12 months of the year and all did great. I think your plan sounds great. I will shoot Ken a email to get him back on here to give his thoughts for your area.
 
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BTW - I just admitted a new member - "silent witness" who found Tropiscape searching for Ti Propagation. Maybe she will see this conversation and chime in. I told her about you ScotTi because she is from Florida as well.
Sounds great!
 
Kenny, Do you know the names of the ones you are growing? I may have a few rooted cuttings laying around for you. Interested in trying Ti from seed?
 
did the SoCal Ti Society make it? do you guys have a site or forum?
Hi Kenny. Scott sent me an e-mail telling me that you were interested in a ti group in Southern California. Yes, we are still going strong. If you are not busy on Sat., we are having a meeting at my home at 10 A.M. Hopefully it won't be pouring rain, as showers are predicted. Let me know if you're interested and I'll send you the details privately. As for a site on the internet, one of our members set up a facebook page. It needs approval by him.
The link is https://www.facebook.com/groups/175905672601334/ I'm not sure how that all works, but if the link doesn't work, give me your e-mail and I will set up an invitation.

Ken
 
Hi Kenny. Scott sent me an e-mail telling me that you were interested in a ti group in Southern California. Yes, we are still going strong. If you are not busy on Sat., we are having a meeting at my home at 10 A.M. Hopefully it won't be pouring rain, as showers are predicted. Let me know if you're interested and I'll send you the details privately. As for a site on the internet, one of our members set up a facebook page. It needs approval by him.
The link is https://www.facebook.com/groups/175905672601334/ I'm not sure how that all works, but if the link doesn't work, give me your e-mail and I will set up an invitation.

Ken
I forgot to mention that I live in South Pasadena.
 
I have never tried rooting the logs this time of year. I use to wait till April and May, but this year I started with them in Feb. and they did fine. I have taken top cuttings with leaves all 12 months of the year and all did great. I think your plan sounds great. I will shoot Ken a email to get him back on here to give his thoughts for your area.
California is a lot cooler than Florida in Nov. through April, so often canes started in these months will just sit there, not root, and eventually rot. That being said, you can get around all that if you buy one of those small heating mats and place the containers you are rooting your canes in on top of the mat. When they are ready to be potted, I would also recommend you place the newly potted plants on the mat until it warms up in the Spring. Top cuttings will give you less problems in the cool months.
 
California is a lot cooler than Florida in Nov. through April, so often canes started in these months will just sit there, not root, and eventually rot. That being said, you can get around all that if you buy one of those small heating mats and place the containers you are rooting your canes in on top of the mat. When they are ready to be potted, I would also recommend you place the newly potted plants on the mat until it warms up in the Spring. Top cuttings will give you less problems in the cool months.

without much sun my hobby greenhouse isn't going to do much other than protect it from possible frost. maybe i'll wait it out or as you suggested get a heat mat, I've been meaning to get one of those
 
Had a good laugh on myself today. I cut one of my Jackie Ti plants back in early December and had planned on doing the moss baggie rotting on them. I never got around to it and just stuck them in a pot. Today I wanted to go ahead and try out the new heating mat and I had planned on using the Jackie logs for my first try. But it looks like they were not waiting for me.
 

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you make it sound so easy scotti lol. i'm waiting to see what happens with the ones you sent me before winter. they looked good in vase of water until the very end and all the fronds started dropping and new growth started browning, they're all in soil now and hopefully a little sun and some fresh air will bring out new growth
 
you make it sound so easy scotti lol. i'm waiting to see what happens with the ones you sent me before winter. they looked good in vase of water until the very end and all the fronds started dropping and new growth started browning, they're all in soil now and hopefully a little sun and some fresh air will bring out new growth
Kenny, Here is a shot of last years logs that were rooted and now await planting in the ground. They slowed over the winter but should pick up speed in the next few weeks.

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my batch of Ti's don't look near as great but it's only been a few months since rooting and hopefully the cold weather is behind us, i think i got down as low as 39° for 2 nights. going to start looking at a spring order soon for palms and cordylines and hope i have better luck but it does look like the ones you sent me are going to make it just don't look that great from winter . surprisingly i've had a bunch of already bloomed Phalaenopsis orchids that i've kept outdoors for over a year now and they're pushing new flower spikes
 
Scott - have you too found seed that was already sprouting inside of the fruit???
Dean, With a wet summer here the seed sprout right on the plants thru the fruit. I walk around every few days and harvest the sprouted ones.
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Dean, It is a very easy way for germination and may end up the way I will do it from now on. I stopped cleaning the fruit from the seed last year and just planted the berries with great results. The fruit is around the seed to feed the seedling at the early stages of its life anyhow.
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You can understand why Ti Plants were one of the "Canoe Plants" that the ancient Polynesians brought with them on their journeys to new islands in the S. Pacific. Propagation of these versatile plants could be accomplished in a variety of ways. And the uses for the leaves many.
 
You can understand why Ti Plants were one of the "Canoe Plants" that the ancient Polynesians brought with them on their journeys to new islands in the S. Pacific. Propagation of these versatile plants could be accomplished in a variety of ways. And the uses for the leaves many.
Dean, I do not know why with propagation being so easy for these plants, but I still want to try one more method. I have read a lot about tissue culture in the last year and I am about ready to give it a try.
 
Dean, I do not know why with propagation being so easy for these plants, but I still want to try one more method. I have read a lot about tissue culture in the last year and I am about ready to give it a try.
Interesting - for some reason, but not confirmed, I always thought that tissue culture was only for sterile lab set ups. Perhaps because that is how I have always seen it done. I never knew of a "backyard grower" trying it. I'll be interested if you do.
 
Interesting - for some reason, but not confirmed, I always thought that tissue culture was only for sterile lab set ups. Perhaps because that is how I have always seen it done. I never knew of a "backyard grower" trying it. I'll be interested if you do.
Dean, I did not know that a "backyard grower" could do it until a few months ago. I have read up on it and looked into the kits for the "backyard grower". You can also check them out on ebay as they are listed on the site.
 
Quick question - I have some seedlings that have sprouted within the last few weeks in a little minatture green house I have. It currently sits under the verandah in the shade all day. I give it a few sprays from the water bottle before and after work and whenever it is looking dry.

Should I be doing anything else? Giving them a couple of hours in the sun? I don't have a huge canopy in the garden to work with at the moment, so would like to toughen them up early on if possible.
 
Your seedlings will be ok without the sun when small. I usually wait until they are a couple of inches tall and then start to increase the sun amounts little by little. I have grown seedlings in sun conditions and the finished result is great, but the little seedlings look bad until they are a few inches tall. These seedlings are growing in shade at this time.
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Here are a few seedlings that get hit with afternoon sun for a few hours.
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My curiosity got the best of me over the summer and I wanted to try a propagation method I had not heard about for the Cordyline. The idea came about after the success of the propagation from the stem root growths. This method is very easy and has produced pretty fast results. Take a few root cuttings by digging carefully around your in ground growing plant and remove a few roots for propagating. I used root cuttings 1"up to 3" for this and had 100% success. Cordylines growing in pots are a very easy way to get the root cuttings. No harm was noticed to the donor plant at any time and I also took a root cutting (2") from the straight down bottom root growing out the bottom of a pot grown plant. I placed the root cuttings in damp sphagnum moss and placed in a baggie. After 3 weeks (Pic #1) growth was noted on the root cuttings. The 7th week (pic#2) from cutting.
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