2025, Trying out a new method for making lavender cutting seedlings!
Well then, good evening everyone, it's Evgeny Maeda here, aiming to become an independent lavender farmer, hello!
Following up on the last post, this is another article on the lavender project theme!
As for the last time, to explain it briefly, it was an article about
setting up a cutting nursery inspired by French seedling production methods in the backyard, which is a 'slightly shaded environment' and 'high humidity' that is convenient for the growth of cutting seedlings!
!
Chronologically, the last article was about May 5th, but the date of the lavender cutting seedling production in this article is from April 30th!
Well then, without rambling on about difficult things, let's get straight to the point...
■ New cutting method (1)
The idea, or rather the original plan, came to me around New Year's when I was wandering around a home improvement store and my eyes caught sight of PVC pipes.
I've been thinking about a propagation method for lavender seedlings for a long time. Instead of just following French, New Zealand, or American styles, I thought, what if I cut PVC pipes into small pieces, stick them in the ground, fill them with sterile soil, and use them for cuttings? That way, I could mass-produce them individually.
Agricultural materials like
plastic pots are too big and take up space at the initial cutting stage, and
seedling trays are difficult to remove because each cell is large, and they break after about 3 years. With
PVC pipes, I thought there were many advantages, such as: ・Thick material prevents moisture evaporation
・Hard to break
・Can be laid out in large quantities
・Can be handled individually
With the previous way of making lavender seedlings, once the lavender started to grow roots and become independent, there was a problem where they would immediately hit the bottom of the pot right below the rooting point and the roots would curl around.
This could lead to a "root-bound state", which was a challenge in raising healthy lavender seedlings.
So, seeing these pipes, I had an idea.
What if I cut these pipes longer than the previous cutting trays and put soil in them to use for cuttings? Wouldn't the roots grow longer downwards? I thought.
However, there was a problem with PVC pipes too.
The unit price of PVC pipes is incredibly high for the number of seedlings!!
Even if I reused plastic bottles, they are transparent and let sunlight into the perlite, so the lavender wouldn't be able to root...
While feeling miserable about that, I entered April and made a discovery.
I found the best alternative material at work!! It's eco-friendly!!!
It turns out that cardboard pipes are just lying around for free!!!
I immediately asked the owner, "This is trash, right!?", and received a lot of them!
A material that cost about ¥2000 per PVC pipe was actually obtained for ¥0. God is telling me to proceed as is.
With the previous tray cutting method, the size was small and the work was extremely troublesome.
It was troublesome. I was making these with a friend from Sapporo, and it took a fair amount of time.
It was to the point where we both felt that we had finally produced this amount in one day after working together.
After all the twists and turns since 2022, this new method is a way to resolve those size-related issues to some extent!
Now, let's look at the procedure for creating cutting seedlings with the new method.
Actually, these are the core tubes that farmers have in abundance after laying down mulch—in short, they are trash.
Since they are made of cardboard rather than PVC (plastic), they absorb water and get wet, and when you don't need them anymore, you can dry them out and burn them for disposal! The ash can serve as a neutralizing soil amendment for lavender!
I got these for free and decided to repurpose them as rooting platforms for lavender! I don't know if it will succeed yet lol
Originally... my idea around New Year's was to use PVC pipes.
PVC material has a decent wall thickness, which makes it easier to maintain the humidity in the medium, which is an essential condition for rooting lavender cuttings, and prevents them from drying out.
But!
In seeking to maintain humidity in the perlite rooting medium, I also had the realization that since the cardboard material of the mulch core tubes absorbs rainwater and gets damp on its own, it would save me the trouble of regular watering!—it was a sudden inspiration!
This feels like a case where ideas just clicked together on the spot lol
And don't forget to keep them moist with water containing Menedael immediately after cutting...
Since this attempt at making cutting seedlings is taking place in early spring, only 15 days after the snow melted, I had a concern with little basis that the lavender branches might not have woken up yet and might not be that healthy—a weakly-founded worry. However, since lavender is a tree with slow growth and slow reactions, I figured they would likely wake up and start growing around the same time as the parent plant after being cut...
So, I went ahead and did it with the same capacity as in autumn without worrying about it!
First, cut a decent amount of branches of a decent length (about 5cm to 15cm) from the lavender plant you want to make seedlings from.
There is actually research that has seriously investigated the relationship between the length of these cuttings and their survival rate.
Well, just for reference.
I mark the pipes at a length where they stick out 3 or 4 cm from the tray (the ones I'm applying to the long ones) and produce them by cutting them off with a saw!
Then, I just keep stuffing the pipes into the tray like this.
I was able to make this one tray's worth from about one cardboard pipe. It seems I can make 51 seedlings with one tray!
And, in this method, I won't use vermiculite as a water-retaining agent, but will try it with only perlite! It's an experiment!
Then, I just poke them into the pipes like this.
Since perlite is bone-dry and loose, you can insert them without any effort.
Then, when you pour Menedael solution over them to fix them in place, the perlite gets damp, becomes heavy, and compacts, which secures the cuttings bb
The rooting promotion effect of Menedael should also last for a while!
Then, I kept producing more and more, and for now, I've finished producing 153 seedlings with 3 trays of 51, which was a day's work!
I ran out of pipes here, so I'm currently at the stage where I need to go get more cardboard pipes!
The weather and temperature were pleasant that day, and it was fun to make them lol
In autumn, it's usually cold and my hands get numb, so I couldn't do it...!
■ New cutting method (2)
Ac-tu-al-ly
I also tried one more method based on a French technique just before the snow fell last year!
This is it. This, this, this!
I'm using tiny plug trays filled with black soil teeming with soil bacteria for the cuttings!
It certainly has excellent light absorption (temperature) and moisture (soil humidity), but... it also increases bacteria, lol.
So.
Well, for now, I'll give it a shot since I have nothing to lose! I can keep my hands busy!Can I work with my hands!
Yes, here is the full field view. The date is 11/14. It's freezing!
Cuttings from this time of year are probably the best, but...
So, I just poked them into the black soil and finished it up quickly! Man, it was cold!
And as for the current status...
Surprisingly,cuttings in black soil (French method)were a success!!
Oh wow, seriously?!
The American method I was testing in parallel also achieved a degree of success (half were deemed dead)!
Because of this, it's possible that water retention is the key to increasing the survival rate.
~Related article link~
いいなと思ったら応援しよう！
若い人がどんどん減る地元【三笠市】もついに人口7000人台目前。
朝カフェやイベントスペースを兼ねたラベンダー園で今いる住民を楽しませ、雇用も生み出したい。そして「住みよい」を発信し移住者を増やして賑やかさを。そんな支援を募っています。
畑の取得、オイル蒸留器などに充てます。