“Here’s a question: Which is better for rooting plants? Tumeric, or Cinnamon? I’ve seen both suggested.”
Never heard of using either! Rooting hormone is inexpensive and works well.
“Here’s another: Some of the tomato plants in the 6-packs @ Menards looked fine, except some of their leaves were a purplish color. Any idea what’s causing that?”
More than likely they’re stressed/root-bound from being in those tiny pots. They’ve had little to NO nutrition - water runs right through their roots and there is little soil left at that stage to hold any fertilizer. I know for certain they don’t fertilize the ‘loss leaders’ (which are annual plants) at garden centers.
If you haven’t already planted them, I would soak them in a LIGHT fertilizer solution and loosen up those compacted roots before putting them in fresh soil.
Eating from The Land, Your Hand or Your Pantry:
Yes, I know it’s not even LUNCHTIME, but supper tonight is:
Pork Baby Back Ribs in the Instant Pot - pork we bought from the neighbor
Steamed Broccoli - just cut from the garden this morning
Homemade Biscuits - I did NOT mill the flour, LOL!
Cherry Pie from my Cherry Tree - baked yesterday
Life Is Good! :)
Hi, Diana!
I’ve seen Turmeric (pardon my spelling error, earlier), Turmeric plus milk, and Turmeric plus milk and Neem Oil suggested for plants with damaged or poor root systems. And then I’ve seen cinnamon recommended as a rooting powder. Both Cinnamon and Turmeric are claimed to have anti-fungal properties. My Mom had a lot of Cinnamon left when she went to the nursing home, and I have a nice size container of Turmeric. It’s from Big Lots and was much cheaper than root hormone, I seem to recall. My wife uses it for one of her Asian dishes. I’d have to ask which one, but, I don’t think it’s any of her “regulars”. A lot of my plants suffered from soggy soils and even rather soggy pots this spring because of the almost incessant rains. The Turmeric plus milk seems to be helping, though I’ll grant you my tests are poorly controlled! I’ve not tried Cinnamon except for one successful cutting start - but one isn’t much of a test!
I do have two different jars of root hormone powder, but it doesn’t seem to work into soil well at all for plants already in the ground. I guess I could try dissolving some in water, which is what I do with the Turmeric, then I add milk to make a 3:1 water to milk plus a dash of Turmeric mix. I also have a jug of liquid root compound that contains the chemical Indole-3-butyric Acid - the same ingredient found in the powders.
It is quite likely all the rain washed nutrients out of many of my pots: A larger scale version of your description of those plants @ Menards. My one potted Opo that was growing well and had just set a couple fruit suddenly stopped growing and one of the fruits has classic blossom end rot going. I’m thinking maybe it just needs a quick shot of calcium, so, maybe milk would help? Would you haver a recommendation for how much? The vine is presently about 11 ft. long, and just under 1/2” diameter @ the base of the stem. The pot is big - about 16” diameter.
As I mentioned, I didn’t buy any of the on sale tomato 6-packs @ Menards, as I have too many plants already. A few of mine are somewhat similarly stressed, as I kept them “in”, mostly in 4” pots, so they didn’t face drowning! Your advice should be good for those. It is interesting to see how some varieties seem to survive better under low nutrition conditions than others...
Thanks much!