Olive Roots!

I had another small disaster with the propagation table a few days ago, some small creature had plowed through several rows.  Luckily whatever it was, it confined its digging to the mostly dead outer perimeter.  It did expose this cutting however, and I was thrilled to see these fine roots.

How cool is that?

I'll pot in a week or two and start the Autumn propagation with a few improvements to the table.

Propagation Table Progress

Well, I'm halfway through the 2 month cycle to produce viable trees and let's just say it's been a fantastic learning experience.  About 2 weeks ago we had an afternoon power outage on a 110 degree day - that's about 43.3C for those of you stuck with a less precise temperature scale - that wreaked havoc on the perimeter plantings.  I'd estimate over half the cuttings were lost.

Other than the loss of mist for an afternoon there were several other negative factors that played in, operator error as they say in the military.  First, the bed is not in a greenhouse and only protected by shade cloth.  This exposes the cuttings to the drying effects of the wind.  Second, I did not initially compensate the misting schedule to account for the open air bed.  Misting times have been increased slightly and the pause between misting is now halved to around 7 minutes.  Thirdly, the cuttings were coming from water and nutrition stressed trees.  It's very sad to look at the now decimated bed.

The good news is all the above problems are being addressed so that the next round of cuttings late August will hopefully fare better.  Also after pulling several cuttings from the center of the bed, roots are forming!  There is hope yet.

Placing Cuttings

So here's how I'm placing the cuttings in the propagation media. I have a 2 inch gauge marked at 2 inch intervals that I place against the previous column of cuttings.  With a piece of flashing I cut down through the media and simply pull it away to expose a trench the length of my gauge.  I place the cuttings on my layout and simply backfill the trench with the flashing.

Propagation Mist Timer

I call it The Frankentimer.

I put this mist timer together because it's inexpensive to build and I can easily replace individual components for around $20.  I can control the duration and the pause each from 1 second to 60 hours, and I can control the hours I want to mist during the day.  Here are the parts I used.

Basically I have an individual surge protector that I plugged a simple 24hr timer into that will allow me to set the misting system on while the sun is up.  Into the 24hr timer I have a 12Vdc power supply  for the timing board and a 24VAC transformer to run the solenoid controlled water valve.  One line, doesn't matter which, of the 24VAC runs through the relay on the timing board on its way to the valve.

The timing board is a VM188 and is controlled with a couple of jumpers to select seconds/minutes/hours and a dial to control 1-60 for the selected time setting.  It's not pretty but it works.

And now some Amazon affiliate links. If you do copy this design, please click through the links below to purchase your parts.
A short list of supplies used:

VELLEMAN MK188 1S - 60H PULSE-PAUSE TIMER KIT
Elk TRG2440 24VAC, 40 VA AC Transformer with PTC Fuse
Intermatic TN311C 120 Volt Heavy Duty Grounded Timer
Belkin SurgeCube Surge Protector with 1 Outlet
Coleman Cable 09638 18/4 Solid Underground Sprinkler System Wire, 18-Gauge 4-Conductor 50-Feet

Propagation Mist System

Got the mist system up and running.

So given the temporary nature of the table, I'm just using a standard garden hose to connect with instead of plumbing a more permanent system.  I've got a standard 3/4" female hose fitting to male 3/4" fitting that is also a backflow preventer.  This is important because you don't want to suck back any nasties into your drinking water.  This threads into 3/4" electrically controlled solenoid valve to turn the water on and off.  From the valve the 3/4" pipe runs down the center of the table, underneath, sprouting two 24" risers that are simply capped, drilled, and threaded to accept the mist nozzles.

I went with two risers instead of an overhead pipe to control the dripping that occurs when the mist collects on the pipe an drips onto the rooting medium. Additionally I slipped a 6" section of 2" pipe around the riser where it protrudes through the rooting medium to control dripping.

Propagation Table

Well, I banged together a 'rustic' outdoors propagation table.  It's a simple open frame built out of 2x6's about 6'x3' and suspended at a comfortable 3 foot working level.  I'll cover it with shade cloth after the misting system is installed.  The bottom is a fine hardware cloth held up by a series of slats.  Next I'll cobble together the mist system and build the timer.

And with the shade cloth tacked on.