Collecting cuttings in remote locations?

Nuclieye

Nuclieye

Heading out next week to a pretty remote location intending on collecting seed pods and cuttings of what should be totally wild stock Chiltepins up to 20 years or more old.  It's an 8 hr hike in, bivy and hike out next day.  Thinking of taking cuttings same way I start them now using plastic test tubes with rubber tops.  Tubes already filled so just poke a hole in the top, stick the cutting in and put into tube rack.  Does anyone see a way to improve on that plan?  In the tubes I normally use RO water with a weak root starter mix and it works great in the grow room.  Probably never get this kind of a chance at these plants again, want to come home with viable starts.
 
 
Edit...  I will also likely be taking cutting from a woody stalk that has kind of a bark on it.  Never done that so any ideas to improve chances?
 
Jamison said:
Sounds like you got a good plan. Def grab pods if available. Seeds are a good backup plan.
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About 2 months late for pods on plants honestly but may be some I can find still. 
 
Only thing I see happening is the cuttings getting hot and melting on you before you get out. Bring a cooler or stryo box with you to put them in that fits in your backpack or what ever. wrap them with wet newspaper in it with your tubes. Best advice I can give seeing as it's a long hike out collect last min. 
 
Just a thought: bring a spray bottle with 1% hydrogen peroxide in it. Spray the branches from which you select cuttings before making the cuts. Mites and microbes that may afflict the cuttings are eliminated, in theory. It may prevent opportunistic pathogens from entering the surgical wounds too.

Use only dechlorinated or distilled water to dilute the peroxide, chill the solution, and keep it in the cooler till you get there (warm peroxide solution, sloshing about in a pack, will break down into water + oxygen fairly quickly).

I do this for the taking of cuttings sometimes. It's usually only harmful to plants that have had previous exposure to soap/potassium stearate/oil-based sprays.
 
Empty paper towel tubes would come in handy protecting the test tube and cutting from minor damage. otherwise, if I was going out on the same type of adventure, I would do as you have planned.
 
Thinking of adding a little reagent grade H2O2 to my mix in the test tubes, can't imagine a little extra O2 in the water would hurt anything.  What do you guys think?
 
I think that the H2O2 might chemically scald the freshly cut plant tissue, and that it might make some gas embolisms in the vascular tissues. Have you noticed that even a 1% H2O2 solution fizzes when in contact with skin, and fizzes quite rapidly if it gets in a scratch? Plant sap may react in a similar fashion.
The H2O2 is also very likely to react with the rooting agent added, destroying it, and expending itself in the process.

On the other hand adjusting the pH to about 5.0 with some phosphoric acid or acetic acid would inhibit most of the microbes worth worrying about -- and is much less likely to affect the rooting agent (most of these formulations are intended to function with cuttings in pure peat, which has a similar pH).

If your local water is unusually hard or alkaline this will likely harm the cuttings and/or encourage the growth of harmful microbes. Distilled water may also harm the plant tissues. I'd suspect that bottled drinking water may be the best water to put into the test tubes... the trace amounts ought to be enough to prevent the cellular distension and rupture that distilled water would exert upon them.

By the way, adding the rooting agent to the water is one hell of a good idea, imho.
 
This may seem like a stupid question, but why take cuttings at all? Is there anything keeping you from carefully excavating an intact plant, wrapping the root ball in damp cloth, and tying it in burlap? Starting with something already rooted seems like the preferrable course of action, unless there's something I'm not thinking of.
 
Wicked Mike said:
This may seem like a stupid question, but why take cuttings at all? Is there anything keeping you from carefully excavating an intact plant, wrapping the root ball in damp cloth, and tying it in burlap? Starting with something already rooted seems like the preferrable course of action, unless there's something I'm not thinking of.
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Sounds like a pretty sensible question to me... on speculation, the taking of cuttings offers a couple of advantages:
- no soil-borne root pests.
- in a backpack, the rootball might fracture if all the roots are not washed clean, and sufficient water in that area may not be available.
- these are a rare type, and, even if conservation laws don't apply, a conscientious collector might want to exercise discretion.
- there would be a better use of a backpack's space with cuttings; not only could more cuttings be taken, a greater number of individal plants' genomes could be sampled. If one of them presented a more compact growth, displayed greater vigor, or bore more fruit (the fruit-stems remaining on the plants' upper growth might indicate this after fruit are gone), then those are phenotypes desirable for breeding.

Admittedly, a lot more bother, but probably worth it. Especially on an effort this lengthy and time-consuming.

@Nuclieye: it may be you had other, better reasons for this. It sounds exciting. I wandered around Organ Pipe Cactus National Park, near Why, Arizona back in January, 1987. Thanks for bringing back some wonderful memories.
 
Wicked Mike said:
 Is there anything keeping you from carefully excavating an intact plant, wrapping the root ball in damp cloth, and tying it in burlap? Starting with something already rooted seems like the preferrable course of action, unless there's something I'm not thinking of.
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Thats not a good idea where this is.  In Sonora MX and these are very old plants (20 to 30 years), they are still harvested by some and not in the safest locals.  My guide offered to show me where they are to pick whats left since he was last there.  Says most plants are 6' tall.  Digging one up would be bad.  LOL
 
Edit to add...  My current variety is wild, harvested about 50 miles NW of here (Phoenix) from some remaining plants on one of my claims.  I'd be ultra PO'd if someone dug one of them up. 

mikeg said:
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@Nuclieye: it may be you had other, better reasons for this. It sounds exciting. I wandered around Organ Pipe Cactus National Park, near Why, Arizona back in January, 1987. Thanks for bringing back some wonderful memories.
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Used to love the park and hunted around it back in the 70's.  Now its overrun with smugglers and signs everywhere warning what few visitors there are about the lawlessness.  Actually safer on the other side of the border anymore.
 
Hi Nuclieye - That sounds like a great trip!  I am always glad to hear of folks responsibly bringing new species material into cultivation.  I had an opportunity to do something similar on the AZ side of the border several hears ago.  Wonderful to see the plants in their habitat!  I hope you will share some non-location revealing photos of the plants here.  I know I would be very excited to see them.  Good luck!  And please let us know how it goes.
 
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