I've been combing the site and have found a link in the "Citrus Resources" section of the forum. This guy claims to have rooted citrus using just the leaves? Is that possible? After examining the "high resolution" photos, it does not seem like a photoshop job either. Click here for picture and detail: http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/ViewPhoto?u=4214778&a=31269062&p=68374483 Weird...... Best, Jeff
Hi, Jeff. This subject was discussed in the thread Propagation By Leaf Cuttings | UBC Botanical Garden Forums. The link which you provided was also mentioned. Others have also reported having success rooting leaves. Here is such a posting in an external forum.
What about getting them to produce shoots and grow into plants? Has that been done? You can also cut bamboo rootstocks up into budless, single culm divisions with roots attached that will live until the culm ages and dies. This is used to produce 'groves' that never have to be contained. So there is a practical value to doing that. Citrus leaves that never grow into plants wouldn't be of much use.
I think the conclusion from that discussion was it's not possible. That's quite clever. It's trading one type of maintenance for another as they have to be replaced when they die.
I tried the single leaf... all of the single leaf died prematurely.. I was hoping to find out if the ones that I cut so that it also had a bud with it would produce a stem from the bud after the roots developed.. So I tried again.. But this time I took a branch and cut the stem off above the leaf about 1/4 inch leaving the bud intact... and down to the next leaf.. so each leaf had about an inch or inch and half of the stem each.. Some of these the buds have already produced a stem/ branch I might try and get some pics and update the thread.. With out the bud I don't think there would be any thing more than just a leaf with roots.. Gina *BabyBlue*
