Here's the box it came in.
Each tuber was in a separate brown bag with its label.
When I took them out, I was pleased to see that these were very large tubers.
Here's a close up view of each individual plant.
Since these divisions were so strong, I decided to break all up into several pieces so I can get multiple plants on each species since itoh peonies are known to regenerate from fragments. This is why people can tissue culture propagate this plant.
I used a ceramic knife to make very clean cuts.
I used old potting soil for all of these plants, but I have replenished the nutrients in the soil mix by adding some azomite(micronutrient), azos, and mykos.
I also used juicy roots cloning gel to help them root out faster.
Here they are potted up.
Here are the results after 1 week of growth. There are more than 5 pots because I ended up dividing them up even further to ensure that I could get more plants. The larger tuber pieces generally produce the fastest growing sprouts.
Scarlet Heaven
Lemon Dream
Cora Louise
Canary Brilliance
Old Rose
I have also made some willow tea, and poplar tea by taking their tree limbs, putting them in a 5 gallon bucket, and pouring boiling water in the buckets to get a natural rooting hormone. I believe that this should give these guys a boost to help them root out faster.
Here's the link to the update on June 2nd
http://stevespeonygarden.blogspot.com/2012/06/update-on-itoh-peonies.html
Amazing! Thank you for the pictures! Were they overly expensive?
ReplyDeleteAll 5 dormant tubers costed $177.29 which includes shipping so it wasn't all that bad considering each of them were successfully further split into 2 to 5 plants so I have 15 plants instead of 5.
DeleteEach plant may not grow as large as they would have if these guys stayed together, but each division will produce many eyes of its own, and get a lot stronger the following year, perhaps enough to produce flowers. I believe the willow tea may have helped because these sprouts are much taller now.
Wow! I am impressed! It's so much more expensive here in Canada. a mature root for a Bartzella will cost you about $100 already.
ReplyDeleteIt depends on where you get it from. I looked up a seller on eBay and got a pretty good deal on itoh peonies.
DeleteI decided to split them up early so they could have many divisions that I could quickly get established.
I have many Garden Treasure coming and I was just wondering if I put them in 2 gallon pots each, would they survive the winter in them? I haven't decided where to put them exactly in my garden.
ReplyDeleteI doubt they will survive is they stay in 2 gallon pots for over the winter, but if you sink those 2 gallon pots into the soil, and mulch/tarp over it, it should survive just as well as if it were planted in the ground.
DeleteIf you are getting nice big multiple eyed tubers like what I have, it is fine to split them up as long as each section has a significant amount of tuber mass and an eye, but I have also used juicy roots to stimulate rooting when I planted them, and I have also watered them with willow tea & clonex to ensure that all the pieces are rooting. Giving them ideal conditions, I can treat them like eyes on a potato, as long as they are still dormant.
Where did you buy these black gallon pots?
ReplyDeleteGriffin greenhouse & picked some up from a local landscaping company.
DeleteVery nice pictures and explanations. Thank you very much!
ReplyDeleteNo problem. I currently have many divisions of each kind after splitting them up this fall
DeleteWhere did you get your tubers? Do you have a link for them? Thanks, Cindy
ReplyDeleteWhere did you get your tubers? Do you have a link for them? Thanks, Cindy
ReplyDeleteI got these off eBay 3 years ago. I have taken many divisions off them by now so I may be able to get you some if they survived this winter under the tarp. It has been an extremely brutal winter again so I'm not going to count on it, but under tarps, and 3 feet of snow in upstate NY. I'll be able to know in about 6 weeks once I can get the tarps off and see what is growing.
DeleteHey Steven,
ReplyDeleteBy any chance you have any of the Itoh peony division for sale ?
I did divide up and sell a lot 1-2 years ago. It will take another year or 2 for them to get back to size so that I can divide again and start selling again.
DeleteWow. I'm speechless for what you just taught me. What about San Diego??
ReplyDelete