Persian Shield - My "cutting" has roots.... Now What ???

Hi ALL...... Just before Thanksgiving, I was leaving a restaurant with a friend and saw pots and pots of the most beautiful vine.

OK - I'll fess up and say that I "took" a small piece and brought it home..... Found out that it is Persian Shield..... It seems to be quite happy in my kitchen window. Has some nice root growth now......

Should I let it stay in water till it's time to put outside? I'm in Maryland (7A) - so I won't be putting anything outside until well into April........ When I do plant it - any special instructions?

Thanks so much...... I'm new to gardening and just thrilled to find this site....... janice

I just left this reply to a near identical question on another forum site yesterday.

"Though roots form readily and often seemingly more quickly on many plants propagated in water, the roots produced are quite different from those produced in a soil-like or highly aerated medium (perlite - vermiculite - seed starting mix, e.g.). Physiologically, you will find these roots to be much more brittle than normal roots due to a much higher % of aerenchyma (a tissue with a greater percentage of inter-cellular air spaces than normal parenchyma). If you want to eventually plant your rooted cuttings in soil, it is probably not best to root them in water because of the frequent difficulty in transplanting them to soil. The "water roots" often break during transplant & those that don't break are very poor at water absorption and often die. The effect is equivalent to starting the cutting process over again.

If you do a side by side comparison of cuttings rooted in water & cuttings rooted in soil, the cuttings in soil will always (for an extremely high % of plants) have a leg up in development on those moved from water to a soil medium for the reasons outlined above.

It's likely that new plant material will actually root and establish in soil sooner than what you have now, but if you're decided on using the starts with water roots, be as careful as you can when handling so you do not break roots & carefully settle soil around them when you decide to plant.

Carefully plop them in a well-aerated soil. Keep the soil moist, but not wet. Remember, the roots will be inefficient at absorbing water from the soil, so you may wish to tent the starts until they establish. Tenting reduces water loss through foliage."

Al

Is "carefully plop" one of those oxymorons? :)