Bottom heat, cuttings

[Anonymous]

I am about to receive some 'sticks' of blackcurrant to propagate and wondered if anyone could give me some advice. Will bottm heat improve/ speed up rooting?Or is it better to leave it in normal conditions. </p>

[Anonymous]

Jon -

Not clear what you mean by 'black currant' - is this a species of Ribes?

If so, bottom heat may not be necessary. I root Ribes sanguineum all the time without any heat, or even a greenhouse. There many species of Ribes, native and otherwise, and I'm sure they don't all root with equal ease. The natives I have tried all rooted fairly easily, though.

Good luck,

Lori</p>

[Anonymous]

Jon,Lori is right in that Ribes are generally fairly easy to propagate. Bottom heat would not hinder its rooting however and would probably speed things up a bit if you are set up for it. Just don't go out of your way to do it.Proper conditions,clean potting soil with excellent drainage, fairly bright light, consitant moisture levels, consistant 62-72 degrees, surrounding air temps, are probably of more importance. Oh and a bit of rooting hormone would be important as well to insure that a lot of them grow vigorously.

Since Black Currants are derived from either Ribes nigrum or R. odoratum, they can be responcible for hosting white pine blister rust. You don't live in the wilds do you? If so, there may be regulations against you're growing this plant. There are however several rust immune black currants such as'Coronet' and 'Titania'.It might be good to see if the gift you are recieving is one of these improved cultivars, especially if you are anywhere near forests with White Pine, eastern specie is Pius strobus but I am wondering if western White Pine, P. monticloa is also susceptible. What other Pines should we worry about? Any forest people out there?Best of luck to you and let me know how the Jams come out!Dan </p>