If you have an older rose that you wish to duplicate it may be possible to start a new plant by taking a cutting. The technique is not difficult, although some types of roses respond better to this method of propagation than others. Miniature roses are usually successful, and are a good place to learn the technique.

Generally speaking most roses that are sold nowadays have been grafted often using a budding technique. This is done because a hardier more disease resistant rootstock can transfer these benefits to the flowering part of the plant which has been chosen for beautiful flowers or outstanding perfume, but which may not be a robust grower on its own roots. It is a reliable way to propagate roses commercially, but cuttings can also be propagated. The most common rootstock in this area is the ubiquitous 'Dr. Huey' rose which certainly gives vigor but also suckers prolifically, and all too often outgrows the chosen rose to dominate with its red flowers!

If planning to try your hand at propagating from cuttings you must make sure that the parent plant that you are planning to use is not covered by a Plant Patent. These patents are awarded to hybridizers and developers of new varieties in order to protect the tremendous investment that they make in time and money as they bring these varieties to market. Plant patents last for 20 years, and it is illegal to asexually propagate a plant during the period that the patent covers. Rose labels and plant catalogs, including those online, almost always indicate if the cultivar is patented, or if a patent is pending. (It will sometimes say "PPAF" to indicate a patent.)

TO GROW A ROSE FROM A CUTTING YOU WILL NEED:

• A well-grown current year's stem that has finished flowering about 8” long for a hybrid tea rose, or 4”-5” for smaller landscape roses. It should be healthy, disease free, green and slightly flexible but not floppy, and should ideally have 4-5 leaf nodes. Place the bottom in water immediately after cutting. Old, woody stems are challenging to root.
• A large, clean pot of moisture retaining compost such as seed starting compost with a good proportion of vermiculite or perlite, or use a loose, commercial soilless potting mix.
• A cover of some sort to keep a humid environment around the cutting (a two liter soda bottle with the bottom cut out and the cap removed is ideal).
• A sharp knife or sharp pruners – sterilized with alcohol.
• Some rooting hormone. (not essential but produces better results)
• A stick or dibber for making planting holes.
• An area of bright light but out of direct sun. I have a north-facing greenhouse window in my kitchen which is ideal.
• A method of watering.
• Labels for each plant.

Method:

• Fill pot with soil, and water well so that it is evenly moist (but not wet).
• Make a hole in the soil 3”-4” deep and about the diameter of the stem to be planted.
• Put a little rooting hormone in a shallow container such as a jar lid.
• Prepare cutting material. Cut base of stem straight across just below a node and cut top off at an angle just above the 4^th or 5^th joint. Remove leaves from the bottom three nodes, but leave some leaves at the top of the stem. If these leaves are large cut them in half to reduce transpiration while the roots are forming.
• Dampen the bottom of the stem in water and dip it into the hormone rooting powder, then carefully place it into the prepared hole burying the bottom two nodes under the soil.
• Firm the soil round the stem.
• Cover with soda bottle without a cap, or place in a plastic bag with the top closed.
• Label with variety if known or description of flower.
• If your soil is well moistened there is no need to water again at this time, so that the rooting hormone does not get washed off.
• From this point on until roots are established it is important to make sure that the cutting does not dry out. I usually water from the bottom, but also keep an eye on the surface moisture.
• Roots may form in about 6 weeks, but more often take about 8 weeks, and once new growth has begun the cover can be removed and care is the same as for any young plant.

Cuttings of recently flowered stems.

Stems prepared for planting

In our climate in the Owens Valley I don't plant out the starts until the following spring, but if you have frost protection such as a cold frame and the plants are well grown they may over winter under such cover.

Many years ago an elderly neighbor who had a garden full of roses started them in the fall by digging a trench and putting well-rotted horse manure in the base, then placing a row of cuttings in the trench and back-filling. He had a wonderful success rate but my attempts to emulate this invariably failed. For now I will just stick to the flowerpot method which I know works. Of course there is always the option of sticking the cutting in a potato as touted on the Internet, but I have yet to see any positive results from that method!

 https://www.jacksonandperkins.com/how-to-propagate-roses/a/how-to-propagate-roses/

 https://www.rosenotes.com/2012/03/dr-huey-you-sucker-you.html

When I think of "weeding using electricity" the first thing that comes to mind is a electric string trimmer attached to an orange extension cord. But it turns out some research is being done using electricity itself to kill weeds.

Now, before you start playing the MacGyver theme song in your head, you should know that 1.) ELECTRICITY IS DANGEROUS! and 2.) researchers are using a tractor-mounted device to zap weeds. This probably isn't something you should be inventing at home, unless you're vying for a Darwin Award. But maybe someday there will be some options for small-scale use in the garden.

(A) Diagram of the EWC machine from Zasso.com. (01) The tractor engine is the power source of the EWC machine. (02) The PTO shaft transmits mechanical power from the tractor engine to the transformer/generator. (03) A transformer generates high voltage current. (04 and 05) Metal strips on the front-mounted applicator applies electric current to the target plants. (From UC Weed Blog.)

Here's a video clip of the machine at work in an orchard.

One of the ways that weeds can be killed is by physical injury. A common control method is using heat to kill weeds. (Warning: FIRE IS ALSO DANGEROUS!). There are electric weeding wands on the market for gardeners, but these use electricity to create heat. Small seedlings can be heated to a point that they die.

A problem with heat treatment is that typically only the top portion of the plant is affected. With electricity there is a possibility of also damaging the root which increases effectiveness.

Like most physical control methods, it works best on small plants. Larger plants will resprout and require additional treatments. Because you'll ask: this probably won't work on bermudagrass. Sorry.

For now this looks like a promising technology that's best suited for land measured in acres, not the garden. But it's always exciting to see new ideas to kill pesky weeds. Who knows what will come of this in the future?

To learn more about this project, check out this post on the UC Weed Science Blog.

In parts of the world where the growing season is short or there is a general lack of sunlight, tomatoes are often grown as cordons, which enables more of the available light to reach the fruit. In spite of being advised not to use this technique in the hotter parts of California, due to the risk of sunscald damage to the fruits, I thought that I would try it in the Owens Valley to see if I could increase my tomato plants' performance. Last year, I harvested only two red Brandywine tomatoes and was left with a huge crop of very green tomatoes at the end of the season.

This year I chose Pineapple, a large, yellow, low-acid, heirloom variety to see if there was a discernible difference between growing it as a cordon or the more traditional way.

Two closely matched 6” high plants were planted directly into the soil on April 22.  Growing conditions could not be matched exactly, since the shrubby one was slightly more shaded than the cordon specimen; otherwise, cultural conditions such as soil and irrigation were the same.  No covers or “walls of water” were used, liquid fertilizer was applied twice during the season, and the plants were not mulched, as they were grown adjacent to squash plants, and I wanted to minimize hiding places for squash bugs.

Method:  Cordon tomatoes are grown by choosing an indeterminate variety, which is then tied to a tall, sturdy stake and trained as a single stem by removing all shoots from the leave axils as soon as they appear. Flower clusters develop from the main stem between the leaves, and the general advice is to allow the plant to produce about 6 trusses before pinching out the leading shoot to prevent further vertical growth. The stake was placed on the west side of the plant in order to protect the main stem from the most intense afternoon sun.  The plant grew extremely well, and I had to be vigilant keeping it tied to the stake (using a soft tie which would not damage the delicate stem) and in removing the shoots which appeared and grew rapidly.  If left for more than a few days, their removal caused a large wound which could potentially result in the entry of disease.  Even with very little fertilizer, this plant soon reached 6ft and the lower clusters began to flower early, with about 5 flowers on each truss.   On July 19, I picked my first fully ripe 10.5 oz tomato from this vine. 

For the other plant, I staked and allowed it to sprawl over a 4-foot tomato cage made from field wire. No pruning was performed, and it soon made a thicket of healthy stems and foliage.  I picked the first fruit from this plant on August 9, but had 3.5lbs of green tomatoes remaining in early October.

As can be seen from the above table, the cordon certainly produced ripe fruit much earlier than the unpruned plant, and the individual fruits were considerably bigger - often in the 13 oz range, while those from the unpruned plant averaged around 6oz.  However, the cordon produced a much lower overall yield, stopped producing more noticeably during the very hot weather, and set far fewer individual fruit. Some of these issues could have been avoided by using better horticultural practices, such as mulch and regular fertilizer!

Although fruits on both plants suffered from some cracking, none was affected by sunscald in spite of having some very clear, hot days.

If space is limited and one wants to have a variety of different cultivars of tomatoes without having an enormous crop, then growing them as cordons might well be a useful method to try.

This year appears to have produced a bumper population of Black Widow (Latrodectus) spiders. Having had too many close calls with these arachnids, I decided to eliminate as many as possible before I became a victim. I have no problems with other spiders and welcome them in the garden, appreciating their effect on the insect population and delighting in the beauty of a perfectly formed Orb spider's web. However, this summer it seemed that almost everything I touched had a Black Widow lurking underneath; when I filled my watering can one came out of the top as the water level rose, when I harvested my squash there was a large one under one of the fruits, the children's tree house had them in the corners, and as I was fitting a child's car seat into my car one emerged from under the seat as I tightened the final strap.  Enough! I had to take action. 

The first thing was to find out as much as possible about the habits and life cycles of the Black Widow, and the IPM website http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn74149.html was invaluable for this.  It shows photographs of not only adult female Widows with their shiny, black round bodies with the red hourglass markings on their lower abdomen, but also the male and immature forms, both of which look very different.  Fortunately, these spiders are shy and tend to retreat to a hole or crevice if disturbed. This very habit means that the unwary may accidently disturb them and induce a bite – often by putting shoes on that have been left outside or by picking up such things as logs or pots that have one underneath. Their bite contains a neurotoxin which induces symptoms such as a localized rash, severe muscle cramps, possible paralysis of the diaphragm, nausea, vomiting, and changes in vision. Anyone bitten should use an ice-pack on the bitten area and then seek immediate medical help, if possible taking the culprit with them to confirm identification.

Black Widow spiders like to live in undisturbed clutter around homes and seem equally at home underneath garbage cans,  under the covers of irrigation set-ups, in wood piles, in natural stone facing of retaining walls and houses, or in seldom-used children's' plastic toys where they build webs in the wheels and under seats.  They are common in the darker corners of garages and sheds and will occasionally be found in similar spots inside homes.  Their webs are not what we think of as the classic spider's web but rather a disorganized collection of very strong threads, often with bits of leaves or dead grass hanging in them and frequently containing small and very tough egg sacs which may contain up to three hundred eggs.  The female can produce up to 10 of these from one mating!  On average, they live for about three years. The population of these spiders is only maintained if there is enough food for them. It is not likely that there will be a shortage, since they will eat any insect: beetles, crickets, cockroaches and even scorpions.

I wanted to gain some control without the use of chemical sprays. I identified various webs, but as soon as I approached, the spiders would take cover in some inaccessible spot.  Then a neighbor suggested that I go out after dark with a flashlight so, armed with an old shoe, I chose a warm moonlit night to begin my “Widow Vendetta”.  I could not believe just how many spiders there were!  On a raised planter bed with concrete stone edges, there was a large adult female about every 18 inches around the whole circumference. They were sitting in their webs upside down with their red hourglass markings clearly visible and they did not scuttle away when I shone the light on them, making a quick dispatch an easy matter.  I then concentrated around the house foundations where there were dozens of tiny spiderlings setting up home.  The flashlight had the benefit of casting their shadow onto the concrete path which made their exact position easier to see, and I often killed 30 spiders in one night.  (I am relieved that this eccentric behavior has so far not appeared in the local “Police Blotter”)!  I followed this routine every couple of weeks throughout the summer and swept the walls with a flat broom afterwards, which made it easier to spot new webs as they appeared.  I have pruned vegetation back from beside the house and have tried to limit storage of items near entrances. A pressure jet of water could be used to dislodge some from more difficult positions, although that would surely be an egregious use of such a precious commodity during a drought.

Praying Mantises are particularly fond of these spiders, and some wasps parasitize them, so I am hoping that due to our combined efforts, we will gain some control. Meanwhile, I have been wearing gloves when performing gardening tasks, and have been carefully checking and brushing logs and plant pots before bringing them into the house. Only time will tell whether my efforts will make a noticeable difference to the Black Widow population, or whether I have upset the natural balance enabling some other noxious species to take hold instead.

For more info on Black Widows, see: http://www.livescience.com/39919-black-widow-spiders.html