Journal December 29, 2012

The plant in the above photo may not look very impressive, but to me it represents a milestone in my propagation experience.

In my December 20, 2012 post I wrote about attempting to clone the growing tips of olive branches and posted a photo of three tip cuttings.  The tip cuttings from the seedlings died within a few days, however, the tip cutting from the sucker has developed roots and is shown already planted in the photo above.

Considering that cuttings from mature plants take several weeks, or months, to root; and seeds can take several weeks, to a year, to germinate; propagating an olive plant in 11 days is pretty amazing stuff to me.  As anyone who has grown olives knows: olive trees can live for over a thousand years, so they are in no hurry to do anything.