snjoymukherjee@yahoo.co.in
I am a common rose lover, not anscientist of rose. To grow quality roses some restrictions and regularities are there and that needs to be maintained which I try to do religiously and try to produce some quality blooms. Nothing makes me feel happier than making a rose plant bloom, a plant which grows within me with careful and ardent effort and affection- when that plant also grows in reality in my own hand-that gives an out of the world feeling. The gradual growth of that small plant establishes an inseparable relationship with me. But the entire picture is not always that colorful. Anxiety, stress and depression- these are also there but balancing the whole equation will only be possible when you will be able to figure out a proper plan and along with it some advanced plans. Many a people ask me that why I only grow roses. It is hard to explain it that way but the only answer that I can give them is- I love roses. A few friends of mine, they say that I’m obsessed with this thing. Neither do I argue with them nor do I want to change their mind. All that I know is roses keep me alive.
I believe that common flower lovers and growers come across maximum hindrances in the beginning of rose growing compared to other flowering plants. The new methods of growing and new techniques have always been a point of curiosity for people specially the plants and flowers which are displayed in the exhibitions. The potted rose plants of Kolkata has an impact on the overall Indian rose culture and in this essay the main focus will be to explain simply the techniques and methods which we use here to get quality rose plants.
The Right Environment – Rose plants are sun-loving. They must get the sunlight from the early morning to 2:00 pm at least every day. It is better not to keep other plants along with the roses. They prefer to stay ALONE.
Best Time to Plant Roses &The Selection of The Variety – Generally in the tropical climate of West Bengal planting roses can be done any time of the year. But during April to June the temperature crosses 40 degrees sometimes, the sunlight becomes scorching and dry hot air blows. So planting during this period of time will be inappropriate. I think from mid October to mid January will be an idle time to plant roses. Apart from heat the time between summer and rainy season when the weather normally remains cloudy, the temperature falls and humidity rises then also one can plant roses easily.
Normally seedlings are available in the localities at cheap prices but it is always better to collect from an authentic shop where good quality seedlings are available and are labeled properly. Please select only those varieties which will suit your weather condition and immune to diseases. Make sure that the seedlings have good amount of root, because the more the number of roots will be, the probability of the survival of the plant will increase.
I think we all know that T-bud grafted rose seedlings are the best to grow. The stem of the grafting should be thick enough and green and long, having a single bud or bloom in it. It is better not to select busy seedlings, they may not grow well. It is also better not to
select dis-head (epical shoot) seedlings also and this is absolutely my personal opinion. I have noticed that if the epical shoot of a plant gets cut off then specially in case of pot growing it cannot take growth that easily. For example- Laura, Shanti (Sport of Peace), American Heritage, His-Highness and specially the yellow varieties. Seedling should not contain more than one stem. The basal shoots which have grown out in the nursery without proper care will never produce quality stems in future. Few quality basal shoots are required to grow a quality rose plant.
If you are collecting rose seedlings from faraway places i.e. via mail then delayed arrival of the parcel can cause the leaves to dry out, the skin of the plant may get wrinkled and it may seem sometimes that it may not survive. In that case put the plants in a bucket full of water and wait for 24 hours then they will again look fresh. Before planting defoliate and also disbud the plant to increase the probability of survival.
Here is a list of a few varieties which will grow well in a hot and humid tropical climate like Kolkata-
1) Ingrid Bergman (Red)
2) Gospel Yellow
3) God Grass
4) Great Scott (Pink)
5) Sunset Celebration ( Apricot to peach )
6) Mohana (Yellow)
7) Peach Avalanche (Peach)
8) Crown Jewel
9) Aritra
10) Miss. Arpita
11) Bengali Snaskriti
12) Somasila
13) Brunch Of Love
14) Narayan Show
I think it is always better to choose Rosa-multiflora as root-stock. Rosa-multiflora originated in Japan&Korea. It has got strange characteristics .If the root-system of these seedlings get damaged somehow then it will take a lot of time to recover. Apparently it may seem like multifloras do not prefer frequent watering but I can guarantee that this is a completely wrong idea and few of our old rosarian’s baseless interpretation. Multifloras love a lot of watering but not water-logging. They prefer slightly acidic media for growing and also grows well in almost all sorts of textures of the soil, be it heavy or light. But lighter media which is slightly acidic in nature will be perfect i think. Multiflora’s root system demand ample amount of oxygen for breathing and a light growing media can easily provide that through sufficient aeration. According to me cinder in this aspect has the biggest advantage over all the other Medias. Cinder can easily satisfy the oxygen demand of the root system of the rose plants.
The initial root system of the multifloras get thicker with time and from those dying thick old roots can come out new thin roots. These new roots consume water and food from the media, breathes oxygen. So supply of oxygen is very vital in case of multiflora roses.
To grow quality roses the main emphasis should not be vested upon the visible half of the plant i.e. the blooms, the foliages etc. To grow a healthy rose plant the root system of the plant needs to be healthy too.
Growing Media – Few rose lovers are a bit confused about the growing media of the
roses, specially to decide which one will be the most appropriate- soil, husk, coco-peat or cinder. Many growers are using these media nowadays. I personally prefer cinder and coco-peat. Now the question arises, why cinder? Rose cultivation in soil-less media has increased dramatically in the last fifteen years. Volcanic cinder, called locally ‘picon’ is abundant in the Canary Islands used as a growing substrate. Using small particle size ‘picon’; and high irrigation frequencies according to solar outdoor radiation, yields same amount of flowers as that of rock wool. ‘Tuff’ a similar material has been used in Israel since 1970. Cinder is basically half burnt coal at a very high temperature (usually it comes out of the thermal power plants as an industrial waste material.). It contains particles of several diameters and unlike soil it does not contain any organic substances. It does not contain any organic substances. It does not have any particular shape or size also. The cinder which is available here contains high amount of free calcium (CaO) which is highly useful for rose plants as they need sufficient amount of calcium. My suggestion is to select the cinder of 10 mm diameter (Use sand strainer to get identical particles of desired size.) and mix good amount of leaf mould or compost along with it and use it for potting roses. This will help the root system to grow well and the water holding capacity of the media will also increase. Before using the leaf mould it should get disinfected. Apart from common fungicide special chemicals can also be used such as- Basamid (BASF) and Carboguard (Excel Biotech). Dosage should be 2ml/10 liters of water. Formalin solution can also be used for this purpose. Use organic liquid fertilizers such as oil cake, neem cake etc which will add or create humus to the media. This adding of humus method will multiply the total number of bacteria present in the media which keep it fertile. These bacteria are mainly of two types- Heterotrophic and autotrophic. The major role of these is to decompose the organic substances present in the media and to make the in-organic compounds water-soluble. In this entire process carbon converts the nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and sulphar into such a state where the intake of these elements as nutrients becomes much easier for the plant. The principle ingredient of any organic substance is carbon which gets oxidized and becomes carbon dioxide. Here lies the major difference between cinder and any other media. Cinder normally contains huge carbon which the beneficial bacteria use to survive and also gets reproduced (Unfortunately no research work has yet been done on this topic.).
Planting – Choose 8″ pot (Clay pot if possible. It is best for rose planting.). Fill the pot with the media which you have already prepared. Usually seedlings are available in small plastic bags containing soil or husk as media. If you want to use cinder then keep the plant in a cool place for at least one day. Next day when you are going to plant it , wash away all the previously plating media present around the root be it soil or husk and make it bare-rooted and then defoliate as well as disbud the seedling. Now put it in a bucket full of water and put some in ice in it if possible. After five minutes take the seedling out and put it into a fungicide solution and then plant it. While planting make sure that the T-bud joint stays slightly above the base level of the media. If you are using soil or husk then bare-rooting is not required. After planting pour one liter of that fungicide solution in the 8″ pot. Excess watering on the very first day will not be harmful.
Feeding Your Roses – How and when to feed the roses with fertilizers is a big question. Aqueous solution of fertilizer will bring the nutrient elements closer to the root system quickly and as plants absorve nutrients along with water, it will prove to be the most effective method of application of fertilizers. While applying the grower should keep in mind that the media of the plant should not be dry. If it is dry then at first watering needs to be done and then after sometime the fertilizer should be applied. When and how many times the fertilizer should be applied these will all depend upon the grower himself. His experience, the condition of the plant, what type of blooms he wants etc. will determine the feeding. There are no restrictions. Do not think that expensive rose foods are always better and fertilizers available at cheap prices are always worse. A very common fertilizer available at very cheap price called ‘Sufola’ (15:15:15) can also help you to grow good plant but in that case you need to keep in mind that it should not contain potassium chloride. The lighter the fertilizer will be easier it will be for the plants to consume. The solution of fertilizer should keep the thin alive root system of the plant always wet and moist. Feeding can be done in a very low percentage in a one day gap order. In the past times the roses were fed only during the blooming session but I personally think that this practice is absolutely wrong. Except the rainy season the plant must be fed throughout the year in a very low concentration of fertilizer solution. Many chemical fertilizers are available in the market nowadays like 20:20:20, 13:40:13 etc. These chemicals can be used. Apart from these readymade fertilizers here I’m giving a formula which can be used. Especially in case of potted roses the feeding should be done throughout the year and I can guarantee that even at high temperatures such as 30 degrees the feeding will not harm the plant.
Ammonium Sulphate 28 gms
Ammonium di-hydrogen Phosphate (12.61.0) 50 gms
Potassium sulphate 10 gms
Magnesium sulphate 260 gms
Super phosphate 108 gms
Potassium Nitrated (13:00:45) 100gms
The above mentioned chemical mixture should be applied in a three days interval as aqueous solution. Mix five grams of the fertilizer in five liters of water and pour half liter solution per plant. After feeding the plant in this way for up to two months the amount of feeding should be increased. At that stage apply one gm fertilizer/plant in a three days gap. The solution of the fertilizer should not cross the hardness value of 1500 ppm (1.5gm/liter). During the winter if the night temperature falls below 10 degrees then ammonium nitrate can also be used as fertilizer (This provides huge amount of oxygen to the root system) at a rate of 1gm/2 liters of water. To supply micronutrients use Rexolin as foliar spray at a rate of 1.5 gm/ 10 liters of water and at an interval of 7 days. To add or create enough humus to the pot mushrooms can be used. Use 1 gm mushroom/ plant in an interval of 15 days.
Magnesium: A powerful elemen of plant. We all know about Chlorophyll which is a green photosynthetic pigment found in plants, algae, and cyanobacteria. Chlorophyll a contains a magnesium ion encased in a large ring structure known as a chlorin. The chlorin ring is a heterocyclic compound derived from pyrrole. Four nitrogen atoms from the chlorin surround and bind the magnesium atom. The magnesium center uniquely defines the structure as a chlorophyll molecule.
Anthocyanin: Anthocyanins are found in the cell vacuole, mostly in flowers and fruits, but also in leaves, stems, and roots. When we find new foliage of many roses starts out a very deep red to nearly purple in color due to good amount of anthocyanins stimulation. From this new growth comes the forming of buds and future beautiful blooms. Magnesium treatment caused a significant increase in Aanthocyanin concentrations (between 15% and 70%) with a stronger effect under elevated temperature regimes.
The notion that organic fertilizers are always good and chemical fertilizers are bad, they harm the plant’s health- still persists. Except carbon, hydrogen and oxygen all the elements are consumed by the plant as ions present in the applied aqueous solution (By ion we mean charged elements or particles). I have to listen all the time that ‘Sanjoy feeds chemicals and his plants get damaged within a year or two’. But I can happily announce that even after feeding chemical fertilizers my plants survive for more than ten years and also produce huge amount of blooms every year.
Watering Your Roses – Never use tube-well water i.e. iron-free water. Excess watering and shortage of water both can be dangerous for roses. One must learn this watering technique well. The media of the pot should get dried up in between two successive watering .Which means there is no particular routine or schedule for watering and you need to keep a few things in mind while watering such as the quantity of the foliages in the plant and their condition, the weather of your locality etc. The mistake which amateur rose growers often do is they water small plants too much and water the bigger plants much less than the amount they require. Both the practices can prove to be fatal. After planting the rose plant keep it in a shaded area for at least five to seven days and if possible then wrap it up in a plastic pack. Remove the packet after five to seven days. Increase the amount of watering gradually as the leaf size of the plant increase. A rose grower should always keep it in mind that stagnant moisture is very dangerous for rose plants. The film of water particles around the root system of the plant should disappear at lest once a day. It will increase the aeration & allows the root to breathe much more easily. The water film around the root system causes difficulty for the roots to breathe and it is one of the major problems of soil media. Sometimes it just does not get dried up at all for long time and prevents the aeration. As we all know that Multifloras need a lot of oxygen passing through the roots so it is quite dangerous for the plant to be not able to breathe at all. One more thing is if the moisture of the media stays a little higher than it’s actual capacity all day then if such a media can cause sufficient aeration for at least once a day then the growth of the plant will be twice than the usual growth rate. This is because when the film of water is well around the roots then it cannot absorve oxygen through diffusion. The dissolved oxygen has less diffusion rate compared to the gaseous state of it.
Regular Monitoring of EC and pH of the growing medium can prevent all nutrient related probles with the rose and also give an indication of the availability of micro and macronutrients to the rose. Most growers do not have a proper plan to prevent nutrient problems. The PourThrough technique makes it possible to solve this problems and keep the plant healthy.
The pH level of the water to be used for roses must be around 6.5. Water containing high levels of chlorine, sodium or iron is completely inappropriate for roses.
Temparature of water for root is also a key element for rose plant. Use of hot water can be beneficial. Hot–water treatment increased the number of living roots and decreased their level of nematode infestation.
Transplanting The Roses – The plants which are showing good growths needs to be re-potted to 10″ clay pots during the end of july. Keep the plants in a shaded area again for at least 5-7 days and after 10 days of transplanting start feeding the plant and continue it till the first week of October.
Pruning Your Roses – Those who are growing roses in hot and humid weather like kolkata, they should stop feeding the plants for 30 days starting from the first week of October. Do not apply any fertilizer and allow the plant to take complete rest. Start feeding them again before 20 days of the pruning date and then prune. I would like to mention that pruning is a vast as well as a very important chapter. The detailed discussion on this particular topic is out of the scope of the present essay but I would like to advice the armature growers to go for very light pruning because heavy pruning in an inexperienced hand can cause damage. If you are not confident enough then do not even prune just defoliate the plant, this can also give you quite a lot of blooms.
It has found that the approximate date of flower bud differentiation on flowering shoots have form 8-10 days after the begining of active growth. The complete formation of the flower with all parts completelt differentiated was noted first at the end of the twenty fifth day. Blind shoots can form when axillary bud (lateral bud) failed to develop a complete set of floralorgans but it can be controlled by altering nutritional factors. Blindness is purely a physiological condition in which an abortive bud is formed as a result of an improper balance of nutritional factor.
Diseases – One of the major cause of a rose growers anxiety is undoubtedly the various forms of diseases of rose plants. Due to the tropical climatic conditions the roses become vulnerable to many diseases and gets affected by the attack of various insects
and pests.
Spider mites are one of the most common pest to attack the plants. Many miticides are available in the market like Vertimac or ABC (Abamectin) but I think if it is possible to sprinkle cold water every day on both the sides of the plant then it will vanish. Secondly thripes. Insecticides containing imidacloprid( confidor ) , acephate( do not use on roses with open) etc will be effective. For blackspot fungicides containing chlorothalonil can be used and for common pests and insects dichlorovos will be very effective. Without the usage of insecticides/pesticides/fungicides – rose growing is almost impossible. It is absolutely mandatory to use the insecticides and fungicides every week. Using a combination spray may prove to be effective. The following combination spray may work-
imidacloprid( Confidor) 3ml/5 liters of water
Dichlorovos 1ml/liter of water
Bavistin 1gm/liter of water
Mix the pesticides thoroughly with water and spray on both sides of the foliage and the entire plant. Use this in an interval of five days. Use detol liquid soap along with the combination spray as it will help to keep the stems of the plant look green as it contains KOH solution.
But though it is necessary to use the insecticides and fungicides on a regular basis it alone cannot solve the problem always. Roses love to get pampered so you need to spend a good deal of time with them. Along with the change in the climatic conditions the plants will also change naturally. Shifting the pots during hot summer days or heavy rainfall is absolutely unnecessary and harmful practice. The plant must get exposed to all sorts of possible climatic conditions. It will not do any harm. Remember that if your plant can not stand every climatic conditions then it can never give you good blooms.
Apart from the various insect and pest attacks or other diseases the plants get affected with, turning of the green foliage to pale yellow and followed by continuous shading of leaves is another reason for a rose grower to be worried. Now this can be due to several reasons. Sometimes more than one or two causes are acting behind this.
1) Blackspot & Red Spider Mites cause this.
2) The grower should be cautious before spraying water or insecticides/pesticides/fungicides on the plant. The media of the pot should not be too dry while applying.
3) During the hot summer days the upper and lower portions of the foliages and the skin of the stems should be sprinkled with cold water soon before the sunlight becomes scorching, otherwise the heat of the sunlight will cause the foliages to burn by drying out the moisture level of the surface of the leaves and the skin of the stems of the plant. Except the rainy season the plant should be sprinkled with water everyday throughout the year.
4) Some insecticides and pesticides can cause the rose plant to shead leaves. For example- insecticides/pesticides containing acephate, profenofos, chloropyrifos can cause this if the temperature level stays above 30 degrees. Fungicides containing copper oxy-chloride or carbayl groups will also cause the same if they are applied to the
media of the yellow and orange colored rose varieties.
5) Few yellow varieties shed their leaves early by nature. For example- Shanti (Sport of Peace), King ransom , Miss Harp, Marcopolo, Sun-flair, Golden Times, Helmut Schmidt, freesia. etc.
6) If the intensity of sunlight over the foliage of the plant changes then it will shed its leaves. Miniature roses tend to shed their leaves even if the location of the pot changes from one place to the other.
7) If the media is not adequately wet then the plant will shed its leaves and if the media gets water logged then also the same thing can happen .The quantity of leaves play a vital role to determine the amount of water to be given to the pot.
8) During the year when rainfall occurs in a scattering manner then we often make a mistake of conceiving the idea that the media of the pot is too wet to water but inside it remains dry. In that case the plant may shed leaves.
9) The pH level of the water can be a major cause. So the determination of the pH value is very important. If the pH of the media is high then acid solution of low concentration needs to be used and if the pH is low then Potassium hydroxide should be used.
10) The rose food should not contain much of salts. Excess salt level in the media can also be a cause.
11) Deficiency of micronutrients may be a cause. So rather than feeding trace elements only during the winter it is better to feed both macro and micro nutrients throughout the year except rainy season.
At last it can be said that the reason may be different and having a wide spectrum but the grower has to find out the root cause by himself. To do that he needs to spend ample time with the roses and try to decipher the silent words of his plants and then gradually he will gather the experiences. Not everything can be taught. Remember watering is the key to success. Water, water, water, this is not a dry subject. There is no specific routine to be maintained. If the media gets dried up you need to water them up to keep the moisture present and in doing so if watering needs to be done several times a day then it needs to be done. I can say from my own experience that during the hot summer here in Kolkata when the temperature reaches almost 40 degrees, few rose varieties like Tineke, Ingrid Bergman, Marvelli, Princess Di-Monaco (Potted in 12″ pots and cinder media) etc. consumes up to five to seven liters of water per day. On the other hand Shanti, John John, Moonstone etc consumes nearly 2-3 liters. Therefore the variety of the plant will also determine the demand of water. Due to the heavy rainfall in the months of July to September the root system of the plants get damaged so they will not consume much water during October, so 1-2 liters/pot will be sufficient. I have noticed that the respiration and evaporation process is very crucial for the roses. Until and unless the rhythm of this two processes becomes steady enough, no matter what you feed them or
how hard you try, you cannot succeed in pot culture. The excess water has to get evaporated from the base of the plant and if it does not then it will cause all sorts of die-back diseases.
The growers should keep in mind that this pot culture in cinder media is not comparable with soil culture. The two media are entirely different but cinder culture will flourish day by day in the hands of skilled rose growers for sure. You may get various suggestions from various people and may be all of them are right but here I have tried to discuss all the ways in detail for amateur and inexperienced growers.
