Back to cuttings.
"white cuttings" are the sprouts from a tuber that was in storage. Every year I root several of them but they do not have the same success rates as "green cuttings". I call them "white and green" because my theory is that photosynthesis aids in the rooting process and it takes green leaves to do that. The white cuttings need to grow some green leaves and then they have enough energy to make roots. I consider green cuttings to be "bonus" cuttings and generally do not mix them with the green ones(they often have some fungus) and root them in a little area under lights with others. They always take much longer to root for me and often they have some mold or fungus from the storage conditions and die. When they do root, they generally continue to grow slower and do not look as "healthy" as normal cuttings. Now having listed the negatives, there is an old quote: "Free is a very good price." When a white cutting is full sized, usually some weeks later than a regular cutting, it is a good plant and I do some every year.
Some factoids:
(1) really long white cuttings can be made into two or three plants and you need to include two nodes in each, one for the roots and one for the leaves.
(2) When working outside planting tubers, old timers would remove the white sprout and after the tuber was planted , insert the sprout into the soil with the hope that it would grow. I seldom have done this but did it successfully once. Probably, not worth the time and effor
t.
