Oh where to start. My name is dave fro zone 6b illinois real close to zone 7a as well. I served time in the armed forces more on the armed end. never understood why they called it a rain forrest until i got there. I was in the 2nd btry 75 rangers, and did joint opps with the 232nd marine scout sniper division along with the snake eaters from the 7th SOG out of southcom Miami. Right after i rotated back to the world i met my wife and we got right to work on our family. I always grew plants and stuff but even more after the service.

I started working construction as a drywall finisher and picked up the trade rather fast. unfortunatly i broke my neck on a job 3 years in and had to take some time off to say the least. ready to go back to work 9 months later(after the doc said it was ok) the boss wouldnt have me back. so i started my own gig and ran him out of biz. it was great. had a good crew going to. somtimes working 20 hours a day. my wife jessie always told me i work to much and didnt like the long hours i was working. i tried to explane that not only was my family depending on me but my guys were as well. no payday until jobs are done. so i was a workaholic.

The real estate bubble poped big time. less contracts cam in until there wasnt nothing at all but 100 contracters chasing the same dime. i went to work at a livestock sale barn. only job to be found in this area. worked 80 hours a week for almost 2 years until a fateful day in febuary. cows can be mean. spent febuary till october having to walk with a cane. hips doing better but hurting more now that its getting colder. the wife rolled the truck and got a promotion. I went back to the sell barn and they cut my hours down to 8 a week. not even worth going in. so instead of paying a baby sitter to watch the three little one, i am now a stay at home dad. i work from home now selling plants from my drive way and over the internet. among my best sellers are fast growing Royal empress trees, and the rare pepino melon fruit. i also do citrus and bananas.

The ultamate goal i have in life is to save enough to get 10 to 15 acres and plant small orchards of peaches, apples, figs, plums. etc for plant propagation and sales. along with a several acre organic garden. the ideal is that plant sales will pay for the farm. and all produce will be donated and made avalible to the needy and public. also food preserving to stock up on food stuffs so we may have somthing to aid those during disasters and such.

With all that said i want everyone to understand that do to certain things in my past i have issues, ptsd, manic depresant, parinoid, bullet fragments etc.i am a hermit in the general sense and somtimes may come off as wierd. i do apoligize, its just me being me. i think a person is only as good as thier word. i hate drama. i am honest.

I am into plant tissue culture, areoponics , hydroponics rare and exotic fruit.
If there is somthing i know that i may help you with just ask. if you havent noticed i cant spell really good eather. sorry. but you get the ideal .

I am very glad to be here, and to meet such wonderful people. and i plan to stick around. so you will get used to me or not. i dont think im offensive, if i have or do offend anybody i am sorry about that. dont think i have  but you never know.

I have been on a little over a week now and have talked to many of you so i felt this intro was in order to help people understand  well me. ;)


Great to be here
Dave

Autobiography in a nutshell! More life in one man than most lifetimes. I hope you get your wish. There is nothing more rewarding than growing something, whether its cows, kids or figs. Good luck to you.

Welcome, Dave!  I don't post here much but have been around for a while.  Hope you do well in pursuit of your dreams!

Thanks for the welcome. sorry for the biography, i think i might had creeped someone out, maybe this will explain it a little better. been through alot but no regrets and looking forward.

Welcome. Maybe you can use your knowledge of tissue culture to clean some prized fig varieties of fig mosaic virus, like Black Madeira for example.

There you go, that could be a new source of revenue, or not. Maybe you could strike a deal with donors, they supply you the varietal tissues you need and in exchange you return a tree(s) clean of FMV. You would then have extras to sell on eBay or to nurseries etc. for further traditional propagation.
We could refer to you as "The Cleaner"  :)

Hey Dave,

I see you have more posts than I do - wow.
Just follow the tips in the other thread, don't ask for cuttings on day one, use the search before asking a question, common courtesy, be respectful and of course, participate.
It's all good, best of luck to you.

Great intro, thanks for telling us.  Where's your internet sale site?  There's a few I'm interested in. 

Hey Dave, I did some time in the 82nd so I got to meet lots of guys that didn't make it into Ranger Battalion ; )

You should try Pistou basil, it is a really cool looking plant and people love to buy basil plants.

I sell in ebay, but am shut down until march. doing propagation.

I am still learning tissue culture i really want to get some figs invetro though. really neat stuff you can do with tc.

I post alot sucking up knowlaged, as much as i can anyways and sharing what i know. i am always trying new things. never had luck with the baggie method so i had to figure out another easy way to root cuttings. i have found a few that work well. the people i have met thus far have been really wonderful and helpful in every aspect.

One rooting method that i did that worked awsome fast.
fill a 1 gal clay pot w/dish full of perlite very little peat like a 9/10th ratio. take three cuttings. i like to scor one side in between the bottom nodes. i treat cuttings with dip n grow. insert cuttings water perlite until the dish is full. pop the top of a 2 litre over the top and set on the fridge. look at the cutting to make sure its not molding, and remove bottle every few days for air. i leave the caps off. as the dish drys out water the perlite and cutting. have had cuttings full of roots in 3 weeks doing this.

I found on cuttings that i did not score, rooting was very slow. so now i score every cutting the same way.

Welcome--enjoyed the intro. Best of luck to you.

Dave,
When you score the cuttings between the bottom two nodes, do you score vertically or horizontally?  (or diagonally or something).    

Mike

Vertically.

I was guessing maybe you were doing vertical scoring... that's what I do when I do air layering also (a few vertical slits).  But I hadn't been doing it on cuttings... I think I'll try it on a few side by side with same variety, some with slits and some without.  (Just to compare, I mean).  From what I've seen with the air layers I've done and where they made most roots, it seems likely this will help with the cuttings too.  Though it's a little different (air layers versus cuttings), it's not that different.  :-)  

Mike

p.s. I'll add that with air layers I do the vertical scores above the point where I also do a horizontal score.  But for cuttings the horizontal one seems counterproductive (it's got the cut off butt end, after all).  Somehow it does seem to encourage roots where the vertical scores are though.  

Hi Dave - nice to meet you!  I hope all works out well for you and your family. 

Im not worried to much about it God above is my sail and the lord my wind i shall go where they take me. wow i have to say this is probly one of those wierd times. just got back from the pub so please excuse me.

what im doing feels right. i feel like im at the right place at the right time. just got to do what im ment to and nothing more. last year i made a desent amount of money selling plants. enough to show jess i could do it. so she gave me some leway my sales increased 3000% this year and i intend to double that. persistance breaks down resistance. and you alone controll your future. and if you change nothing nothing will change.

My nephew tell me he has great success scrubbing cuttings with a wire brush. This seems equivalent to your scoring. I wonder what makes this work.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE TO OUR COUNTRY!