Since it is my belief that is DMSO that kills the tissue before it gets to double, I thought about using just water and surflan alone. But water evaporates, but then I had an idea. I filled a drinking bottle of a very weak solution of possibly 1 percent surflan solution, buried it in the soil, and dipped one very flexible R. foliolosa branch with active growth into it. I had trouble keepin the small flexable branch, so I had to tie it with a bit of soft string. I’m going to leave it there for 24 hours or longer since the solution is weak, has no DMSO, and literature recommended that long exposures at less concentrated levels are better than shorter periods with high concentrations. It should be heated the some warm sun during the day and keep tepid during the night. I’m just having so much fun at trying to apply the stuff, although I always take caution.
Hi Enrique,
Does Surflan disolve well in plain water?
I’ve had the impression that neither Surflan or Preen are very water soluable. But enough must dissolve to get the job done. (I guess vaporization could be responsible for all of the compound reaching the target). I got lots of stunting and deformation of growth by just painting a Preen suspension (water + Preen) on actively growing shoots. Unfortunately, the stuff doesn’t seem to penetrate to the meristem tissue, because when growth resumes, it usually grows out normal. I have much later, gotten potentially successful side growths from the treated sections. Twice I’ve gotten lateral growths with all the hallmarks of doubled chromosome plants (thicker rounded leaflets, wrinkled texture, larger parts).
Good luck with the foliolosa, Enrique, and keep an eye out for suspicious side growths. Tom
It disolves very readily into water, and much more hard into DMSO. Maybe it is according to product and concentration. My source is from Monteray Bay Weed at 80%. I took out the little branch, some of the buds look like they are turning a little black at their base. I watered it for a few hours a water sprinkler. A few of the buds on the very end were covered in petroleum, the rest exposed. I’ve used petroleum to save many dead and drying roses before (my method I invented when I picked up last winter when I bought a dried barely alive Artic Flame.) I did this because I feared that the buds may dry up, or burn in the sun. Hopefully I will be successful. Other news, growth is coming out of Blanc Double de Coubert rugosa rose from a branch that had been treated with surflan/dmso. I’m really excited and hope it will flower soon enough so that I can at least use its pollen on a few roses. Keeping my fingers crossed that nothing will happen to them.
Hi Enrique!
What concentration of DMSO do you use? I’ve been using either 1 or 2%. Higher concentrations seem to distort growth and kill cells for me. I dissolve treflan in water first and then add the DMSO. I haven’t used Surflan yet. I also use a little bit of dish detergent in the mix (a drop per 100mL) because it is a surfactant and decreases the water tension. It allows the liquid not to bead up as much and helps to dissolve the waxy cuticle just a little bit of the plant to help the chemical get in. Preen is actually ground up corn cobs with treflan. Treflan is a mix of trifloralin and other ingredients to make trifloralin soluable. I got straight trifloralin from Dow Chemical Company and it precipitates out of solution too easily and just use treflan now. Treflan is sold as an herbicide to farmers and is relatively cheap (I think 20 or 30 dollars per gallon). Treflan comes in different formulations and the one I got is 43% trifluralin. I got 100mL from a farmer friend and still have most of the stock left because one needs to dilute it down a lot before applying it to plant material. For those that have farming friends or want to pursue getting a gallon from a farm supply company, you may have more success than trying to dissolve treflan off of corn cobs from Preen. Starting with treflan itself may be a good option to avoid having variable and unknown concentrations of trifluralin from mixture to mixture. Does your BDDC branch have wider leaflets or other characteristics that suggests it is tetraploid? Please keep us posted.
Sincerely,
David