Closer.		Close up.

 Once they're inserted they green up in three days, obviously soaking up the light, and rapidly making chlorophyll, isn't nature grand. I'm convinced the cuttings were made up of root cells, as they had been produced completely in the dark, think of the space you can save with this method.

	Darkroom, or pencil cuttings.		The last three rows are darkroom cuttings after three days.

Of course when you insert the cuttings the base remains white, and the theory behind it is this, they should root far quicker than a conventional cutting. Best of it was, I didn't once use a knife on them, consequently  I didn't have to sterilize anything, I just broke the cutting off at compost level, it was just as Jack had told me, it couldn't have been simpler, I'm not sure how long they would stand this treatment, but I'm sure they'd produce until you had enough cuttings. Jack said his boys snap them off, and insert them in large trays, and they go in a poly tunnel on top of more heating cables. They are left there for no more than three weeks, when they go in to other poly tunnels with no heat at all, talk about grow them the hard way. As Jack says we're to soft with them. I'm practically certain they are not potted on, but are planted directly from the trays they were rooted in, or should I say, knocked out of the trays they were rooted in, and planted from their torture bus.

Summing up, I have found in most cases the dark room cuttings have roots coming from every side of the cutting, unlike conventional cuttings. This is not a one off experience every cutting from the hot box produced the same kind of roots, so a big plus for the Dutch method. However on the down side a good cutting grown in the old way, roots quicker, I thought it would be the other way round, being the material we are using was produced in the dark, and the plant probably thinks it was underground, and thus makes root cells, evident in the number of roots that are produced. The rooted cutting also has a totally different appearance, I call it the `Date palm look' because they are inserted almost pencil like, and as soon as they make roots, the growth at the top of the pencil springs to life.

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