Easy yet high success rooting methods

[alanmercieca]

Hello members of this forum,

I hope that you are enjoying this forum, and that you are finding it useful. This is a new forum so I encourage people to help make it a better place for all the members. This thread is to post rooting methods whether it is rooting cuttings, or doing a layering with methods that are easy for a beginner to do and for a beginner to have a decent success rate at. It can be very hard to root the first time, and different results can happen in different climates.

Here is my contribution, there is a saying "if something is not broken then why fix it?", well I was using a method originally that always had approximately a 84% to 98% success rate depending on the cuttings. I stopped using it because it was a pain, open and close the plastic daily, if you forgot to open it you could have a problem very fast, and the cuttings often out grew the setup before the trees were healthy enough to remove. Also the wind could catch it and blow it on a windy day.

Yet recently I found a way around all those problems, and my reinvention of the idea is way easier. Normally I use this method in May or June here, this has been a Zone 7B year here in North Carolina, this March the method is working great.

Originally I came across a great rooting method on this blog, http://www.treesofjoy.com/content/rooting-softwood-fig-cuttings and I reinvented it in to something different because at the time I could not do it as Bass suggested, and it sort of took a life of it's own, each time I change it it's less and less like Bassem's great idea.


Here is my reinvention of my method:

Rooting softwood/greenwood/hardwood cuttings:

(you do not need to water soil at all for a long time, store bought soil has lots of moisture on it's own, when you do water use a spray bottle or a watering can with a thin spout, just wetting the surface of the soil a little bit, some homemade soils might need some moisture added to it if too dry).

01) Take a 1 to 3 gallon planter pot and put two rubber bands around the pot, one more towards the top, and one more towards the bottom.
02) Put a 50% Perlite to a 50% potting soil mixture, or put a 50% Perlite to a 50% composted cow manure soil mixture in the pot.

03) If cuttings are not dormant take cuttings that are loaded with leaves and that are about 6 inches to 8 inches long and cut them in half with sharp pruners. Leave only one leaf on each half high enough to not be buried in the soil mixture. If there was a new shoot or leaf about to come up leave that there as well. If you are using dormant cuttings then just put them in the soil as is.
04) Soak each cutting in water for about 15 to 20 minutes then dip each cutting in powder based growth hormone (not the liquid kind)(optional).

05) Stick each cutting in to the soil, up to 6 cuttings total, press the soil down around each cutting trying to make sure that the bottom of the cuttings are about an inch above the pot's bottom after pressing. Add more soil to fill in the holes that the pressing down caused.
06) Wet soil if need be if you made dry homemade soil.

07) Take some plastic wrap, make holes one by one for the cuttings to go through without damaging them, keep repeating until the top of the pot can be sealed by the pieces of plastic wrap and each cutting goes through the plastic wrap. Make sure that while putting the plastic wrap holes around the cuttings you did not loosen any of the cuttings from the soil. If so fix the problem before continuing.
08) Wrap the bottom and the sides of the pot with plastic wrap and use the rubber bands to hold the plastic wrap to the sides of the pot. Basically seal everywhere besides the holes that the cuttings are going through. Yet do not worry about having a total 100% seal anywhere.

09) Place the pot outdoors in a place of up to 4 hours of morning sun and no more sun than that. Bring in to protect from temperatures underneath 40 degrees Fahrenheit.
10) In 4 days to 2 weeks you should see should see some new growth on the cuttings, each cutting will grow at a different speed. Do not worry if it takes longer than two weeks especially if it's before May.

11) Within 4 weeks there should be roots growing.
12) If so then transplant them in 6 weeks to 7 1/2 weeks. You could transplant them sooner yet doing so too soon would insure the death of the weaker slower growing plants. It's rather surprising how much growth difference there is from plant to plant.

13) To remove cuttings carefully dig around each cutting with your fingers. Some of the roots could be stuck in newspaper if you used newspaper to keep the soil in the pot, be careful to not tear roots off, if you do it's not the end of the world!
14) Transplant each of them in to a 1 to 3 gallon pot. Make sure you do not forget to press down around the cutting in each pot and to fill the pressed down areas with more soil. At this point it would be best to use an air pot if you can.

[sppsp]

good info, thanks, I needed some help. This past year I haven't had much luck rooting.

[alanmercieca]

good info, thanks, I needed some help. This past year I haven't had much luck rooting.

You are welcome!

[alanmercieca]

An update for people, at first things were going good, tiny buds forming then the temperatures in the day and night started to get cooler, then the swelling just stopped, so eventually I realized that I had to do something. So I brought them indoors in to an insulted garage and just left them there. Eventually the swelling started again yet since no sun hitting them during the day still slower than the original swelling. There were way to many insects from outside in the pot so they are staying in the garage, yet I started some new cuttings with the same method, and I put that new batch inside the house in a window, sun hitting them and in only a few hours I see some swelling. Inside they can be left in the sun all day. In the closed room that the pot is in it ranges from about 73 degrees to 77 degrees Fahrenheit each day. Most of the day 77 degrees Fahrenheit.

Also I find it much easier to use this method with a half gallon pot verses a 1 gallon pot. Much more easy to wrap in standard sized plastic wrap.

[alanmercieca]

I am learning that growing media can be an easiest way to fail at rooting cuttings. I am currently trying to come up with the best growing media for all unexpected conditions.. My next attempt at rooting will contain only 1/4 soil. Only 1/4 of the mixture may compact yet if mixed well that should not matter much in the short time the soil will be used. The soil I'd use should be contaminant free.