Top growth means nothing. It will likely peter out and die, or maybe you'll get lucky.

Scott

Scott,

Of all the 4 cuttings you gave me, I put each in a small pot with potting soil and in a plastic bag. After 4 weeks, all had top growth. I gradully opened two bags a little each day and after over a week, took both out of the bags. Both peted out and died!!!

The other two are still in the bags. I mist them when the bags look dry. How do I know if they take roots, please? They are in potting soil so I don't really want to pull them out and check. I'd be so bummed out if they all die!!!

I tried with pear; didn't work. Looked good at first, but no roots.

That is what I was thinking... I've never had much luck with these things... I guess arborvitae are easy to get to root..i'll let this one go awhile longer, but don't hold a lot of hope...

I wonder what the secret is? Mist system?

I've got a lot of seeds going...tray of apricots, peaches, maybe a plum or 2 and some Honeycrisp seeds... Want to see if i can get them to grow big enough this year to bud them by Aug.

I you don't have any rooting hormone use honey:) It works! Check roots by gently tugging the plant and seeing if it resists.

I do rooting by wrapping the shoot lower half in wet paper towel and putting in baggies. Then I somehow get heat on just the bottom half for 2-3 weeks - now I am using my espresso machine for heat but there are many appliances that are always on which you can use (top of fridge, etc). By keeping only the bottoms warm you are delaying the shoots coming out of the top, you don't want the top getting ahead of the bottoms. Since they are in paper towels I can easily unwrap and inspect. When roots start showing up its time to plant them!

Another method I sometimes use is to root them in moist sand. Like the paper towel method you can dump the sand (gently!) and inspect the roots and then pour the sand (gently!) back over them if they are not done. The sand method I actually prefer, they don't seem to rot as much in the sand. In the paper towel method sometimes the towels need changing and/or the shoots need rinsing to get molds off.

I've never tried rooting hard things like apple, pear, peach, plum, etc. One idea I heard recently was to hammer the ends, it supposedly makes a more fertile ground for roots. I think this was for persimmons. I have also heard to cut a little bit of the bark off in strips, same thing, to give a potential spot for roots to form.

Scott

Well, I have done it successfully. By semi hardwood cuttings. I figured out how to do this with relatively modest resources to achieve this. Of course there are many other ways to propagate fruit trees but for me this was only a funny challenge to do this
Perhaps this method is suitable also for Advocado, Paw paw,.. Mango ? I tried with pear, sweet sherries, Euro plums, and Almonds �� no problem at all.
In 21 days the Peach cuttings and all the other fruits are rooted very well. Without ground heating.and without a mist machine.
Remarkable In the second year this cutting clone plants bare some fruits !
further details required and questions are welcome by mail
Just a summary in practice
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Thats awesome alcedo! I only ever rooted peaches by air layering, maybe it has a lot to do with the root hormone you are using.....I know I will have some on order very soon!