You absolutely do not need to leave your cuttings out to callus. Especially if you are trying to grow roots in water.

When making your cutting, snip just below a node (where a leaf will be growing, probably), then remove that leaf and maybe the next one up, too. Insert that bare stem into the water immediately.

You might be making your cuttings too long, which makes it more difficult for them to concentrate energy into making new roots, rather than supporting all of that living tissue.

I'd change the water occasionally. Oxygen is essential for the production of the roots, even when submerged in water.

thanks rhizo!

I think that rooting in a well-aerated, soil-like medium is to be much preferred to rooting in water, but if you want to try something to maximize success:

Float a thin block of foam (or similar) with holes poked in it on top of a couple of inches of water in a shallow pan. Add a couple of drops of fertilizer to the water and stick your prepared cuttings through the holes in the foam so they are in the water. Add an aquarium air pump & air stone (bubble stone) to the water and place the whole affair in bright light (but not direct sun). The O2 rich water will even make it easy to grow roots on many difficult-to-root materials.

Al

Oh - at some point you'll prolly want to plug the pump into an electrical outlet. ;o)

BTW - cutting strike success is often a function of the level of energy reserves in the plant and thus the cutting, and/or where the plant is in the growth cycle when the cutting was taken. Plants growing under stress or strain become increasingly difficult to root as energy levels diminish. Cuttings from plants that are quiescent or in a period of naturally slowed growth are more apt to resist immediate rooting than plants that are in that part of the growth cycle when they are enjoying robust growth.

Al

Great tips racking up here. Another is to use a dark-colored pottery type vase for rooting your cuttings rather than a glass jar. I find that things that are challenging do better with the root area shaded and warm. A pottery vase picks up solar heat and stays a few degrees warmer than other containers, I think.

Although pothos is easy, easy to grow, it's doesn't root nearly as easily as heartleaf philo and many other indoor plants. To get a sure cutting, cut back a vine to push out a new growing point near the base of the plant. When it has 2 leaves, cut away the new basal sprout and root it.

Here is a link that might be useful: my website

Letting a plant Callous (sp?) over after cutting is only done for Succulents, not Houseplants or Tropicals. That's the opposite of what they need & could be why these aren't rooting for you.

Letting a plant Callous (sp?) over after cutting is only done for Succulents, not Houseplants or Tropicals. That's the opposite of what they need & could be why these aren't rooting for you.

This is just my own opinion, based on my experience and a seminar I went to once about striking and rooting cuttings, LOL. Your mileage may vary.

Water rooting is "supposedly" a waste of time. Its an "extra" step, and supposedly "unnecessary".

According to the "expert" at the seminar, (and according to other things I have read on this subject, LOL) the "type" of roots grown in water are actually DIFFERENT from the type of roots that a plant will manufacture if rooting directly into soil. They are much more fragile and have some basic difference to them, and are usually aborted once the plant hits the soil anyway.

Epipremnum and philodendron are among the easiest plants to root in soil, because they readily produce aerial roots in nature. A little rooting hormone (like Root One or whatever) can help too.

There's no shame in it if it works for you, LOL.
I can throw all that stuff out onto the compost pile and it roots and starts growing into plants with absolutely no intervention from me. I am about to go out now and thin a bunch of Fittonia, Pilea and that rampant spreading Cissus stuff that we locally call "trailing begonia" and throw it into the woods. It roots out there this time of year and grows all summer long into fall til about first frost.

I never had any luck with water rooting. That's just me.

Now i wish I didn't waste all of my cuttings from yesterday!! Can't wait until I have more growth so I can try this!

- Videl Sam Sung

Maybe try letting your plants actually "grow" before chopping them all up in hopes to propagate and charge outragious prices for a so called "plant". Sorry if someone needs money that badly.