Token your aero chamber, cloning machine? I've got one, boy do things root fast in it. I bought mine had a plexiglass top made for it. Works like a charm little or no evaporation and it keeps the humidity up. After seeing how mine is put together I think it would be a lot cheaper to build one than what I paid for mine. Annette

Cottage gardeners have shared seeds, bulbs, cuttings and divisions since cottage gardening began. We need to share techniques, too.

I took cuttings of stachytarpheta(porterweed) and pentas in late summer to hold over the winter to get a head start in spring.
I took cuttings of white shrimp plants, Persian Shield and pineapple sage in fall, for winter blossoms and color.

Azalea cuttings will root; easier is to make a little scrape on a branch that will touch the ground,
heap dirt over the scrape and lay a brick on it until the branch roots,
then cut it loose from the original plant. Timing is important, so is moisture.

The joy of gardening is in the growing, for me. Find an old lady gardener who
will break off big limbs from something like a hydrangea, hand it to you and say,
"Here, stick this in the ground, it will grow." There's magic in the incantation.

Nell

I'm working on building mine. I'd using a 60 gallon air pump in a large tote that I got on sale at Wal-Mart. After Christmas and all. I've got an aquarium heater and I've drilled the holes. The first one I started with only had space for 20 plants. I kinda laughed at myself when I had finished drilling the holes in the container I already had. I guess I could use it as a secondary unit later. Or use the tote part as a dome for the one I'm building.

I'll post pictures of it when I'm done. I had to paint the outside, and the silicone is drying to hold all the innards in place.

What have you had good success with? I've tried the little propagation chamber, first the freeplants.com one, then janie's. I've lost too many cuttings to name due to fungus. I figure the quicker they root, the better chance I have of survival.

My great grandmother was like that Nell. She handed my mom a branch off her forsythia. She called them Yeller bells. :) It got pushed about a foot in the ground and bloomed that spring. I'm doing the same with branches from my neighbor's bush all around the edge of the back yard. Hoping to get some flowering quince rooted too. And mock orange. I've done hardwood cuttings of all those. They're in sand in the basement with bottom heat. I also have 100+ butterfly bush cuttings. I pruned it this fall so I could move it to a better spot. Can't let all those cuttings go to waste. Once I had dug it up, I realized I needed to shape it better. So I chopped off another 18" tall piece and stuck it in the ground about 3 weeks ago. Even through torrential rains and 18-80 degree weather in those three weeks, it's putting out little shoots of new growth.

For the fungal problem get a biological fungicide such as RootShield from a hydroponics store to add to the water, I have also used No Damp in the water. I don't use a heater in mine as it is usually set up in the greenhouse in the spring (warm enough in there). Later in the year I plug it in up by our roofed over Koi pool. The last few times I used it I didn't even put any cloning solution in the water or dip the cuttings in any rooting hormone just some No Damp in the water.
As to cuttings I've done Fuchsias, Michaelmas Daisies, Brugmansias, Shrubs, Begonias etc. Mine is a Jet Gro Clone 20. When I'm doing cuttings I put more than 1 in each little cup, I'm just very careful when removing them when rooted. I get great roots in 7-10 days. A

7-10 days, wow. I've been very frustrated with the chamber method. I wait 6 weeks to see roots and my cuttings start dying off one by one. Even if I pot them, I lose all the cuttings that were in that chamber.

What's the trick with lavender? Mine just rots. It seems to start the domino effect. The mother plant is doing well and growing with our warmer temperatures.

Ok...dumb question from a 1st generation gardener. Do y'all mean that when I trim back my butterfly bush and forsythia, I can just stick the trimmings in a pot of soil or ground, water it and it will grow? What other plants can I do like that?

Nell, I'm going to try putting a brick on my southern indica azaleas (formosa, pride of mobile, gg gerbing, george tabor) and try to get new ones. Will that also work on my creeping dwarf gardenias? We had a little branch root after being pushed down under a fence. Hubby cut it from the mother plant, potted it up, and then transplanted it to another area of the garden. It's pretty big now. That leads me to think it will work.

I've never grown creeping gardenia, just the regular kind. What I do with gardenias is put a cutting in water until roots form -- this can take weeks -- and then pot it up when the roots are only about 1/2 inch long.

Many woody plants root easily. Certain times of the year are better for different plants. If you have plenty of trimmings, patience, and shady ground or pots of soil, stick some and see what happens. June and November were my MIL's fav times to set things to root. Don't make it harder than it has to be, bama. Not every stick will root, but you will be rewarded.

Nell

Check out these two threads. I use a combination of the two.

Easy Propagation Chamber

Propagation Chamber

Because my rack is in the basement, I use 4' shop lights and rope light for bottom heat. I'm trying a new version of this though.

Cloning machine

That's a more involved machine. The one I am building came from a cannabis growing forum through a google search. So I won't be posting links. But if you want to search, just put in "clone machine" and you'll find dozens of varieties.

Also, check out the propagation forum. If there's something you want to clone/propagate from cuttings, just do a search in that forum. It's probably been answered.

Welcome to a whole new world. You'll never look at your neighborhood again. And surprisingly, most people just think you're crazy asking to snip a piece of their rose bush or viburnum. They shrug their shoulders and say, "Whatever."

omg - well, when you said propagation chamber, my eyes started to glaze over.....I mean, what kind of hi-tech voo-doo were you into!!??? Then I had a look at the links - wow, that's easy!! I have ground layered, air-layered, but this is cool. I must check out what can be propagated in the this way.

Thanks, Nancy.

I first read about the cloning machine I have in the American Fuchsia Society Bulletin, I said to DH I need one of those so we went to one of the local hydroponic stores in town and got them to order it for me. I have to say I've been nothing but impressed with mine.
The only trouble is I feel every time I venture into one of these stores I want to sneak in and out wearing an overcoat, slouch hat and sunglasses carrying my purchases in a brown paper bag. A

The EZ clone is a brand name. It's also very expensive. I bought everything today for just under $45 once I return the small air pump. I have space for 77 cuttings. Double lucky. :)

Once I finish it, I'll show you how it SHOULD work. The principles are the same. Air, misted water, 76-80 degrees. I've had so much bad luck with root compounds, I'm going to try mine with just water. Planning to let it run a couple days before making my cuttings.

I must check out what can be propagated in the this way.

List of plants by technique.

There's softwood, hardwood, semi-hardwood, and root cuttings. There might be more, but that's all I'm capable of remembering. I've come down with a nasty cold today.

NeoCitron, with a slug of Gin. Inhale the vapours while it is too hot to sip. It knocks me out like a hammer, and unless my immune system is down too much, I am usually 100% the next am.

Nancy.

Annette - I hear you!! The only spiffy store front on the main street is the Harley/tattoo/piercing/hydroponics place. I'll have to park at my wine guy's place, and get him to escort me. lol. Then again, I don't think it's a place he want to go, either...

Nancy.

Oh, this is all so exciting to me! I'll have a try at this in June.

Sharon

You all are S-O-O-O sophisticated. I just poke things into any fresh pot of soil. If they look droopy, I set a cut-off soda bottle with the top removed over the cutting, after I mist it with a spray bottle.

I'm also known to break off a piece of hydrangea and stick it under where the bird bath drips. Anything that accidentally gets broken, goes into the nearest available likely spot.

We also need to talk about Root Pruning, in another thread. Many plants will grow from a little piece of root. You can use that to good advantage.

Nell

Nell, have you ever gotten a hardy hibiscus to grow from root cuttings? Since they die back each year, it seems it would be the perfect plant, but I can't find anything about it.

I've only grown hibiscus from seeds and then only the tender ones.

Janie sent me a variegated Hau Hibiscus, already rooted, that grew well for two years and failed to return the third. Pam Baggett features the Hau in her book on Tropicals. I will seek out a new one in the late spring. It is reportedly a shy bloomer. Mine never bloomed, but the foliage makes it worth growing.

Nell

Another way I have rooted soft wood cuttings when I haven't got the cloning machine up and running is...
I take those black plastic flats with the clear tall plastic lids, DH drill cut holes in a piece of styrofoam big enough to hold those little plastic medicine cups you buy in sleeves of 50 at the drug store. The styrofoam is fit inside the flat, the cups inserted in the styrofoam. Fill with sterilized sand or small aquarium gravel, fill them with water, insert cuttings, usually Fuchsias for me but other softwood cuttings should work. I either label by putting the name right on the cup with a bit if masking tape or on a plant label shoved in between the styrofoam and the cup. This way your label is already made when you go to pot on. Pop the lid on and check every few days to see if they need more water. A little slower than the cloning machine but it works. I use this method out in the green house or outside on a bench in the summer but have done this under lights. I reuse the sand/gravel over and over again, just dump it in a bucket, rinse it out, pour boiling water over it. When cool it's ready to either store or use again.

Annette

I've been using sand all winter to root things like mandevilla and shrubs. I've lost a lot more than I'm happy with. So, I built this.

Homemade cloning machine

I need to find a better way to hold my cuttings. Otherwise, it seems to be working like the ones I've seen for sale.

Annette, does yours have a cover?

token - I just posted pix of my Cloning Machine in another thread so as not to bog this one down. A

Token,
I propagate plants, but to give away or trade. A GWer emailed me fairly recently on how to propagate roses. I have a fairly easy method that works really well for me. Here's my reply:
When the roses are done blooming their big flush (around here that is the end of June-July,) I take cuttings. So it is the new year's growth and usually about a pencil in thickness. This varies depending on the rose of course. I cut like 4 or 5 stems per rose about 8 to 12" long.
I then get gallon pots filled seed starting soil(no fertilizer). I then strip the lower leaves off and I re-cut the stem. I also scrap off some of the outer layer of stem around the base, no more than an inch up. I dip it in rooting hormone. I use a pencil to get a hole started and then I stick the stem in a few inches down. I put all the cuttings of the same rose in the gallon pot. So hopefully out of 4 or 5, I get a few to take. Sometimes all of them take.
Water well, and remember to label the pot!
Then I put the pots on the east side of my garage so they receive morning sun only. For the first month I make sure the pots stay evenly moist. Once I see signs of roots taking hold, I hold back the watering to like a regular potted plant letting the top get a bit dry before watering again. I leave them in there for another month. Then I check the roots. If I see feeder roots at the bottom, I start the separation into individual smaller, but still tall pots. It seems if you leave them together for too long, one or two will grow really strong roots and the others lag behind, but once separated, they all do pretty well.
Hope that helps someone,
Remy

Token
If you have great success with your propagation, you might want to try a plant swap in your area.
We have two plant swaps a year. We have one in early spring and mid fall. Some swaps more make it involved. We keep it pretty loose.
We just show up at the designated place and trade plants. But some bring so many plants that they end up giving them away.
It is a lot of fun as you get to meet and visit with other gardeners.
I am linking the thread for last spring's swap.

We now do a sack lunch instead of pot luck.
Also no arts and crafts. When I cut and pasted Sylvia's info I failed to delete that part.
On my state's forum, I was asked to help organize our first swap for this town/area and it just went from there.

Kathy

Here is a link that might be useful: plant swap

I might try to do that Kathy. I've also been thinking about starting a loose society of gardeners here in my town. There doesn't seem to be a garden club that I can find, but some of the nicer homes along one street have beautiful gardens. I may print out some information and see if anyone is interested in a get-together at a local restaurant or nursery or one of their homes. Unfortunately, my house isn't ready to be used for parties and such with all the renovations going on. The 3 year plan has turned into a 5 year haul with the economy slowing down.

Anyone ever start a gardening club?

Update: I posted a new thread in the propagation forum about my cloning machine. As you will see, it's a lot different from the one I built originally. I changed the hole size, the container depth, and the method for holding the cuttings.

Homemade propagation chamber in Propagation Forum

But, as you can see, it does work. This is pineapple sage. 3 days in the chamber. :)