Here's another one

Josh,
A cutting that large stands a very good chance of rooting if you follow much of the advice you have admittedly researched. To sum up what you have probably read...Warm soil, kept dry and kept stable and left alone.

Do the best you can to leave it alone once you stabilized it. The absolute best advice is to plant it and forget it.

I think you might be misinterpreting other members intentions when they are saying things as not being sure. Nobody on this forum...except for a couple of occasional trolls...wants to stifle another person's opinion or idea. A know it all will often shut down a post before the members have gotten the opportunity to share their knowledge.

Don't give up but learn and adapt your methods.

Are you trying to root these indoors? or outdoors? Where do you live and what are your temps like? How long did you allow the cuttings to callus over before you stuck them in soil? What soil type are you using for rooting?

We need more information about how you are rooting these things so that we can better help you discover where the 'failure points' are occurring. By the way, those cuttings look OK to me. You did not show any rot in any of the photos.

I root mine in June/July outdoors when weather is warm to hot. This is when they naturally want to stir and root. Fall and Winter it is much more difficult. But you've probably read that in your research.

I also keep mine out of rain (under eaves or under a clear glass deck table --- again NO RAIN or extra moisture on those cuttings until they begin to sprout leaves to about 4 to 6 inches long.

I have rooted indoors, but in a hot sunny South or West window (and on a heat mat).

If you are trying to start cuttings in the 'off' season, you'll probably need a heating mat -- again not sure where you live or what your temps are like.

Hope this helps! Don't give up! I killed my first cuttings too!

This post was edited by dave_in_nova on Wed, Sep 17, 14 at 11:07

I can tell you what has worked for me ... I'm not too far away from you in So Cal, either, so we have similar growing conditions.

First, I will say that some cuttings are much more difficult to root successfully than others, and to a (sometimes frustrating) extent, every cultivar can be different. That said, I have had my best successes using the following methods:

Callousing the cutting:
1. First, I look at what callous is or is not there already. Depending on the size of the cutting and the quality of the cut/callous (like, is the pith receding a lot? Have the cambium and pith pulled away from one another so there is a gap?), I may recut and re-callous the cutting. If the cutting is small, stressed, really wrinkly, etc., I will do my best NOT to recut, in order to preserve whatever energy is left in the cutting. If the cut looks messy, separated, etc., then I usually will recut.

2. After this step, I dip the end of the cutting in a rooting hormone (I use Clonex, others use Dip-N-Grow). Sometimes I wait for the latex to stop flowing (a few hours) before doing this if I have just recut. Other times, I'm lazy and don't wait. I'm not sure it makes a difference.

3. Then, I take a small plastic storage bin (I use one not much bigger than most cuttings. I got it at Target, I think) and fill it with fresh mulch, which is usually somewhat damp when you take it out of the bag for the first time. I bury the entire cutting in the mulch, and put a little more on top. I don't bother covering the plastic bin.

4. I leave it alone for approx 2 weeks.

I have also tried wrapping the fresh-cut end in plastic wrap for a week (usually because I'm travelling with a fresh cutting) - this has worked, too, but I haven't done it enough times to say if it's better than the mulch method.

Rooting the cutting:
1. I use coir from Gardener's Supply (Eco-coir potting mix), because it has been rinsed and is ready to use (just add water!):
http://www.gardeners.com/buy/eco-co-coir-potting-mix/40-136.html

If you use coir from some place else (like buying it in the reptile bedding section at PetSmart), be sure to wash it first to get rid of the salts in it. I follow the directions for prepping the coir, although I use a little less water than recommended. You want the coir to be pretty damp, but not so wet that water drips out when you squeeze it in your hand.

2. I then get a plastic baggie (quart size has worked fine for me), and fill it with approx 2/3 - 3/4 coir and 1/3 to 1/4 perlite. I don't measure, I just grab handfuls of each and mix them in the bag.

3. Stick the calloused end of the cutting in the bag! Leave enough space at the top for the bag to be sealed. I use cheap electrical tape to wrap the top of the bag. Be sure to press out as much of the air as you can before sealing the top.

4. I leave the bagged cuttings in the garage. They need heat more than light, and these super hot temps that we've been having have actually made the garage perfect for this. You should see some condensation in the bags after a bit - this is normal and is what you want.

I've gotten roots as early as 1.5 weeks (from a really large cutting that I'd been trying to root for 18 months!!!), and other cuttings are slower, although I usually see something by 3-4 weeks. So far, though, everything has rooted, including a 3" Celadine tip that I bag rooted just to see what would happen.

5. After there are a lot of roots in the bag, I carefully cut the bag away and pot up, trying not to disturb the plant as much as possible. I water a little, then let the planting mix dry out before watering again. I put them in filtered light, too, since they've been in a dark garage for weeks.

I really like bag rooting because you can see what's going on down there, and aren't just looking at leaf growth as an indicator of root growth.

Mike Atkinson has a great short tutorial on bag-rooting on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_QKS_pasH4

I live in so cal and the weather is in the 90 s during the day and maybe the 70 to 80 s at night. I use cactus mix with some perlite in it. I let it callous for maybe 2 weeks. The are no signs of rot above the soil but when you look at the callous it's kinda soft. Here's a pic of the callous before I planted it. none of my cuttings ever have a completely flat callous. If even tried celadine because people claim them to be the easiest to grow. They've all died.

Josh