I have some Mutabilis cuttings going in this manner. I used a clear rubbermaid container and used a heat tool to put holes in the lid. Each cutting is in a clear plastic cut with seed starting medium and I used a rooting powder. These have been on my covered porch for about a month now. I am starting to have a tiny bit of green growth coming from the leaf-buds. I hope and pray I don't mess them up now!!

This is how we all can get better at rooting cuttings. I took George's methods and experimented until I came up with ways that i thought improved it for me. As long as we keep letting everyone know what we're doing and how it ends up working, we'll all be better off in the end.

I am in agreement wholeheartedly with Mike.
I took little bits and pieces of George and others methods and found what seems to work for me in my situation.
Everyones technique will be a little different. The best advice I can give anyone is to use coconut coir and perlite for the growing medium, and don't overwater and "LOVE" them to death fussing with them all the time. Use clear pots so you can see the root growth when it happens. One final little think that helped me immensely was to put the powdered rooting hormone only on the sides of the cane and not on the tip as I think it clogs up the water absorption to some degree and the cutting will actually dry out.
Just my opinions.....
John

Great suggestions, John, and thanks, everybody. The clear pots are excellent. I use coconut coir and perlite also, but have had good luck with other media. John, when you say 'helped you immensely' do you mean that keeping the hormone powder off the tip of the cutting increased the percentage or quality of rooting? Here's something I do and I'd put it in the same category: take a small strip, about 1" off the sides of the cutting (just the outer layer) on opposite sides; dip the end of the cutting in water, dry it off with a paper towel, stick it in powder (I will try keeping the tip unpowdered), tap it lightly, then insert into a hole in the medium made with a pencil, firm the medium around it, then put in plastic box. Sometimes I pour a thin layer of perlite on top of the medium (I know this may sound weird, but I fancy that all that white helps the photons bounce around more). I've had great success with this procedure. GaryStPaul

Hello GaryStPaul,

You wrote :
"(2) There should be some condensation on the walls of the box, but no standing water at the bottom. Keep at temps recommended by Gleason and Mander (low to mid-70s);for me that means NO bottom heat)"

If you look at my set-up I "DO HAVE" water at the bottom below the pots. My pots are raised 3/4 inch from the bottom and there is a constent water evaporation.
Link to my 30 images Gallery below.

George Mander

Here is a link that might be useful: Own Root Cuttings Setup Gallery

And I also have water at the bottom. My pots are raised 1.5 cm (if George can use U.S. measurements, I'll use metric) above a grid I use that fits right in the container. I also use bottom heat as in a thermostatically controlled heater.

hi all,
I am new to propagation inside the house other than my primative methods of hormone + vase of water..... so pls answer these 2 questions for me....

I like the idea of using a 'rubbermaid' container with clear lid but if the light is on the outside of the plastic, will the cuttings get what they need from the bulb?

also about temperature - it is 76 degrees in my house now, so I wonder if you guys only propagate your cuttings during winter months?

thanks for your help,
michelle

As to the lighting issue, I just use those cheapo flourescent lights you can get from HD for about $15. Holds two bulbs. Yes, that is enought light at 17 hours on, and 7 hours off.

I only propagate inside during the winter. I have a setup outside that holds about 500 cuttings. I would think that it is too hot in Florida now for outside, so maybe do yours backwards; Inside in the summer, outside in the winter. You could just always do them inside also. I think that is what George does (correct me if I am mistaken George).

thx mgleason, I will do the reverse seasons. I read in a different post that you have the agro cloner. pls give me your opinion about for instance the daisy8 and just for kicks (I know you probably would never buy it but....) that pretty aero-garden system that has the hydroponic part and the light all together and costs a fortune. do you have any thoughts on them?....p.s. thx for the photos you guys have taken the time to post....they explain so well.

michelle

hi george, thanks for the link it really helps.

i have a question about sunshine mix aggregate plus #4 it comes in a bale. what would i need to do to prepare it to fit my 4" pots? if i cant find the sunshine mix aggregate plus near me, cud i use a seed starting mix available at a nursery?

i think my garage would be a good place for the cuttings as i cud leave a shop light on there and the temperatures are about 70 degrees there.

i am mainly trying to root old garden roses - teas and chinas. are they fairly easy to root?

thanks
nami

nami, your garage is 70 degrees? I think mine is 170 degrees. hehe

michelle

Michelle, I've not had problems with the clear rubbermaid lids; the cuttings seem to get sufficient light and do well in this setup. GaryStPaul

I'm bumping this up so that others can see the link provided in here from George mander on rooting roses. I took his method and experimented so that it worked best for me, but again, I only use this in the fall/winter. This works GREAT when rooting florist roses (make sure there is no patent - I can show you how to do that).

Mgleason, good idea to bump this up, since so many are posting about propagation methods. Can't believe my original post was from 2007!
Oh, and do share how you look up patents. Gary

Ok, let's learn how to look up patened roses. First off, let's say we are at the local florist and see ths amazing rose that we want to try. The first step is finding out the roses' name, which believe it or not can be difficult. Sometimes florists have no clue what they are selling. I try to stay away from those and locate a florist who knows what roses they are ordering. So lets see you locate this beautiful red striped rose and find that it's name is "Red Intuition". What I do is then go home and look up the rose on HMFR to find out what the registered rose name is. In this case, it is "DELstriro". If you hilight this and drop into the database I linked below, you'll see the results.

Patents run from 20 years from the application date, so you could not legally propagate this rose until 12/23/2020. Most roses bred by companies outside the US will not be patented, but remember, florist roses could look entirely different grown outside than what you see on display. Still fun to try, and I have a few wonderful roses I got this way.

Here is a link that might be useful: Rose Patent Database

Thanks, M. That's very useful information to have. Appreciate your taking the time to enlilghten us. Gary