Coir, hands down,
Steve.

I use pine bark fines under my misting system, either pure pine bark soil conditioner or a landscaping mix that's mostly pine bark. For dormant cuttings I stick with the landscaping mix, which contains a little peat moss, because I'm afraid the soil conditioner will dry out too fast. Coir is very good too, but hard to find in my area and expensive. The pine bark works as well, and as it's a local product, it's dirt cheap.

Penelope, rooted under mist in pine bark based landscaping mix.

Elks,

I am finding that Coir holds ALOT of water, do you use it under mist or do you just use it with the various other methods? If you use it with mist, how are you preventing it from water logging?

Gerry

I use coir on all of my cuttings, and have never had a prloblem with root rot. I use mist system in warm weather, and I use dishpans in cold. Have had great success and would never use anything but coir.

I include the article which I'm sure you're familiar with.
I'm a summer cuttings taker, rooting in 6" pots on the north side of the house. No misting, just a bottle cap, removed once the cuttings start new growth, to impede mildew and rot.
Strangely, the reason coir is used to propagate stentlings commercially is that, while coir does hold water, it drains perfectly so that there is never too much.
Steve.

Here is a link that might be useful: Propagating and Overwintering Cuttings

Hi, Marooned. I see you live in California, like me. I'm assuming you don't have to deal with winter issues. I root my cuttings outdoors, in a little plastic greenhouse thingy I bought. No heat or anything special.

I started doing cuttings of roses about a year and a half ago, and initially just used potting soil with lots of perlite and sand mixed in. But even though I got decent results, I thought the mixture was still too heavy for baby roots.

So this year I used seed starter mix, which is soiless and mostly peat. I'm only rooting a couple of dozen cuttings, in 4 inch pots, so it's not that big an expense. It's been a couple of months now, and I've got a 100% success rate so far (still crossing my fingers).

Of course, I mist when the weather gets warmish, and don't bother when it's cool. The plastic cover keeps things moist, and if it gets warm, I open the door to the greenhouse and and let in dry air.

I never have to worry about hardening off, of course.

Steve, it's a 24 day old cutting of the hybrid musk, Penelope. Many cultivars require less time to reach this stage, others more.

Well composted pine bark holds enough moisture on its own, but the only marginally composted stuff I often find myself using has a rigid, relatively non-absorbent, very fast draining structure that dries out fairly quickly outside of the misting bed. It doesn't resist wetting the way dry peat moss does, it just doesn't soak up a lot of water. A small amount of peat moss makes a big difference in moisture retention. I see the need only for dormant cuttings, though.

I don't have enough experience with coir to tell you which one - if either - of the two media edges out the other on performance. I can only say that both are very good and only one is readily and cheaply available in my area. Tree farming is a major industry around here. My success rate during the growing season approaches - and very often achieves - 100% for all but the most recalcitrant of roses, at least when conditions are reasonably close to being ideal. That is, when I don't have any major mishaps with the misting system or anything like that. I never see any bottom-up rot and only rarely see any discoloration or dropping of leaves unless the cuttings have been unusually stressed. My success rate with dormant cuttings is lower, but still pretty good, I think. The wild temperature swings we get during the winter make for an iffy proposition regardless of the rooting medium used.

Thanks for the details, rosyone.
That is awesome development in 24 days. There are obviously advantages to your set up. You have made somewhat of an art to this. Congrats.
Steve.

Isn't coir pretty much just like peat, except that it comes from coconuts?

debra: Nope, no winter issues for me. :-)

I've just started using the coir and I love it. I bought 3 huge compressed blocks on ebay from a worm farm in Arizona.

After soaking and fluffing it up, I add about 1 part perlite to 3 parts coir, then a little dash of course sand for good measure. I really like the feel of it. It drains amazingly well. I would never go back to what I used before (pure sand) which worked well, but was way too heavy to ship in trades.

Coconut coir is AMAZING.

The only problem was when the big blocks arrived at my door, I unpacked them and carried them around back discreetly. They looked similar to the big bales of pot you see police confiscating on the news. Didn't want the neighbors to think it was a drug deal.

I've been using some purchased garden top soil I purchased for my raised beds. Potting soil was too wet, and my native clay soil was too heavy and dried to a brick. So far my luck with the sandy top soil has been great. I start my cuttings outside, in the open, in one gallon containers. Usually I put two good size cuttings per pot.

I read somewhere that cuttings are more prone to rot if you put them in soil because of the bacteria that lives in the soil.

I suppose that could happen. But they are going to have to live in garden soil with bacteria anyway... I really don't coddle plants.

With the cuttings I've rooted so far, if they have put out roots they have lived. I've only had one that seemed to have rooted and then died. Usually, if the cane dies, I pull it to discover it never put out any roots.

I've got about 30+ pots of rooted rose cuttings right now.... with plans for trying more this spring. The big question is where I am going to put them all when they get big... some of these roses will grow up to be Monsters! Many are Ramblers, but there are some great old rose types too.

Rot is generally secondary to some other problem, most commonly poor oxygenation of the rooting zone caused by inadequate drainage. Super fast draining media like coir are good because you can't really over water them so long as you don't overwhelm the drainage capacity of the container. It's trickier working with garden soil, but it can be done.

I have heard and read so much about the high success rate with "coir".Can some one tell me where I could order some coir from?Thank you in advance.
michelle

Michelle,

If you ever get down to Northern Ky an outfit called Worm's Way in Erlanger has coir. I believe you can order it via their web site too.

Here is a link that might be useful: Worm's Way web site

You may be able to find it in a pet store. I found it at Petsmart, but what I bought wasn't labeled as coir and the store employees didn't have any idea what I was talking about when I asked for it by that name. So just ask for the type of coconut fiber reptile bedding that comes in compressed bricks.

Rosyone,
You have to be careful of coir from pet stores, as some of them contain fairly high amounts of sodium, which is harmful to young roots.

Michelle,
Where in Ohio are you? Let me know and I should be able to help you find coir in your area.

We have Hemic (reed-sedge) peat in our bogs. How can we use it as a rooting medium.

Now that I've seen the pine bark result, I'm going to try to
use some of the locally available Christmas tree compost, possibly mixed 50:50 with promix. My experience with the compost is excellent for general gardening, and it too is quite porous and should allow for exellent oxygenation and drainage. It should also provide the exact amount of plant nutrient for the newly rooted cutting. thanks for the tip.
Paul Mozarowski.

Paul, it's worth trying. A while back someone went out hunting for soil conditioner after reading about it here and found that composted cotton seed hulls, rather than pine bark fines, were commonly marketed for that purpose in her region of the country. She put them to the test and was very pleased with her high success rates. Really I think just about anything that is nontoxic and ensures good drainage is worth trying, and if it happens to be readily available and inexpensive where you live, then so much the better.

My favorite (and only) rooting medium is peat moss and couse builders sand. The peat holds moisture and the sand drains well. I have never had a problem with root rot.

I had a source of Pine Bark Mulch from a Landscape Supple Company and lo and behold they stopped selling it. I called the Mid America company (they manufacture pine based mulches) that is actually located in Bradenton Florida which is close to where I live and they don't sell to companies in Florida ironically.

I was told by a 84 year old lady to put your cutting in a potato and plant in lose dirt in you yard then water. Then put a jar over it to keep it watered and the potato will feed the cutting until it roots. Worked good for me