I can't find the thread where someone had asked about rooting cuttings. And I'm not sure which of my own posts I chatted about it so here's a new thread about it. Also because Marie and I were discussing it the other day I thought she'd like to see some pictures. Mainly why I root cuttings is to keep them going until I do have rootstock on which to graft them onto. Also to give them a better chance of surviving shipping to someone when trading cuttings for grafting.

So, I do not have any special technique or voodoo magic secretes. I guess I've just been super lucky. Off all the cuttings I've tried to root I think only three never did and died, and two or three that did I had lost over last winter while they were all in the garage.

Basically when I take cuttings and actually I immediately shave off all the leaves and then dip the cut end into some rooting powder. Depending on how thick the branches are I'll let them sit out anywhere from a day to maybe four days. If they start to dehydrate I'll go ahead and plant them. I put them into my typical adenium potting mix (Miracle Grow Cactus/Palm mix and add extra Perlite.) Water it down and put in fairly shaded spot that can get a little direct sun for maybe an hour or so on my back patio. I'll barely water a couple times a week as to not let the soil get bone dry. That's pretty much it.

Now, I don't know if this is a contributing factor or not but because the pot is usually sitting on the concrete slab that gets a ton of sun from about 9am-1 or 2pm it absorbs a lot of heat. That heat somewhat spreads to the shaded parts of the concrete basically providing bottom heating. I do have some fresh cuttings where the pot is sitting in complete shade and on the ground rather than concrete where it's much cooler and will see how that turns out for that bunch.

Here are various pictures of my cuttings. Starting with cuttings that were rooted from last year down to some I started about 7 days ago.

Kirk