After 5 weeks into this and a strong cold front moving in for the next few days. Lows in the 40's with highs in the upper 50's to low 60's. Thought it might be best to move this experiment indoors.

Changed out the bags for new ones hopefully to reduce chances of contamination.

Put the pots on 17w prop mat. I need to do some temp checking on this set up. I have no thermostat at this time. I made a thin aluminum pan for things to set on. It will catch any spills and distributes the heat from the mat more evenly.

Installed two, 100w equivalent, compact florescent lights with reflector hoods on a timer. Is there a certain number of hours I should have the lights on per day? I have the timer set for 8 hrs. for starters. I don't think it will be too strong of light. The bulb distance from the pots are adjustable and are now 24"or so away from the pots. I can add a couple more lights if needed.

Misted cuttings today for the first time using 1 teaspoon Miracle Grow in 1 qt. water instead of just plain water. Hoping it may nourish the green through foliar feeding.

I know there's not a lot of information available about what I'm doing so not expecting a lot of input on this.

A couple of the plants are slowly diminishing and a couple of them are looking pretty healthy, so far, so keeping fingers crossed. :-)

update: The cuttings from 7-30-17 failed faster than the ones from 7-23-17. They seemed more lush and healthy that the first cuttings but the needles one by one turned brown where connected to the stems, Finally pulled the two late ones and you could see a white cake like coating from the IBA powder on the stem. No roots detected at all.

I can say if I was going to do this again, I would use the 'toothpick' method. I think the extra time it would buy from the time the stem callouses to the time it's cut from the parent plant might make the difference between failure and success. Also would use the liquid rooting compound.

I'll keep an eye on the remaining four pots. The two in the coarse sand still look the most promising so I'll keep checking them and report again later.

Final report:

Exactly 3 months since the first cuttings went into pots.

I'm out of green and out of patience, pulled the last two from 7-23-17, one had a couple green needles left on the main stalk.

Complete failure, not a single root formed.

Same chalky white coating on the stems from the powdered IBA compound. No mold or fungus damage. Stalks looked a bit shriveled but good color.

My basement was a little warm, near 70d 24/7 , so didn't use bottom heat but I think that was still too warm for the tops, causing them to dry out faster.

Fun project, of coarse a little disappointing but learned a lot. Tsuga Canadensis probably not the best choice for first time attempt at rooting but it's what I had so no investment except for my $20 propagation heat pad that I plan on using for seeds (not hemlock) later this winter/spring.

You could try again now. Here http://mikesbackyardnursery.com/2013/09/growing-propagating-and-selling-canadian-hemlock-tsuga-canadensis/ is a good advice from experienced gardener how to do it. Scroll down the page to the section: "Growing Canadian Hemlock, Tsuga Canadensis from Cuttings". Just keep it simple.

And forget about growing lights, plastic bags, spraying and misting. Natural light is enough. Just keep them cool with only a small heating mat at the bottom, that will warm the propagation tray but will not warm and dry the air around. And be careful not to overheat or overwater.

Thanks for the good advice. I may try this again. The biggest problem is my ambient heat in the house, I'll have to see if I can get the basement down to the 62d. It usually gets to that by Late November or December and will stay there until spring. The first try, it was still around 72d and any bottom heat at all would drive the temps in the pots to 78-84d, too warm IMO.

Good to know about the timing. I had read that late July/August was used in some trials that seemed to be successful so that's why I tried that.

Won't be hard to do some more in a few weeks. I had thought about using the 'toothpick method' http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/2118697/its-august-and-time-for-the-toothpick-technique?n=15 in hopes of increasing the success rate but would have to wait until next summer for that.

Got my plate full for now but maybe by end of the month I can give another go. Need to get some decent rooting media. Any suggestions on that?

'You could try again now.'

I hope you meant 'right now'. :-) For the last few weeks it has been as good as winter here in z3, even though the calendar says it's only the middle of 'Fall'. Been single digits above zero the last couple nights. So the tree should be dormant and has set it's 'winter buds' by now.

There's a competing leader on the tree that I was going to remove next spring, it has many cuttings along that branch. If all goes well, I can get it off the tree tomorrow and set some new cuttings. My basements been staying at 65f and slowly dropping with the continued cold so hopefully that should be favorable so the cuttings don't dry out.

I'll post up some pics and more info once I'm finished.

Sorry for not responding to your previous post, and now time is running out ...

I was nor too precise when writing about "trying again now". Actually I would wait until February or so, until the tree has enough of chilling period. Then I would take cuttings and plant them in unheated basement close to the window to ensure enough light without exposure to direct sun though. Spring is when everything springs to life again, I think the cuttings will be most eager to root then. But I can't promise, of course.

ok, thanks! glad you caught me before I did anything. :-) I wondered about chilling period, it's only been marginally cold here for a month, until a few days ago, now cold.

I have my pots all figured out and I found a pail of almost pure dry sand that I was saving for something else. I did treat it will some fungicide but I'll just let it go dry again until after January.

I know what you mean about spring. It all makes sense now, once a cutting makes roots you would want it to be at the beginning of the growing season. Duh!

I have a perfect spot, far side wall on a shelf in the basement. 12 ft. away from a small east window and another small south window, both with translucent curtains on them. Fairly bright during morning and midday but nothing direct. Ambient room temperature ~60d in winter. Near power plug in for propagation mat.

Well, back to our regularly scheduled programming until then. :-)

Thanks again!

I know a lot of people here frequent more than this forum and I posted this same thing over on the Conifer Forum thread: but thought I'd put it here too for those finding this thread using a web search. Thanks again windberry for the advice. I'm actually feeling a little more confident doing it this way than if you hadn't commented on this post. That doesn't mean I'll have success but at least I feel better about it. LOL!

1-24-18 Forecast next week for single digits below and single digits above zero so I thought I'd get to it before the weekend.

70% perlite, 30% peat rooting media (9oz plastic cups filled to 1/4" of top, drainage holes in bottom). Watered media wet with distilled water mixed with a Tbsp. or two of 3% hydrogen peroxide per quart. Did this early in the day.

Cuttings taken ~11 AM (20's F outside temp). Immediately brought into house and cut to approx. 10"L. All pieces were part of a competing leader so top leader/branches were good size (> 1/8" dia.) with some of the lower shoots/branches a bit more spindly (<= 1/8" dia.). New growth reduced by clipping to uniform length.

Basal ends cut close to and containing a small slice of the parent leader/bark at sharp angle, stripped of green material for 1/3 up from the bottom, wounded along one side and dipped for 5 seconds in 1:1 Dip & Grow/distilled water solution. Planted in pre-formed planting holes approx. 3" deep.

Settled media around stem by finger pressing and watering with a small amount distilled water directly onto planting hole area.

Placed trays on 17w. horticultural heat mat. Will monitor temperatures but so far, after a couple of hours, thermometer in cup media barely making 70dF with ambient room temperature hovering around 60dF. Hoping for low 70's media but this is better than overheating which I thought might happen without a thermostat. But so far so good. :-)