Everything looks great! Are there drainage holes in your soda pots?

Moses

Thank you Moses! Yes. These growbags drain freely throughout. So do you think they have rooted already?

I think they look great. I would wait until you see roots at the bottom or sides before you celebrate. After that they could be potted up in potting soil and the bottles could be gradually weaned off. I would be afraid to fertilize yet. Once potted up very light gentle fertilizer at first. The bottom heat would get more optional as you go along. Cuttings, please don't turn black. Please, Please, Please.

It looks Great !! Give it more time. Sheila is right ! Cross fingers ,cuttings dont turn black. Just grow.....pls :)

Not bad for a first timer !!

Wow what a cool system you have come up with. I am so excited for you.

Maybe I will try it again. I didn't have any luck last time but I didn't really have a great deal of knowledge on how to do it.

I associate black cuttings with death, necrosis.

Is infection a common cause? IF so, what infection(s), and is any targeted preventive measure (like Frontline for Lyme disease) effective?

Any links to studies on this matter?

What. if anything, do commercial growers do?

A great job! I heard ALM is very hard to root.

Buds swelling and even shoots coming with leaves, DOES NOT mean roots are forming! Roots first, or growth first, OR both at the same time is possible. Resist the urge to remove then replace the cutting to check for roots. The disturbance could be just enough to make the cutting start failing.

As long as growth continues it is impossible for the cutting not to have grown roots!

Your system is an excellent one.

Once the shoot growth is 1.5-2" tall, the pop bottle 'greenhouses,' can have their caps removed. You want the foliage to adjust to household humidity gradually, or the foliage may wilt or wither when the bottles are finally removed.

Be careful about excess watering. I have killed more cuttings with too much watering than for any other reason. Dryer is better than wetter.

Give your young roses bushes as much light and bottom heat as possible. Husky vigorous growth is what you want.

Start a liquid feed program at 1/2 teaspoon (1/6th. strength), of all purpose powder per gallon/water, when shoots are 1.5-2" long, not before! Very weak fertilizing at first, then graduate the strength to 1 tablespoon/gallon very gradually.

This is my advice for you, but you have an excellent handle on things the way I see it. It's just me adding my conclusions through years of me rooting cuttings with many successes and many failures.

Acclimate the young bushes to outside light gradually. Inside light, no matter how strong, is nowhere as intense as sunlight.

Disease and insects may present themselves. Cross that bridge, if so, at that time. Unfortunately, tender new cutting foliage is very sensitive to remedies.

Mites and aphids are the most likely the bugs to show up. They get sprayed off with room temp water.

Black spot or powdery mildew may show up. Try organic sprays, but not oil based ones like neem oil or insecticide soap which will certainly damage tender new growth.

Perhaps just tolerate some insect/fungus issues if they occur depending on the severity, until the young bushes are outside, and acclimated to outside sunlight and growing conditions. At that time insect and disease issues can be addressed since the bushes will be tougher and more resilient then.

Remember too, that not all varieties root the same. Some take root and grow like weeds at almost 100%, while good success with others is less than 50% takes. Never get discouraged, rooting roses is an art. Success comes through learning what works best, and learning takes time.

Moses

I read here ALM roots well, it is just a slow grower on it's own roots so give the little plants time and never give up. The slow growth is why some growers have given up. This is a shame, because this plant is worth waiting for.

Just leave them alone. They look very healthy so far but sprouting leaves does not guarantee roots have formed. The stems store food and sometimes it will use that stored food to push new growth before the roots have formed. As long as the canes remain green and healthy looking just keep doing what you are doing until you SEE roots on the sides. Congrats to you, good job!

OH!! Thank you everyone!!

Moses, thank you for that long write up of guidance, it will certainly keep me on track. Very, very helpful.

Seil, I have been reading as much as I can fit in and so many places I hear of energy/food stored in the stems, something that you first brought to my attention. I need to post all this new stuff I am learning...

Sheila, you are so right that this rose is worth making the effort for and growing, no matter what this will be fun!

rifis, what you bring up was my first concern, that the cuttings will become infected and rot before they root. So I started with the cleanest props I could think of and gather.....packaged new growbags and coir. And then to keep the media just moist but not wet. So far so good.

Everything that Moses said, with the caveat that shoots *can* grow a fair bit without roots, but will eventually exhaust the stem's resources and the whole will decline. (You've probably seen buds grow on cut roses in water, which looks similar to what you picture.)

In other words, the answer to 1.) is a simple no.

I would probably wait until you see roots before fertilizing with anything having much nitrogen. (Moses, would you do a very dilute higher phosphate fertilizer to help with root development at this stage?)

They look pretty happy, but I admittedly tend toward apprehension with such things. (I have a lot of experience with failures, and I find that pessimists suffer only pleasant surprises when things *do* turn out well, and have less disappointment when their assumptions are proven right. ;-) )

I am a bit cruder in my rooting methodology, so you are probably better off, but when I see growth pushing within two weeks of trying to start a cutting, I worry that the cutting has got its priorities all wrong. In my experience, this is sometimes exacerbated by too much moisture -- it seems to override the messaging, "Hey, I need me some roots!" If the buds at the nodes were already elongated when you started the process, however, your cutting was likely already prioritizing its focus on shoot growth. (The plant's hormones were already working towards such.) The juvenile shoot growth without supporting roots can put more demands and stress on the cutting.

You want the medium to be somewhere between humid and only ever-so-slightly moist, but *never* wet.

Good luck! ALMD is a rose I would like to acquire someday.

Philipatx thank you so much. That is all such good, important information...

There was no growth at the buds when I got the cuttings. But I am assuming there has not been any significant root growth yet.

Oh wow! Your setup looks great. I will be following this post to see how it works for you. I got ALMD budded on Multiflora sent to me a few weeks ago. The new growth looks like yours, but covered in aphids now. I keep trying to gently spray them off with water. I hope she survives. She’s in her permanent home, but it’s shady near the ground and she won’t get warm sun until she grows upwards.

Thanks Stephanie! If you have a moment please share a picture of your baby ALMD.