I have for the last few years been working on propagating plants by cuttings, seed and division and growing those on for sale. It's my retirement hobby. I have had only moderate success at getting cuttings to root until last year. I learned a new (at least to me) method from @spswash that uses perlite. Unfortunately most of them have died over the winter. Pretty sure it's root rot. They had great roots when they were potted up and were looking very good up until 2 months ago. Some of this was caused by me over watering, but I think the real culprit was the soil media.

Every year I have lightened the soil with more amendments. Last years media was top soil, compost and perlite, in a 2-2-1 ratio. Here's a pic.

It looks good to me, it drains well, and holds moisture, but the sand element in the top soil seems to allow it to become compacted and there is no oxygen for the roots.

Have been reading here on gweb, here is an excellent thread.

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/2060526/homemade-potting-soil-soil-science-questions#n=60

As well as watching some youtube videos and it seems many growers prefer a shredded bark, compost and perlite mix. Here is a pic of the new mix. This is also a 2-2-1 mix.

Here is the shredded bark.

I would like one that is more decomposed, but I have a pile and I'll let it age while I find another source.

The compost.

This looks rich and seems fairly well composted, but you can see a bit too much undecomposed sawdust.

Just for comparison here is the base topsoil I had been using.

As you can see lots of fine grains of sand which I think leads to the compaction.

I've repotted many of last years rooted cuttings and we'll see how many survive. Some had leaves, though some were rather sad looking. It's all a learning experience and we'll see how it goes this year.