Tropicals & Tender Perennials: Anyone propagate cuttings of Fuchsia Gartenmeister Bonstedt?, 0 by hummer_girl

hummer_girl wrote:
On November 1st I took three F. Gartenmeister cuttings. In the picture below (taken November 30th), you can see all three have new growth emerging and have rooted. Let me pause and pat myself on the back. This was my first attempt propagating fuchsias (and a variety of other plants) by taking cuttings. So far I have had a 99% success rate.

I mixed organic seed starter and perlite, equal amounts, moistened, and filled my inexpensive home-style propagating cups. The plastic cups are 3” wide x 4” deep and come in a large bag at Big Lots and cost about a dollar. You get a lot of cups for a dollar. I no longer have the packaging, but I think there were about three dozen (maybe more). I drilled holes in the bottom of the cups for drainage. I didn’t tightly pack my mix in the cups, but I did tap the cups on the table top to settle the mix. Even though I had put the cuttings in water when I took them and potted the same day, I gave each stem a fresh cut at the bottom, I also trimmed off all the leaves except the top two. I also used a razor blade to very slightly nick the nodes. Between the leaves and the bottom stem cut, there were two nodes on each stem where the plant could root itself. I wet the stems and dipped them in root hormone. Used a pencil to poke a hole in my mix, and inserted the stem. I then did another tap on the table so the mix could settle around the stem. In each cup I put two or three cuttings. I heavily misted my tray of cuttings when I was through, and each day for two weeks I heavily misted the tray at least three times a day. I did not cover my tray with plastic, didn’t have anything tall enough. So I took a chance I would be able to provide enough humidity. My tray of cuttings was under grow lights in my basement near the furnace and hot water heater. Toasty area. I have two 48” shop lights over my table, about 24” above the cuttings, T12 fluorescent, one cool bulb, one plant bulb. I have other plants on the table and put small trays of water around the table top to add humidity. About a week ago I read that when you do cuttings and have large leaves at the top of the stems, you can cut them in half so more energy is put into making new growth and less directed to the old growth. So my cuttings were full-leafed until about a week ago when I cut them (as seen in the pic). Once I determined my cuttings had rooted and the cups needed more than heavy misting, (about 20 days after planting), I top watered adding quarter strength 15-15-15 fertilizer and a couple drops of Superthrive to a gallon of water. In the last week the new growth has really become prominent. For the last week or so I heavily mist once a day, sometimes twice, but not always because I‘m top-watering when needed. These cups are semi-transparent and through the sides of the cups you can see the roots growing on some of the plants. Soon I’m going to need to pot up into 4” pots. At that time I will separate the multiple cuttings and put each new plant into their own pot where they will stay until next spring.