Tropicals & Tender Perennials: Trying a Cloning machine, 1 by dbrooks

dbrooks wrote:
Hi Mickey...Well here are the final results. The plants definately rooted, or started to root, in the clone machine. But so far it takes longer to do so, at least for me, than it does in soil. Here's why... well in my humble opinion anway...They started to show signs of growth (shiny tips, start of new leaves) sooner in the clone maching, but that was the high point. After taking the cuttings out of the clone machine and transfering them to soil they really slowed down. It took a long time for them to finish what they started in the clone machine. I have cuttings that I started 1 month later that are almost as far along as the ones that came from the clone machine. The other problem is they tend to rot below where they root, so you wind up losing 1/4 of the cutting to rot.
My conclusion...I just get better results doing it in soil during the summer. Maybe useful during the winter, with heat mats and lights on 24 hours as suggested, when I can't root outside.
Davie
This is a picture of one from the cloning machine after being in the soil for over a month. Pictiure taken 5-1-08