Hey guys. I've done more rooting expiraments with the harder to root plant's over the years here with other members and we all had decent result's. I have found a newer product that I think will root any cutting effortlessly. For around 20$ you can buy this product and a must have tall, plastic humidity dome to cover the tray and keep the plants from wilting while rooting. But for this 20$, you'll get 50 sites and 50 newly rooted plants in 2 weeks! Well the Passiflora's all rooted in 2 weeks with several(atleast 15-20) seperate 2 inch long roots sticking out of the cubes. The hibiscus cuttings and ficus cuttings are all growing well but are taking longer to root. Every cutting in this tray looks like it is still thriving on the parent plant, no wilting what so ever and more than 2 new nodes of growth. I think if I would of pinched off the new growth tips so the plant woudn't of waisted its energy on new growth, they would of rooted much faster.
This product I speak of is named "Rapid Rooters". The only store I could find that carried them in stock was a hydroponics store. http://www.genhydro.com/genhydro_US/rapidrooter2.html
This is a link to the company that makes them and describes what they are and how they work so well. I also have a link to show you what the tall humidity domes look like and that I think are a must have to work with these or the cuttings will dry up IMO. http://www.granitehydro.com/aids/proptrays.htm#clonex
This is just the 1st link I found that showed a picture of the domes I use, they're the only domes that are tall enough to cover the cuttings. You should be able to find these at any hydroponic store too. If not, mail order is pretty cheap and if you looked around, you could probably get free shipping.
I PROMISE THESE WORK AND ARE FOOL PROOF. Now anyone can easily root most any plant IMO. Just inspect the trays maybe once a week and mist the plants with a spray bottle and maybe pour some water to the bottom of the tray to keep the cubes wet/moist.
Every single plant I put in this tray has rooted in 2 weeks or less except for the ficus tree cuttings and even they look very healthy. They may have roots that haven't emerged from the cubes yet but they are there still inside the cubes. None of these cuttings have wilted or show any signs of being cut off the parent plant. I have tried so many other methods with pretty good result's but I have never seen anything like what I'm seeing with these rapid rooter's. I did use some rooting hormone on some of the cuttings from habit and I happened to have it around. I have a few other friends that are using the same stuff with no rooting hormones and are getting 100% rooting sucess.
I just can't put into words how totally foolproof this is and totally effortless after you take the cuttings and put them in the cubes. Then just keep them moist and under decent lighting, no direct sunlight or they will cook. Indirect sunlight would probably work if you can't useflourosent lights.
I just want everyone to try this and no longer be intimidated by the idea of rooting cuttings any longer. This will also make it so much easier for everyone to share our plants with each other. Now mailing cuttings will also be easier than ever and will no longer be limited to starting from seeds. Plus sharing cuttings will also ensure that we all get identicle duplicates of the parent plant since we are literally cloning it. This is something that is not possible via seedlings and other methods as you get varying genetics every time.
Please try this guys, I promise you won't regret it. I'll be around for any Q's if needed but this is so simple, once you try it...You will be cloning every plant you wish with almost no effort and very little $. 20$ for 50 rooted cuttings...How could you go wrong?
Goodluck all and happy cutting/rooting.
JD
ROOTING PASSIFLORA'S AND ANYTHING ELSE FOOLPROOF!
I'm still intimidated
I have the whole set up
rapid rooters
high dome lid
spent big bucks on Stim-root 5000
Set up half the tray with various cttings
Mandi
bougie
hibiscus
and other things
today when I checked I pulled out 3 dead,black cuttings
things just don't look good and its only been 5 days......
I'm rooting challenged.......
although I was successful at rooting Abutilion Thompsonii and Souvinir de Bonn
but that was with vermiculite and a baggie.......
CC, I'm experimenting with hardwood cuttings on some vines. I bought in some plugs and they were hardwood cuttings! Not a skip in the tray(of course I'm sure the greenhouse that rooted them had heat mats and a mist system)
I just saw something here at Daves about rooting .......
cause it said how to root bougies it stuck in my mind
something about laying the cutting sideways with a leaf sticking up......
there was a link to a page...
crestedchik
I'm really curious as to what other variables you may have going on thats giving you a hard time. I did leave out a few pieces too. Hea mats are essential if the cubes are outside and kept colder than 70F. Were you seeing condensation on the inside of your humidity dome? That is always the sign that tells me its time to mist and/or water the tray and cubes.
What kind of light are the trays exposed to? I use the cheapest flouresent "shop lights" or garage like lights that are dual 4 ft. fixtures you can buy at Lowe's or Home depot for less than 10$. I try to get the lights just a few inches above the dome.
Man I hate it when I come out hollering about foolproof rooting methods only to find someone fighting it and it failing. I gotta think your having some kind of fairly simple problem w maybe overlooking possibly? Are you setting the trays on a cold surface perhaps? Those are about the only other variables I can think of other than using a fertilizer, surely your not doing that are ya? I used maxicrop which is a fertil;izer of sorts but is so weak, I don't think of it as a fert. it's values are all less than 1-1-1, I think it's closer to 0.1-1.0-.10 and its mainly trace elements then I use some superthrive occasionally. That will always take care of transplant shock.
Please let me know what all your doing and maybe we can give you a hand, I'd sure like to help you if I can. I hate seeing you struggle and I know if we put our heads together, you'll be a cloning fool like me;). Since you already have all the gear, it has to be a simple matter we can tweak a lil and fix ya up. I have a gut feeling its that cool NY weather making those roots too chilly to poke out of your cubes.
Talk with ya soon I hope;)
JD
Soaked the R rooters in water with 2 drops of Superthrive
They are under 4 bulb floresent light fixture,top shelf so the heat from the light fixture below is keeping it warm
the plant shelf is in my son old bedroom,so its not cold
yes,there is condensation on the dome
I lift the dome once a day to get some of the moisture out
There is boytris(spelling) starting I think,
some stuff is getting black / grey mold on it
I will say some things look good still....
they are the exception......
most of it looks doomed
I'll try to take a picture tomorrow
OH man...Way too wet IMO. I never soaked my cubes, just lightly moistened them. If you have mold/mildew in there, its deff. way too wet. I keep mine on the other end of the spectrum closer to dry than wet. I let it go to the point of no or almost no condensation left then I either mist heavily of lightly water the bottom of the tray to try to tease the roots to the bottom. I've found in the past that roots tend to stay closer to the cubes if they have all the moisture they need inside the cubes. I used to always keep a moist layer of vermiculite in the bottom of the trays so the roots would reach down to it for more.
I also have taken a knife to the 2 squares in the top ends of the domes and cut out three sides of them so the 4th side acts like a hinge. that way I can open and close the roof to help when I begin weening the cuttings away from the dome. It helps like a chimney, I do the same thing to both ends where they reach the tray ends. You can totally control air movement and humidity levels by merely opening and closing the little flaps and it works so much faster than you would ever think, especially with the lights your using for bottom heat.
I don't know if anything inside is getting mushy or not. If so, you maybe getting a little too much heat. Those ballasts in our lights get much hotter than some of the heat mats.
It sounds like you are so close to having it dialed in, I think you may have chosen some hard to root plants possibly. I don't know what your working with personally.
I sure don't wish to come off as a "know it all". I've just tried soo many different means of rooting cuts from RW to oasis cubes and everything in between and it took a couple years of running several trays at any given time to get a real feel for what each cultivar and species preffers. This is by far the fastest and easiest technique I've ever seen that is why I was jumping up and down when I got the results from y 1st tray plus seeing what my friends have done with them. I'm not familiar with your brand of rooting gel, I've always used Olivia's and its pricey too. 2 of my friends quit using hormones completely since the rooters are innoculated with the micro organisms roots need to creat their own compounds to interact with the media.
I sure hope this may help a little as your so close IMO to what you want. I think you may have hit a lil learning curve your not used to with these new cubes maybe. I'll do everything I can to help as I kinda feel like an @ss now for raving about them being so foolproof as if it was automatic. I hope I didn't insult you, i sure didn't mean too. Goodluck;)
JD
I bought it at a hydroponics store....she says you can root a pencil with it....
LOLOLOL That's the best hormone sales pitch I've ever heard!LOL It has to be much like the stuff I use. The hydro store is the only place around I can find ay of these products too, we only have 1 hydro store in themetro area that I know of...Very sad.
I think it maybe worth your time to allow those trays to dry out a little. I'm sure the instructions for rapid rooters mentioned soaking them but I never saw it or did it. I just did the same as you with superthrive and poured some in the bottom of the tray as the cubes wick the water from the bottom of the trays.
I would also try experimenting with a few easy to root plants and see how they behave in the current conditions. I used my passiflora's as my meter on how to tell when/if I had the optimum conditions. They rooted at an all time record for speed as well as having every cut survive. I've never had 100%success rates until rapid rooter's and the passion flower's used to be 1 of the harder plants for me to root.
1 other thing I noticed that helps speed up rooting is to pinch any new growth or tip on your cuttings so they will focus more on rooting. The cuts that didn't come from the very tip of plants seemed to root much faster than one's that were putting on new foliage growth. I also use a mild mix of maxicrop and superthrive when I mist my plants in trays so they can feed a tiny bit thru foliar feeding. I don't know if it makes any difference from using plain water but it made sense to me.
I sure hope this turns things around for you, I know it can be frustrating as heck. Especially after spending the money you have on all the best stuff for the job. Your so close IMO to the result's your looking for. I think my neglecting them for 1 week at a time helped IMO too except when I saw the condensation go away. then and only then, I would add moisture to my trays and that keeps them from being jolted around a little ot.
Hang in there!