Advice wanted on rooting cuttings

I ordered some plumeria cuttings from Maui Plumeria Gardens and they arrived today. Very fast service and they even sent a free "mystery" cutting. Pictured (from top to bottom) are Celedine, India, Grove Farm, and the "mystery" cutting. Even though I only ordered single-tip cuttings, the Celedine has three tips and Grove Farm and the mystery have two. I saw the thread Clare posted on plumeria borer beetles so I checked my cuttings carefully. They seem very healthy and firm with no signs of holes or soft spots. I'll keep a close eye on them though.

I read the instructions that came with the cuttings and the "pea gravel method" at plumeria101.com. I like the idea of putting pea gravel at the top of the pots to stabilize the cuttings – I bet that would work with brugmansia too. I am planning on rooting these in 1-gallon pots on the front porch where they will be protected from rainstorms and excess sun while rooting. Our mid-summer temps here are usually 65-70 at night and 85-90 in the day.

Here are my questions:

The instructions from the vendor said to use half perlite/potting mix but plumeria101 says 2/3 perlite and 1/3 potting mix. Which ratio works better? Does potting mix or peat work better?

How easy are these varieties to root? Are any particularly slow or fast?

Any other advice?

Id go with 2/3 perlite mixture
Congratulations!! MPG is a great place to buy from.
Jennifer has always sent me exceptional cuttings and always a bonus of plumies or other goodies.
Im not sure on the ease of rooting your varieties
Im sure Clare will chime in tell you better than I could on that.
You have selected a nice variety from the colors!!
I still dont have Grove Farm... *sigh*..... someday LOL!!
Good luck toy ou!!
Keep us posted!! ;^)

The celadine will probably root while you watch LOL
I personally only use about 2 inches of the soil mixture (heavy on the perlite) and lean my cuttings in a large pot. It minimizes the risk of rot. When they are rooted you can then pot them up or plant in the ground.

Hi Tom,

You can't kill Celadine. It will root in any medium under any conditions. Just stick it in a one-gallon container in regular well-draining potting soil on a hot surface, and it will root quickly. Those are some lovely choices that you made. Celadine shoud root first, followed by India, followed by Grove Farm. Grove Farm rooted very slowly for me, but I rooted it in winter without bottom heat before I knew better.

Your cuttings are probably all acclimated to full sun so you probably don't have to worry about sunburn, but you can keep them in part sun for a week before putting them in full sun. Bottom heat is the most important thing to the rooting process. A soil temperature of 80 degrees or higher is best. In the summertime, most cuttings root very easily, and rot is rare due to the heat. I just use regular well-draining potting soil, which has Perlite in it, to root plumie cuttings. The more Perlite you use, the more you will have to water. When it is hot out, you are going to have to water frequently or mist daily to keep the cuttings hydrated. I water my cuttings daily with the rest of my plants in summer because the soil is bone dry the next day. If they are on a hot cement or a hot surface, I don't worry about rot. If you are going to root them in part sun or filtered sun, you can water them less, but misting is still a good idea to keep the stems hydrated until they have roots.

Those look like nice-sized cuttings, and they should root quickly for you. I don't think you will have any problem as long as you have bottom heat. Please see the FAQ's for some good rooting advice. I wrote an article about how I treat plumerias if you are interested. It is published on http://www.plumerias.com and is under "Clare's Garden." The link is at the bottom of the web page.

I personally don't like using pea gravel on top of the soil because I can't see whether the soil is moist or wet or dry and because it tends to hold in moisture and because the pebbles can heat up and cause desiccation to the stem at the soil line. I've seen this desiccation happen recently to two people in Arizona who had pea gravel on the top of their plumies.

Thanks for the advice. I decided to go with the pea gravel on top because it does such a good job of stabilizing the cuttings. I used about 50/50 perlite and peat. (I used peat because the potting mix I have has fertilizer and a wetting agent in it, I was not sure if that would be good for the cuttings or not.) Just to be on the safe side, I sterilized the mix with boiling water and the pots with bleach - also the rooting powder has fungicide. Hopefully that will ward off any rot. I have the pots on my front porch where it gets about half shade. I will leave them there for a few days because it's supposed to rain lot and I don't want them to get too soggy. I'll move them to the back deck after the weather clears up... I plan to put the pots on a stand because the surface of the deck gets really hot (too hot to walk on barefoot at mid-day so I think that would cook them). Will make sure to water them daily when it doesn't rain.

HI Tom..congrats on getting cuttings from JEnnifer...she's near the top of the list for sure.....the reason for the heavy amt of perlite is for good drainage..especially when plants are rootin....when you see leaves you will know they are rooting...they do like bottom heat for roots...good idea to sterilize..am sure you will do fine.

It looks like my cuttings have rooted successfully. Here's a picture of them today. In back (L-R) are Celadine and "mystery", in front are India and Grove Farm. The free "mystery" cutting has been the slowest to get started, which is not surprising since it was a bit desiccated when I got it. I'm very impressed with the quality from MPG and I'm going to give them a positive rating in Garden Watchdog (if these drop dead now it's my fault).

I don't think these will need repotting until next spring. How big should the leaves get before I start to feed them? I plan to start with 1/2 strength fertilizer at first.

Well done Tom; the ones with full sized leaves can do with a bit of fertilizer now; wait on the others.
Very good job for a newbie!!
Your unknown might be a red variety - they tend to be slower to root.

I know this is a little late but since i just seen this post i want to say...

Welcome to plumie side of Dave's Garden the nicest place in the whole plumie world!!!
Great job on your first cuttings!!
Great choice of pots i use to use them all the time and they allowed me to stack each of them together like a jigsaw puzzle...

This message was edited Aug 3, 2006 10:57 PM

Awe, well-said, Robert. I agree: the nicest place in the whole plumie world! LOL!

Congrats, Tom! Well done! Hit those babies will full strength fertilizer yesterday! LOL! I would fertilize them from now until a couple of weeks before you bring them inside.