I bought some cheap cuttings on ebay and potted them up and they are kindof getting soft. Is the end of my first plumeria experiment? they have been in my green house for about 3 weeks now.
semi soft cuttings
I've got more questions too. Are they wrinkled? Discolored? What the temp in your greenhouse? Are they on a heat pad? They could be rotting. This is a difficult time of year to root cuttings.
heres one pic the temperature in my green house averages about 80 but it gets into the upper 90s on really warm days the cuttings seem a little soft when I squeeze them but I never squeezed them before I planted them and since I never had any dealings with plumeria before I dont really know how soft a healthy cutting is suposed to be
and another
It looks okay to me. It looks like it just flowered and the inflo fell off so it should branch now. I can't see what is happening at the base. You need to reach in with your fingers just below the soil and squeeze. It should feel firm. If it feels soft or mushy, looks dark or discolored, or smells bad, then it is rotting. If it looks like it is a normal color and feels hard, then don't mess with it. The cutting is green and looks firm and not wrinkled so it should be fine. Those are good temps so let it be if it feels firm below the soil line. It takes 90 days to have a good root system so it will take time.
If you do have rot below the soil line, then cut above the rot until you reach pure white wood with no sign of brown. Dip in rooting hormone, and let the cut heal and callous for a few days before placing in well-draining soil again. If you have a heat mat to place the pot on, that will go a long way toward helping the cutting root faster and easier.
Are you rooting two cuttings together? I wouldn't recommend doing that. Plumeria roots are very fragile, and they will break when you try to separate the two once they are rooted. These are trees and need their own space for the root systems, or they will suffer for it. I would give them each one-gallon containers.
no I'm not rooting them together the picture just kinda makes it look like that i bought 4 cuttings they are suposed to be 4 different colors Im curious to see if they will grow here in central tx I dont mind wintering them in a green house for the winter but I still have to see if they can take the summer heat
Ted, they look good to me. I would just keep them as warm as possible right now and water when the soil looks dry. We've got quite a few growers of plumerias in Texas, including the Plumeria Society of America Vice President, Paula Furtwangler. Here is her web site: http://www.plumerialady.net/abdbz.cfm?intended=abdbz.cfm You'll probably end up watering quite a bit in the summer, and you may even want to select a spot that doesn't get the hottest afternoon spot, but Texas growers can tell you better than I can. There are also some Arizona plumeria growers here, and sometimes, they post about plumerias on the Southwest Forum: http://davesgarden.com/forums/f/region_sw/all/ I just noticed that there is a Texas Forum too: http://davesgarden.com/forums/f/region_tx/all/ You might do a search for plumeria on those forums to see if you can find out any specific advice for your area. I bought some cheap plumerias from a lady in Texas once, and they arrived all badly sunburned. I think they were probably neglected, and they had never bloomed for the lady that I purchased them from.