What a cutting experience

paulh wrote:Thanks roseman, you are right, I do cover them with plastic. Are you suggesting that I should leave them all uncovered? I maybe guilty in having them to wet as well. I have just finished building a bench to get them of the ground. When you say dappled shade, would it be beneficial to have them uncovered, on the bench with a canopy of shade cloth? Thank you

Any other ideas Dave???  

Sorry Paul, have been sidetracked. Yes the cups did look a bit damp, I would lessen the water, are there holes in the bottom of them, you will need to have small one's as the sand will run thru them. As for the dapple shade, have you got an area which does not get full sun. The other thing that comes to mind is the temps you were having when you started this project, are they cooler now, this might help, you could start some more off now and see if that works with no plastic over them. There is also another method which involves the cutting off the bottom of a drink bottle and removing the top, placing this over your cup, if you were to give this ago I would cut some more hole in the bottle for more air circulation. I will do one this afternoon after work to show what I mean.

Thanks for that Dave, yes the pots do have holes in them. As for the sun at here its either full sun or total shade I don't have any trees as such to give part shade, hence my question about shade cloth. I have put down some more cuttings this time uncovered, but will try hour method with the plastic bottle method.

The shade cloth should give the "dapple" shade effect Paul. Over the weekend I will some cuttings and take photo's and post them to show what my words might not portray.

Thanks for that Dave.

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Here is what I was talking about Paul.
First photo, 2 size pots,
2nd photo, cutting
3rd/4th photos, cutting in 2 different size pots.
Lid is left off so it can breath, potting mix or sand damp, not wet. Place in cool spot. Hope this helps Paul.

Thanks Dave that is very helpful, I will place plastic bottle over the top, but I will get my soldering iron out and put some holes in them as you suggest. The heat has been relentless over here, I guess it doesnt help, however we have had a cool weekend, but back into the heat this week

Paul, is the garage "cool" or a room within the house ?

roseman wrote:Paul, is the garage "cool" or a room within the house ?

Thanks Dave, I've just done about 50 cuttings today, the Burrito method, Instead of putting them in the small shed I've got, they are now sitting in a dark cupboard in the cool laundry. When they go into little pots, the coolest place outside is in my carport, very bright, but no sun. The only other place to put the cuttings out of the sun, would be in the shed, however its darkish and rather warm. Hmmm what do you think??? Dave

I would think the carport will have to be the place for them. I don't think you need the cupboard Paul, just the cool of the laundry should do.

Ta Dave no worries

Roseman, another question, at what point would you remove a cutting that has stuck, out of the straight river sand that it in?? (eg: what size, how many leaves etc ) Then how would you re pot it and into what medium would it go in.   

Paul, can we have a photo please. I would re-pot now if you are satisfied that it has roots. As for the mix, something that is open, not to heavy, something that will let it grow and hold some moisture(not wet). If it has true leaves I would say it is time to move it, I would take some of the surrounding sand so the roots are not disturbed, well done on this Paul, I call this "patience"

roseman wrote:Paul, can we have a photo please. I would re-pot now if you are satisfied that it has roots. As for the mix, something that is open, not to heavy, something that will let it grow and hold some moisture(not wet). If it has true leaves I would say it is time to move it, I would take some of the surrounding sand so the roots are not disturbed, well done on this Paul, I call this "patience"

Thanks Dave, here is a photo of said cuttings...
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As far as potting into a new medium, 2 questions, should the medium be void of any fertiliser, and what about sunlight, I was thinking of placing them at the base of some of my mature plants that would give them filtered exposure to the sun. What do you think?

As far as having containers to put cutting into, I scored from Gumtree's free section...a couple of bags containing 50-60 plastic containers all washed nicely, what a score...
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As far as potting into a new medium, 2 questions, should the medium be void of any fertiliser, and what about sunlight, I was thinking of placing them at the base of some of my mature plants that would give them filtered exposure to the sun. What do you think?
Paul,
Q1. When you repot them, I would only give them a  very light drink of fertilizer.
Q2. Will they be in "shaded" areas if they are in and around the mature plants.

Paul, after looking at the cuttings I would repot the big one, not sure about the little, when you placed it in the sand did it have much callus or roots.

Thanks Dave, they both had a reasonable amount of callous, no roots though and they were both done on the same day. I have a couple of roses that are quite bushy around the base, thinking this could be a good place, even though the get full sun.

As far as fertilizer what sought of fertilizer and ratio would you recommend.

Paul, how long have they been in the sand ?
As for the fertilizer, very low rate and only a liquid one at that

roseman wrote:Paul, how long have they been in the sand ?
As for the fertilizer, very low rate and only a liquid one at that

Dave, they have been in the sand since the 26th Feb. Ta

In all honesty Paul I would "leave" them a bit longer to make sure they have roots. If you can see roots thru the plastic and are confident, move them. A very light feed of liquid fertilizer would not go astray.

Paul
I know the temptation is there to re-pot it and see how big the roots are but really there are none visible in the sand so I'd leave them in the sand until spring. By that time the roots will be clearly visible in the sand. There will be enough goodness in the cutting to keep it alive until then.

A monthly feed of very diluted seasol of something similar will help.
If you try to early the sand will fall off the cutting and take the roots with it.

Great info people's, makes a lot of since. Thanks

I would leave your cuttings in the sand until Spring as suggested.  Then I would remove the cuttings from the sand using the slurry method I developed a couple of years back.