Propagation: anyone propagated like this?, 1 by stressbaby

stressbaby wrote:
Critter, that's funny.

Suzy, feel free to paste this over there in a new thread if it would be helpful.

Start with a stem that you have cut off, pruned out, or gotten from a division. Use usual cutting procedure, cut with a clean, sharp knife. You can divide it into pieces as small as a single leaf. If using a single leaf, try for what I would say is something between a "bit" and a "chunk" of stem on the petiole. 1/4" is plenty. Less will do. You can use larger cuttings, sections of stem with several leaves. If you have a lot of leaf surface area, the cutting will dessicate...you need to snip off about 1/2 of the distal leaf. Dip the exposed portion of the stem in rooting powder or use an IBA quickdip. I think I usually use 250-500 ppm IBA. Then strike the cutting.

I use a mist bench in the GH now. Those cuttings go in a prewetted 50/50 mix of peat and perlite and generally aren't watered again until potting up. I use those seed starting cells you get at ACE hardware. Fill the cells, wet thoroughly, then refill because after wetting, the mix will settle. Once thoroughly wetted, stick a pencil in the mix and make a hole. put the end of the cutting in the hole and gently compress the mix around the cutting. Don't water again. The mist is on somewhere between every 6-20 minutes for 10-20 seconds, depending on the time of year, outside temp, cloud cover that day. The mist is set to stop 2 hours before sundown so the foliage dries a little bit. I have 50% shade cloth in the GH so they always have at least that much shade.

As for the compost, I used well-rotted compost from the pile, prewetted. Using a pencil, as before, make a hole and compress the mix around the cutting. 1 gal ziplocks fit perfectly around a 1 gal liner, so cover the pot and place in shade...not half shade, full shade. Even in deep shade, these cuttings will dry out, so you have to water them. I water from below, dipping the pot in a 5 gal bucket of water. This way I don't have to disturb the baggies on the tops of the liners.

These are generic instructions for cuttings which will work well for lots of different plants. Here is a pic of the mist bench. If you look closely you may see some single leafed purple heucheras toward the left. You will also see how, when striking cuttings with multiple leaves, the leaves are cut back to reduce transpirational water losses.