How can I rescue my cuttings?

I am trying to root cuttings I got from the Christmas berry (lycium carolinianum) across the street, I started them in mid September.

I used Bonide Bontone Rooting Powder since it was all I could find and I could not find the Gardensafe brand which is supposed to work better.

The plants are succulent so I am assuming they would root well and even better than the easily rooting goji berry relative.

It has been a month since planting them and they all have lost their leaves and have a couple yellow leaves on them, they also have unripened green fruit (4 of them) and 2 forming fruit. I clipped some of the empty stems and they were still green.

Some opened buds a week after planting in sept with rooting hormone and 2 berries are developing, a lot of the other berries died.

I am keeping them wet at all times.

The plants I got them from were scraggly and were vacant in leaves.

Are my cuttings dying? How do I know if they are actually rooting?

I'm not familiar with your plant but it sounds like it's too wet. Many cuttings of succulents need to callous over before planting. Again, my experience with succulents is to pot them in a soilless mix. Keep dry, mist occasionally, not much bright light. However, I will look at what your plant is to see if I'm telling the truth. But I do know that you're keeping them too wet. Maybe someone with more knowledge of this plant will answer before I can get back with you. Good luck.

Never mind. If the name you provided (lycium carolinianum) is accurate, than per DG plant files, it does not appear to be a succulent. It does seem to grow in FL. I do stand by my comment that it may be too wet. Are you rooting it in water or just watering it every day?

If the plants were scraggly when you liberated them, maybe they weren't strong enough o survive a transplant. Plus the berries are taking a lot of the plant's energy that it needs for growth. That is the extent of my knowledge. If no one else answers your post, try google.

Yes, it's best to remove all flowers and berries and most of the leaves from cuttings before you plant them. I usually allow only a couple leaves to remain at the tip of each cutting, maybe more for plants which have very small leaves. Those leaves sometimes will fall off during the rooting process but, as long as the stems remain green, the cuttings still are alive. You'll know that they have rooted once they begin to put out new growth.

Lyciums reportedly are fairly easy to grow from seed, so you might want to try collecting seeds after the berries ripen if you don't have success with the cuttings. It sounds as if the berries of this type are toxic, though, so please take care when handling them. There is some information on propagation, from both seeds and cuttings, at the bottom of the following page:
http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Lycium+carolinianum

One of the fruits dropped today, do you think I should go ahead and remove the rest of the fruits? They are so close to ripening. Also the cuttings have no leaves left. will these (now I will call sticks) make it? Should I give up on them? Should I give them some sun?

The easiest way to get new plants is to grow them from seeds. Fresh, ripe seeds if possible.

Or take semi-hardwood cuttings in summer or hardwood cuttings in winter. I would skip the rooting hormone. It works great on some things but just burns other things up.

I have finally successfully rooted half the cuttings and followed your suggestion and planted some seeds. They sprouted very quickly!

Thank you!

Mal

What fun! it will be interesting to see if the cuttings or seed-grown plants grow faster. Please let us know next year.