Experience with Hard Wood Cuttings anyone?

This is not a plain bonsai question, but I didn't know which forum is most suitable to post this on....

So, I have experimented with some hard wood cuttings (cotoneaster, hybiscus syriacus, california pepper tree, myrtus communis, etc) since the last December 2010 which are of a girth rating 5-8cm.
Some of them have already sprouted tiny leaves and others have swollen buds/nodes.
I keep some of them into a not used small aquarium with the electric light on for 12 hours more or less and I keep the gravel wet.
My questions:
- When should I water the pots? (substrate is akadama mixed witht river sand & baked clay)
- The last 3 days some of the tiny leaves of cotoneaster and lagerstroemia look like withered. Why is this so? What is the problem?
- Should I use any treatment on them? Any kind of antifungal or the similar?
- Is it too ambitious to expect that they will also sprout tiny roots, or it is not?

Thank you in advance!

my nellie wrote:

So, I have experimented with some hard wood cuttings (cotoneaster, hybiscus syriacus, california pepper tree, myrtus communis, etc) since the last December 2010 which are of a girth rating 5-8cm.
Some of them have already sprouted tiny leaves and others have swollen buds/nodes.
I keep some of them into a not used small aquarium with the electric light on for 12 hours more or less and I keep the gravel wet.

"Wet" is bad. Damp is what you are looking for.

My questions:
- When should I water the pots? (substrate is akadama mixed witht river sand & baked clay)

Just before it dries out.

- The last 3 days some of the tiny leaves of cotoneaster and lagerstroemia look like withered. Why is this so? What is the problem?

Often, cuttings (especially larger ones) will sprout leaves just on the energy already stored in the cutting itself. Instead of expending this energy making roots, they make leaves. These seldom survive. Wilting leaves indicate to me that this may be the problem. Did you use rooting hormone?

I assume these are getting enough light and that the light isn't so hot that it is cooking the cuttings.

- Should I use any treatment on them? Any kind of antifungal or the similar?

If you used a rooting hormone, it probably had a fungicide in it. I know of nothing that, used by itself, would be gentle enough for cuttings.

- Is it too ambitious to expect that they will also sprout tiny roots, or it is not?

I assume you are talking abut the wilting ones. MY guess would be that they will not. But you can always hope.

Generally speaking once you have "planted" the cuttings and if you keep them just damp enough, there is nothing else you can do to make them root. They will or they won't. There's lots you can do to make them NOT root -- too much water, no hormone, juggling and pulling on them to "test" whether there are roots, etc.


Good luck.

JimLewis wrote: "Wet" is bad. Damp is what you are looking for..

I have to replace the word I used. Damp is the correct word for the condition of the humid gravel.

Did you use rooting hormone??

Yes, I did use powder hormone. And before planting the cuttings I have kept them for 3-4 days into a solution of
K-L-N (liquid rooting concentrate)

I assume these are getting enough light and that the light isn't so hot that it is cooking the cuttings.

No, not at all hot! Otherwise the previous inhabitants of the aquarium would have been cooked first

MY guess would be that they will not... ... But you can always hope.

So this is my guess, too.
Yes, indeed I can hope and IF there will be an unhoped success then the pleasure coming from the experiment would be double

Thanks for your response and your wishes, Jim!

JimLewis wrote: ... ...Often, cuttings (especially larger ones) will sprout leaves just on the energy already stored in the cutting itself. Instead of expending this energy making roots, they make leaves. These seldom survive.... ...
MY guess would be that they will not. But you can always hope.... ....

Well, just for the purpose of "closing" the case I would like to make a last update.
Jim was right in supposing that it was the stored energy which made the cuttings to sprout, BUT the ficus syriacus has been established and it has been repoted last spring and has also given to me a small flower last summer. I am going to make a new repot this weekend.

A little bit of good news is better than NO good news.