Just use ordinary potting mix, or special seed-raising mix which has much finer particles. Don't fertilise it - too much food in its early development days is as harsh as force-feeding your baby! Just keep the soil moist but not soggy, give it some bottom heat if your temps are cold, and leave it to do its own thing. Be patient!

If your cuttings have a lot of leaves, remove the top bits, and with scissors or secateurs parallel to the stem, chop off about half of all the leaves. This prevents excess transpiration, and makes the cutting work harder at producing roots, rather than keeping the leaves alive.

Instead of using rooting hormone, use pure honey instead. I have always had better results this way.

Tarragon is slow to ‘strike’. It can also be propagated by dividing the whole plant in early spring before new shoots appear. This is best done every 3 years in cooler areas and every 2 years in warmer regions.

Tarragon requires a cold period each year, so when dividing the root crowns, refrigerate them for about 2-3 months or freeze them for about a week or longer before planting.

Usually becomes dormant during winter and may be difficult to grow in warmer climates. In cold climates, cut the plants to the ground after frost has killed the top growth and mulch well with straw. Foliage dies back in winter.

Posts like this remind me that I should lurk more often in this forum.

Thank you for the honey tip - I'll do that next time I try to root Rosemary. I'm not too successful with that, and I'm actually surprised whenever I get a rosemary cutting to root and grow.

G'doc

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Posted by daisyduckworth Aust (My Page) on Thu, Oct 29, 09 at 8:54

Striking cuttings in water will produce only those roots which take up water, so often they don't transplant well, because they need to grow the nutrient-feeding roots. There is also the high risk of the stem rotting in water. Let's face it, water isn't their natural growing medium, so it's a bit rough to expect a plant to reacreate itself that way!
Just use ordinary potting mix, or special seed-raising mix which has much finer particles. Don't fertilise it - too much food in its early development days is as harsh as force-feeding your baby! Just keep the soil moist but not soggy, give it some bottom heat if your temps are cold, and leave it to do its own thing. Be patient!

If your cuttings have a lot of leaves, remove the top bits, and with scissors or secateurs parallel to the stem, chop off about half of all the leaves. This prevents excess transpiration, and makes the cutting work harder at producing roots, rather than keeping the leaves alive.

Instead of using rooting hormone, use pure honey instead. I have always had better results this way.

End Quote.

You have to cut the end wwith a razor sharp knife and put them in the water right away. Never use pinced or scisors or dull knife cutting. BUT pinch the excess leaves off. Pinchimg kind of closes the capilary tubes and sort of seals. It is the same idea that you wouln't cut lettuce for salad, but do it with pinching action with your bare hands.