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jillybells

Failed at calibrachoa rooting, why?

jillybells
10 years ago

Hello everyone,

I'm wondering if anyone has any tips as to why my attempt at calibrachoa (million bells) rooting failed? My setup was a bit amateur. I used a recycled rotisserie chicken container for the greenhouse (saw it on pinterest) and for the bottom heat I had a couple layer of things, a coffee/candle warmer under a pyrex casserole dish, which I thought was too warm so I put one of the microwaveable warming packs in between that and the greenhouse. That way everything was "warm" and not hot, plus the pyrex I had no concern for overheating. This was set up for at least a week and the cuttings were doing ok, then they just kind of started to slump over one by one (I had 4, 3 inch cutting with 2 or 3 leaves on the top). I used rooting hormone and the medium was half seed starter mix mixed with my regular potting soil. I did let it air out once in a while because the condensation got a bit heavy on the top. Should I have had holes on the top of the cover? I also sometimes took the cover off which seemed to perk them up a bit, it was like a constant "no were happy like this" and "now were happy like that". I didn't have them in direct sunlight, I had them on a shelf by a SW window. I sprayed them with a spritzer when I thought they may have dried out but wasn't sure how dry or wet I should've let them get. Should I have not sprayed the leaves? They have gotten dried out from the bottom heat if I left the cover off too long. I'm not sure what else I could've failed at. Anyone have suggestions? I want to give it another try, I love calibrachoa but lost two last year to aphids or root rot so I kinda want some backups or extras to add to my existing baskets.

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