I've got a Very big branch from a curly willow that I rooted in a 2 liter bottle on my back porch. It's probably been in there way too long now to transplant. The bottle is full of roots. Surprised it's not dead yet, actually.

I'd maybe change out the water. You can use it to root other things in. If you're starting to see little bumps on the part of the stem under water, things are going fine. I noticed when rooting willow that it will sometimes hover at that bumpy stage for a while and next thing you know it's sprouting roots like crazy.

I've successfully rooted willows just by sticking them in the ground and keeping them watered. I've got a couple that I stuck in the ground at the end of fall, and left them alone. They're doing better than the ones I planted in mid spring.

Thanks. From the things I have been reading, I get the feeling that the time of year can make a huge difference for some reason. I read one page that even claimed a week or so can make a huge difference in how well something roots. Not sure why it would be so different in such a short period of time.
Jamie

I like air layering on the plant better than anything. It's cheap, no muss, no fuss, and it works every time!!

just make a couple cuts through the bark and remove like 1/2" of the bark on one side of the stem.

Take a quart baggie, and cut the ends off, so it's like a tube, and slide it over the wound you made on the stem. Then tie string around a branch, fill with damp potting soil/perlite, and tie a string around the other end, cover with foil, and wait a couple weeks. The foil keeps the root area dark, and reflects sun, keeping the roots cooler.

The plant will keep your new plant alive and it will root into the dirt, and then you can cut it and plant it. You can check for roots by removing the foil just to see. When you see enough roots, time to plant!

Thanks for the suggestion on air layering, I will give it a try on some bushes.

One of my hard wood arctic blue willow cuttings is showing the start of roots today in the aerated water. At least a little bit of success.

Thanks
Jamie

Hi Jamie, I worked in the nursery industry for over twenty years and my favorite part was always propagation. It didn't matter what was going into the prop house. I just loved the idea of starting a new plant from a little cutting.

In answer to some of your questions, no matter your propagation method, you need to do it outside.You'll have the heat needed and humidity. If you have a commercial mist system there should be no need for anything other than a protected area out of the sun. You don't need constant mist. You need high heat and high humidity and good drainage to successfully root many plants during the summer months. Air circulation is critical in order to avoid diseases(rot) during propagation.

I'm sorry, but I can't make much of your pictures as to how your system is going to work. Just keep in mind that you only need to keep the foliage wet. Misting maybe every ten minutes would be a good start. As cuttings begin to root then you can reduce the number of times per hour.

It's been many years since I worked with rooting hardwood cuttings. At the grower I worked for during that period of time we had huge fans that blew a mist over the entire greenhouse and the temp. in the greehouse was around 100 degrees.

Your peat/perlite mix should be okay if you go heavy on the perlite. Drainage is critical once a plant developes roots-too much peat and the plants will stay too wet. I ususally root my cuttings in just a good grade of potting soil like Miracle Gro.

Good luck!

Hi Kevazzp;

Thanks for writing. I will make sure to keep that in mind with the peat / perlite (actually using vermiculite). I had been mixing it about 3 parts vermiculite to 1 part peat. I read that MiracleGro had too much nitrogen that promoted top growth during rooting, but perhaps that was incorrect.

This is what my setup looks like at the moment, both are filled up with cuttings, I keep them wet enough to have condensation on the inside of the glass / plastic at all times.

I still have my bucket with the aerator in it running. The weeping willows have grown nice starter roots in the past couple days.

I have a lot of Red Twig dogwood I want to propagate, and am considering building the full commercial intermittent mist with the proper timer unit. I started to wonder if this really was necessary for red twig dog wood.

Do you think for the Red Twig dog wood, I could just put them into a peat / vermiculite mix and leave it uncovered, just spraying it a couple times a day? I could spray cloud cover on the cuttings as well.

I've read that with Red Twig dog wood branches that people just bury them in the ground, water them and they form roots.

Any idea of forsythia might be this easy as well?

Thank You
Jamie

I've got many little forsythia bushes where a branch just touched the ground and rooted, so I think they're very easy.

If you have condensation inside the glass or plastic at all times you are risking various diseases. I would give everything a spray with fungicide once in a while. I have successfully rooted difficult material under plastic, but if you have the resources a proper misting station is absolutely the best way to go. I would suggest 50:50 peat OR vermiculite with perlite as a rooting medium. NOT peat and vermiculite. The rooting zone needs to get some oxygen. And Miracle Grow doesn't enter into this equation...the reason the author of your book mentioned a low nitrogen potting mix is because most consumer potting mixes now come with fertilizer in them. He is assuming his readers are not going to make there own rooting mix. The fertilizer is useless until AFTER the roots have developed and the cutting has been potted up and removed from mist.

I have another solution on hard to prop. plants i use root tone...all you do is dip the twig in water then all the way down into the root tone and plant and keep moist it will grow roots rapidly..i use the this method on tea plants,dwarf fruit trees,blueberrys etc,,,an it works GR8

Can I root Hawthorne tree using Air Layering? Is it ok to do this now mid July? I live in Central NJ. Thanks for the advice!!

How do i propagate a dieffenbachia plant. Can someone please provide pictures for me or a web site that will instruct me on how to propagate my plant with written and visual instructions. Thanks in advance!!!

Posted by yvonne52_2010 on Sat, Jul 10, 10 at 4:26

How do i propagate a dieffenbachia plant. Can someone please provide pictures for me or a web site that will instruct me on how to propagate my plant with written and visual instructions.

Purdue's New Plants from Cuttings specifically addresses Dieffenbachia with pictures.

U of Florida has a lot of problem solving information at it's Dieffenbachia Production Guide.

I have successfully propagated the following:
Willows, Cut off a branch smaller around than your thumb, put it in water and wait. All the leaves will fall off and then the roots will start growing. I do 10-20 at a time in a 5 gallon bucket.
Poplars, same as willows
Red & Yellow Twig Dogwood, cut small brances, 6-8 inches long. Strip off lower leaves. Dip in Root One, place in pots in potting soil. Same with Forsythia and roses.

Keep all of them in the shade so they don't get to hot while they are rooting. Keep them moist but not soggy. I don't use mist.
If you are planning on having a plant sale next year, I would wait one more year as you grow the plants on. The first year they may look pretty skimpy. But that's just my opinion.
I have about a 90% success rate, which is pretty good.
Good luck!

Hi Karen;

Thank for writing with what works for you. An update since I posted here last. Not positive how much it helps the plants, but I believe it does, it also keeps bugs away and keep the water from going all stagnate and slimy.

All of these are just in buckets of water with aerator stones in them.
My weeping willows have all rooted well.
French Pink Pussy Willow is rooting, will be ready to plant soon.
Hosta with very limited roots and mainly just the bulb have put on nice roots.
Dog woods have started to root, but have been slow.
I think poplar have put on roots.
There may be a curly willow that has rooted.

I just put a huge pile of cotton wood and willow into a new tub of water yesterday, hoping it will root well.

In that plastic tray that is in one of the photos here, much of it died, but the forsythia rooted well, and I think a couple other things rooted as well, but I am having trouble telling what they are with so few leaves on them / small leaves.

The big tray with the glass aquarium over it, I have not checked it yet, but can see through the glass that it looks like there are a number of healthy plants in there, so I suspect many of them rooted well.

I plan to follow your directions for rooting more dogwoods. I have a huge amount of dogwoods to trim and want to root more.

I did a little plant sale back about a month ago now. I had about 150 things in pots, not too bad. Didn't sell much.

I am starting to believe that many items will root much more easily in a soil type of setup than in the water. The water setup takes up much less space though.

Thanks
Jamie