i would do it when the plants are dormant.. which for me in z5 mi.. would be in a month or so ..

for z8 tx.. jimminy ... maybe in 2 months or so ...

what makes you want to do this.. while the plant is still actively growing??? and the heat is still pretty high???

TIMING is everything

ken

i was trying to get it ready for the cold times by getting a good root system in dirt instead of a peat perilite mix.

I will assume you have your plants in the shade, or only filtered sunshine. It they were truly rooted you should be alright if you leave the bottle on for a while. Remove it every couple of days for up to about 20 minutes. Put it back on when it wilts. If it does not wilt leave it on a little longer. Next day try it for a longer time and if it does not wilt you should have enough roots established in the new medium to dispense with the bottles. Al

Propagating woody plant cuttings is a balance between having enough leaves for photosynthesis and root growth verses having a low amount of leaf surface area. Too many leaves means too much evaporation. My Hort teacher always said that for small-leafed cuttings, leaving 2 top leaves on the cutting was sufficient for root growth. You could try to gently remove some lower leaves on your plant so that there is less evaporation of precious liquids.

It is possible that your cuttings do not have sufficient roots yet. Many people think that top growth indicates that cuttings are ready for planting, but this is not true. Providing too much light, low soil temperatures, or premature fertilizing during propagation can cause the cutting to switch from root growth to top growth.

You may sometimes lose what ever leaf area you had, but still root. If your cutting has a green stem, it will photosynthesize from that at a reduced level. I have more than once succeeded in rooting Daphne after more than a year. Al

The cutting had one root that was more then 2 inches and another nearly 1 inch. The leaves look like thy might have dried up. Hopefully thts not a totally bad sign :-( .

I have numerous other things rooting also but dont know when a good time is to pot any of them. It hopefully will be cooling off here in dallas soon.

you 'stick' pieces into your rooting media ...

after a period of time ... you gently!! .. try to pull them out ...

a plant with no roots.. comes right out .. and you stick it back in and give them more time ..

a plant that has rooted.. will resist.. and at that point you know it has some roots ...

and that is when you can move them from the rooting tent.. to a pot ... though they will still need a humidity upgrade... because of the transplant.. sooner or later.. they will 'establish' .. and the humidity dome can be removed ...

is that getting closer to what you are trying to get an answer about ..???

below is a pic of a rooting chamber i fooled around with .. on top of my professional rooting workbench .. lol ..

ken
{{gwi:5067}}

Yes that is the info i was looking for even though after reading that it makes total since. Dont know why i was making it so hard in my head. Guess i was thinking roots = no need for the dome any more. Will have to make a bigger chamber to keep the potted plants under until they are strong enough to survive in the open air.

Hopefully the few i have moved will survive with roots and start looking good again. If not i will only loose a few of the ones that have rooted. Guess with trial and error i will get it right.

My next thing i have been wondering about is getting through the winter. My idea on tht is putting them in the ground next to the foundation of the house and using leaves as mulch that i have ground up with the lawnmower and captured with the bag. I would leave the plants in the pots they are in when i put them in the ground. I was wondering how i should put the leaves around the plants and how deep to put the plants in the ground?

I'd be tempted to dig a small hole in the ground and bury the pot (which should be able to drain well, BTW) in the ground up to where the surface of the soil in the pot is near or even slightly below the surrounding soil. In other words, I'd insulate with soil. You could also just mound up soil, or mulch, a little if you don't want to dig. CrApe myrtles are usually not too hard to root even from cuttings without any roots to start with.

Also keep in mind that your new plants may be slow to leaf out in the spring. Crapes myrtles are among the last woody plants around here to leaf out, and some people worry that they are dead when they see no leaves on their crapes but leaves on everything else.

Most cuttings are started in a mix heavy with perlite and containing NO plant nutrients. For this reason I like to transplant into a good planting mix as soon as roots have grown and have the ability to absorb nutrients from the soil. For the easy to start cuttings I start them directly in the potting mix and skip the first transplant. Al

i have have sucker developing on the edge. the roots are strarting to come out of the drain holes also

sorry was going to post a picture but there is no option to post one

ken_adrian, I absolutely loved your photo of your "professional potting bench!"

I looked at your member page and had to laugh about your comment that "hosta could probably live on the driveway, unless you pay more than 50 bucks for them...then they will die on the way home..."

It reminded me of a comment in the Sunset Western Garden Book (the plant bible for those of us living in California) about Daphne odora., Winter Daphne: "So prized for its pervasive floral perfume that it continues to be widely planted despite its unpredictable behavior--it can die despite the most attentive care, or flourish with little attention until you invite all your gardening friends over to admire it, at which point it promptly succumbs without warning just to show you who's in charge."

I think gardening people develop a wry sense of humor to cope with all the things we want to do that aren't entirely within our control. And in gardening, isn't that everything? (Particularly if you live in the Midwest, which I have!) But we enjoy ourselves anyway--especially if we develop a selective memory that only recalls the successes!

Jennifer

here is what the cuttings are currently looking like. My chamber setup also. I have been taking the dome off more and more and left it off for couple of hours and just a few started sagging. Hopefully as it cools down it will move to dirt alot easier. there is also a little sucker coming up already.