Hydrangea propogation

What s going wrong. One week into propogation of hydrangea. 2 are looking good; this one ain’t!
I have bags over them with the slidey plastic to close them off but not air tight. Notice one of leaves going black plus mould on stem . Give up on it?
Thanks in advance.

 

I think the leaves are too big. Too much surface area from which to lose moisture.

The best cutting is made by taking a piece with two tiny leaves emerging in the centre, and then remove the bigger outer ones. Two leaves about 1-2 cms long is perfect, in my experience.

 

I've found if you do that, then they'll finish growing the leaves before even thinking of rooting. I just cut the leaves in half and pinch out the growing tip....I get very few failures that way....plus I use a lot of sand in the compost. But as they say, there's no hard and fast rules, just slack and sloppy, so whatever works for you is the method to use

 

Never had a failure yet. But, yes, cutting the leaves is a viable alternative, especially if your original plant doesn't have any tiny developing ones.

 

Yes - too much foliage, so you can cut those large leaves in half.

It's a similar reason for shrubs/trees dropping foliage, or foliage failing, if they're moved from a site at an unsuitable time. The roots are disturbed and need to re establish, so they can't support the amount of top growth.
With cuttings of any kind, the roots haven't yet formed [especially after only a week or two] so they only need a small amount of foliage to prevent moisture being lost, as they need that to grow.

 

I think part of the problem there is that the leaves are likely touching the bag and staying to wet. This can cause the black die off you have seen.

In my experience, hydrangea cuttings aren't that fussy and it doesn't matter to much how you do them as long as they stay moist but not wet.