cuttings

I have cuttings from my variegated phlox which have small roots but seem to have stalled and haven't done much in over a month. I dabbed them in rooting hormone and plonked them in compost but is there anything else I could do to get them going?

 

"is there anything else I could do to get them going?"

Mist them so they don;t get stressed. Takes a while for cuttings to get going IME

 

Hi kristen

Most cuttings require warmth and moistire to get them going. I'm presuming you are growing them in the house on a window sill I know it's summer but just recently you wouldn't believe it.

What you could do is make the cutting it's own propagator out of a plastic bottle (see my sig) or polythene bag . If you cut a bottle into 2 parts, depending on th size of the pot, you can put the pot inside the bottle, this will act as a mini greenhouse, and increase the warmth and humidity around the cutting.

Another thing you may consider is giving it a weak liquid feed. Some composts have very little food content in them, If it has started putting out roots a mild feed may get it going. Don't use a full strength feed though as you may burn the young roots.

Paul

 

Excellent propagator Sid :thumb:

 

Most of my cuttings are closed into transparent plastic bags for the same reason as paul´s plastic bottle. It really makes a difference.

 

I always mix compost & sharp sand about 50/50 for cuttings
The lack of nutriants encourages root growth
& use a pop bottle propagator

 

some good advice there which I will be putting into practice