In article , Dave Poole
writes
Janet wrote:

I find that Perlite is good for encouraging rooting on semi hard and
softwood cuttings, but for hard wood cuttings they seem to do better on
gritty, sandy compost. Perlite doesn't seem to encourage them to produce
roots.

Fully agree Janet - I take very few hardwood cuttings nowadays and
therefore forgot to mention that for them, a denser compost seems to
be better. Its down to ensuring that the cut surfaces are in good
contact with compost so that as the sap starts to rise into the buds,
moisture can be easily drawn into the stem.

Dave Poole


David have you heard of this new RHS advice that you should NOT cut the
tip from a cutting? Normally I would take out the soft tissue at the tip
of the stem but apparently the advice now is to leave it alone because
it's too much shock for the plant's system (apparently)
I assume you still take out any flowering buds if you haven't been able
to choose a cutting without.

janet
--
Janet Tweedy
Dalmatian Telegraph
http://www.lancedal.demon.co.uk