On Thu, 12 Oct 2006 03:05:42 -0400, Flora wrote:


Kay Lancaster wrote:

FWIW, I used to get about a 95% "take" of rex begonia leaf cuttings
(the segmented cuttings, in sphagnum and sand) in sbout a month on
mist benches with bottom heat.

Hi there,
Did you heat the cuttings 24/7, or only during the day? What temp? I tried

24/7, ca. 85oF, about 50-50 sand and sphagnum.


this with some of them - a heating pad under the terrarium base. It was
about 80F inside, ambient temp. 16 hours a day. I had a moisture source,
but not a mist bench. Maybe I'll try it again with peat moss and sand.
What ratio did you mix?

Standing air (with no movement) tends to let fungi grow more easily than
the moving air in a mist bench. That may be part of your problem.

There's an old set of books called "Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture", by
LH Bailey. It's often useful for home growers to check his propagation
techniques because it was written in the low-tech era. :-)

Kay