On 01/08/2011 16:25, Charlie Pridham wrote:

"Janet" wrote in message
...
In article , Nospam@invalid
says...

On Mon, 01 Aug 2011 11:21:54 +0100, Moonraker
wrote:

Having taken a lot of cuttings how do I know if they have rooted? Early
failures are obvious when the cutting is obviously dead, but how to
know
when they have taken and when to pot them on?

A lot depends on what the cuttings are but I'll guess you're talking
herbaceous plants. In general, I wait about a month to six weeks by
which time those cuttings that have taken will start to show signs of
growing - maybe new leaves forming or the cutting becoming higher. The
fact that the cuttings are still alive after that time is indication
enough that they are doing ok but it's just a case of letting the
roots develop enough to take the disturbance of potting on.

I grow a lot of cuttings in cell trays rather than pots and it's
usually easy to see that roots have developed by looking through the
holes in the bottom.

Or if they are in a pot, *very gently* slide/slip the pot off the
compost, like a fragile sandpie, looking for roots down the sides of the
compost. I usually arrange cuttings round the outer edge of the pot to
make that easier.
Then slide it back on, of course :-)

Janet.

Or use a transparent fruit punnet instead of a pot, the small ones are
ideal for the job, used to use them for all my clematis cuttings until I
discovered Fertis plugs!


The problem with Janet's and Stewart's ideas is as I use a 50/50 mixture
of perlite and gravel the "compost" would not hold together many thanks
for all the help, I'll try to get hold of transparent pots.

--
Residing on low ground in North Staffordshire