Rooting cuttings

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fanaticactus
Posts: 3194
Joined: Sun Oct 25, 2009 7:44 pm
Location: Grand Isle Co., Vermont

Rooting cuttings

Post by fanaticactus »

Because my Echinocereus brandegeei and Echinopsis deserticola began to rot at the base a year or so ago, I cut off their tops and have been trying to root them. I used a mixture of pumice, some sand and a bit of coir. I let them callous over and dipped them in a rooting hormone. I dampened the rooting mix, placed the cuttings about a half-inch into it and placed the pots on a heating mat that I use for seed germination too. I checked them occasionally and there was no sign of any growth after several months. I tried keeping the mixture dry, then slightly damp, with no results. I just checked them this morning after about a year, and there is still no sign of any type of growth beginning. In fact, the cuttings themselves seem to be shrinking, probably due to some degree of dessication. My question is...should I keep trying to root them, perhaps in a richer mixture with more actual soil? Should I put them into the mixture in which they would eventually grow? Or, since it's been a year, should I just throw them out? I've rarely had problems rooting any cuttings, but these are very stubborn.
Catch a falling star--but don't try it with a cactus!
DaveW
Posts: 7377
Joined: Thu Dec 20, 2012 2:36 pm
Location: Nottingham, England/UK

Re: Rooting cuttings

Post by DaveW »

Apart from the conditions suiting rooting if the cuttings have no roots the actual soil they are standing on makes little difference to growth until any roots penetrate it.

https://www.dbg.org/sites/dbg.dd/files/ ... utting.pdf

https://extension.arizona.edu/sites/ext ... az1483.pdf
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cactushobbyman
Posts: 1437
Joined: Sun Sep 11, 2011 8:01 pm
Location: Sanger, California

Re: Rooting cuttings

Post by cactushobbyman »

If you use a heating mat I would have kept the cutting very lightly moist most of the time. Not the best of terms, but I would never let them dry out. Echinocereus viereckii subsp. morricalii for me took a long time to root. It was at least two years to really say it was rooted. Now it is adding two stems. Echinopsis, I can leave them on the bottom shelf and just spray water on them and they root. Could have a lot to do with temp. of my greenhouse. Echinopsis spachiana, I have rooted them in pots with just pea gravel and they were outside the whole time. Last, I would repot your plant in pure pumice and bottom water them and keep warm and off the heating mat. If it is very warm, I would not let the tray go dry for too long. I root my pups and cuttings in a more organic material than non-organic material and I never use coir.
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