Cutting incubator :)

[helixturnhelix]

I was thinking about issues you've been having with getting your cuttings to strike.  Well today in lab I had a pseudo epiphany on something you could do pretty easy to keep your cuttings nice and warm and happy.  When growing cells, bacteria or whatever you need to have a constant temperature for them to grow and to do that we use a water bath.  The same thing is true for getting cuttings to strike, so this is what I propose you can do, and its cheap and easy.  Get a 10 gallon fishtank and fill it with about 3 inches of water.  Get a aquarium heater and set it to 78-80, and leave it in the water.  This will serve as your water bath for keeping your cuttings nice and warm.  Next would be cuttings, I think that using baby food jars with an inch of water like charlie said and place them in the water bath, so as to seperate the water in the tank from the water your cuttings are sitting in.  It makes sense to seperate them because 1) its a pain to change out the water in the entire tank, 2) prevents contamination.  You mentioned that your cuttings molded, I almost guarantee that it was one cutting which was contaminated and allowed it to spread to the other cuttings.  Using these individual jars would keep them separate and allow you to isolate infected cuttings from your healthy ones, preventing spread.  It is also pretty easy to change the water of your cuttings in those small jars, as to keep them relatively sterile.  For the top of this set up I would use a screen lid, with a glass one I think it would get too humid and invite mold to grow on ur cuttings.  The tank itself will give plenty of humidity and the screen will permit some airflow.  The nice thing about this set up is you could put it on your grow light set up pretty easy.  Well Im sure Charlie can make any suggestions, but I think that this set up allows you to regulate the temp at which your cuttings are kept at and provide some humidity, but not too much and allows you to keep cuttings isolated as to prevent disease.  The best part is you could make this set up for around 40 bucks

[Nievesgirl]

I have a 8 gallon tank I can use and a heater. I will try this when I get more wood to cut.

Well the cuttings did not get molded the foam did. The cuttings just looked like they where starting to rot and die.

[Charlie]

Chris, your suggestion reminds me of a time that I did a lot of experimenting with rooting hibiscus cuttings in water. I wanted to eliminate all effects that the rooting medium might have on the process so chose distilled water in glass containers to work with. Glass and water provide the great advantage of being able to see what is happening to the part of the cutting that is in the water. For instance, it is widely believed that the roots form from the white callous tissue that often forms over the end of the cutting. This does not turn out to be the case. Most roots grow from the outer edge of the cutting and can do so with no visible callous on the end of the cutting. Other times enormous amounts of callous form but no roots emerge. You can also observe the effects of adding rooting hormone to the water. The amount and type of roots formed are greatly effected when compared to roots formed without hormone.

Anyway, your suggestion is good for anyone who has the fish tank and heating element for it. Lacking that, one can buy an electric powered heating mat intended for plants and place the glass jars directly on the heat mat to keep the temperature in the water warm enough. The drawback to rooting in water is that the water must be changed regularly or it will go bad and the cutting will be killed. A drop or two of chlorine or hydrogen peroxide can extend the time between changing the water but it still must be changed before it goes bad. Adding too much chlorine will change the composition of the water and can affect the rooting process so it cannot be used long term to keep the water from growing microorganisms.

Kerry, I imagine that you were using a dome over the cuttings to hold in heat and humidity. In theory this is a good idea but in practice the humidity can rise too high and molds can grow that would not otherwise grow. Plant pathogens are known to go out of control when relative humidity levels are held above 90 percent. The fish tank could function like a dome which is good, but covering it or using a dome over the cuttings requires adjustments so that the humidity does not rise too high.

Charlie

[Nievesgirl]

Kerry, I imagine that you were using a dome over the cuttings to hold in heat and humidity. In theory this is a good idea but in practice the humidity can rise too high and molds can grow that would not otherwise grow. Plant pathogens are known to go out of control when relative humidity levels are held above 90 percent. The fish tank could function like a dome which is good, but covering it or using a dome over the cuttings requires adjustments so that the humidity does not rise too high.
Charlie

In the other thread you suggested a dome but I did not have a dome to cover the cuttings. So they where heated with no dome and still did not work. The cuttings died and I started to see mold growing on the foam plugs.

[Charlie]

Hmm, that is strange. I wonder if you mean green algae rather than mold? What color was it? Algae will grow wherever sunlight is present and the item is always moist. Algae does not do any harm except supply a food source for fungus gnats. Rooting hibiscus cuttings is tricky, with many things that have to be right and many things that can go wrong. As Chris suggested, one infected one could have spread to the rest which is why it is good to keep a close eye on them and to remove any that show characteristic signs of rotting.

Charlie

[Jon]

I was wondering if anyone has tryed the EZ clone system. It is a bit expensive but looks interesting.

http://www.ezclone.com/

[Nievesgirl]

Hmm, that is strange. I wonder if you mean green algae rather than mold? What color was it? Algae will grow wherever sunlight is present and the item is always moist. Algae does not do any harm except supply a food source for fungus gnats. Rooting hibiscus cuttings is tricky, with many things that have to be right and many things that can go wrong. As Chris suggested, one infected one could have spread to the rest which is why it is good to keep a close eye on them and to remove any that show characteristic signs of rotting.

Charlie

The color of the mold or whatever it was , was white ( like when you see moldy food in the fridge lol) and then I got some rust colored stuff.

[Nievesgirl]

I was wondering if anyone has tryed the EZ clone system. It is a bit expensive but looks interesting.

http://www.ezclone.com/

Jon I have seen those units before , but I did not get what they where really. I thought it was for hydrophonics only. It might work. Maybe I can buy one but 300 bucks is a lot for just one unit...

[Jon]

Chris
I have heard of other people finding them on ebay and using them for Hibiscus. Hopefully Charles can comment on it to see if is something that might be worth the price or if it is a waste of money.

[Charlie]

Hi Jon,

I've tried this type of unit and did not have very good results. They are very tempting, good promotion, but I have had better success using more traditional techniques. My impression is that they work best with plant material that roots quickly and easily. Hibiscus take too long is my conclusion, and the cuttings vary too much to work well in such a machine - my 2 cents.

I don't want to totally discourage anyone, and if someone has a lot of time and interest in fiddling with a technique that requires a lot of watching and adjustment then this may be a good one for them. If anyone does give an aeromist type rooter a try I'd love to hear about the results.

Charlie