I've been taking a lot of cuttings lately and am starting to get a little bit discouraged. I'm doing everything "right," but am not having much success at the moment. I have some ideas and wanted to share them with you all and get some opinions.
I took about 30 cuttings a week ago today of 6 different cvs-- Illuminati, Saffron, In The Mood, Acapulco Gold, Sleeping Beauty, and Space Oddity. I used perlite as a rooting media, bleached the pots I put them in, sterilized my pruners and knife after taking just a few cuttings, all to no avail. I took the cuttings a week ago and I'd say a good half of them have already started to rot. I didn't have much of an issue with rot when rooting last year in soil, even when being more careless about sanitation.
My first question: Is rot happing so frequently and so quickly because my plants are still recovering from winter? My greenhouse was cold and I lost a good many plants. The survivors lost quite a few leaves and in truth, I'm surprised I didn't lose more plants. I'm wondering if there's fungus/bacteria still inside of them that their immune systems are fighting off. Perhaps this is what is causing my cuttings to rot so quickly. What do you all think?
My second question: Perlite obviously doesn't retain water nearly as well as soil. I put my cutting-filled pots in (sanitized) saucers of water and tented my cuttings with plastic bags. They've still had some wilt issues. Is this related to rot or does perlite not wick up enough water for them? I'm wondering if I may be better off with Oasis.
Thank you all in advance.
