So I might have made a blunder that is cracking me up.
ALL my blunders crack me up.
Eventually.
I can even laugh about the time I got married. Now.
I poured out some superthrive into a small cylindrical container I had.(It held about 8ml) And I was using the superthrive as my rooting agent LOL I am now wondering why I would do that. I mean, I'm sure I read somewhere that someone did that but now thinking about it. DUMB DU DUMB DUMB.....DUUUUUUMB LOL
Yeah, that cracks me up too. (For which I apologize and hope that you've got more cuttings available if it proves necessary, lol.)
But, hey - you can turn it into valuable research! You see, I never did really think that Superthrive was of much use - or at least as much use as one would think after reading their comic-book ads. And given the tender nature of cuttings and the minute ratios that they suggest you mix the stuff - coupled with the fact that you used it straight - I would tend to guess that if you rinse those out and place them into some de-chlorinated water (or whatever you normally use) for a couple of weeks and they DO eventually grow roots, well, that would go a LONG way towards convincing me that I was right all along in my assumptions.
If they instead wilt, shrivel up, and die, then... I guess the jury is still out.
If it makes you feel any better:
I've got some Schultz Take Root and Rootone powders. They both contain anti-fungal agents (I believe) and work great. And I've got a bottle of Dragon Plant Starter with Vitamin B1 and Chelated Iron (3-12-4) that's probably 20 or 25 years old (a little dab will do ya, lol) that also works great for rooting clones (and transplanting, and for correcting iron deficiencies... on just about any type of herb, flower, fruit, vegetable, shrub, or tree you care to mention). I've also got a bottle of OLIVIA'S CLONING GEL <W00t!> along with a bottle of Olivia's Cloning Solution (fertilizer/etc. for potential and rooting clones) - and if anything could be said to be able to grow roots on a ROCK, it would be their stuff. I believe that Olivia's Cloning Gel is the best I've used even without using their Cloning Solution with it. And I've got a pretty decent cloner I built, sits on a heating pad, two 12" air stones, etc. that has a cover that retains a lot of humidity and diffuses the light without stopping all ventilation.
But 90% of the time I'm either in a hurry, lazy, or forget to get things ready beforehand and I end up either sticking the cuttings in a glass of water that sits in my kitchen windowsill. Or else sticking them in cups of damp perlite/vermiculite (retains moisture - but not too much) mix and sticking them under a dim fluorescent light or "not real close" to a metal halide light,
trying to remember to check regularly to make sure that the media doesn't dry out, making a point to make sure that it doesn't cross the line from damp to WET and cause rotting, and misting the leaves when I stick 'em and (<COUGH>usually) two or three days later if they look
too wilty. If I think of it and want to mess with it, I'll hang some saran-wrap over them for the first two days or so.
And they most often root just fine. Might (ok, probably does) take a little longer but I never considered the time it took to root a cutting to be a
mission-critical kind of thing; rather only the fact that they did do so. Discounting screw-ups (you know, knock the glass off the windowsill and don't notice until it's too late, place the cup directly under a 400-watt MH "for just a minute" while you run into the living room to answer the door and remember the cutting a few days later, CAT eats it, etc.), the way that grandma rooted her cuttings still works great. After all, grandma was poor as dirt and for her it was a matter of growing things to feed WAY too many kids
so you got to figure if there was a way that had a markedly better success rate, she'd have found it. I've taken a dozen cuttings, remembered that it was time to go pick up the GF, wrapped them in a (slightly) dampened paper towel, thrown the mess into a baggie and the baggie into the refrigerator, left to get the GF, ended up going to the store... and had her ask me two days later WtF the mess in the vegetable drawer was - and gotten them all to root. And back in '93 or thereabouts I received three clones in a package that had to have been in transit for at least five days. Two were obvious goners when I opened the package - the other one grew into a wonderful mother. (Ok, I remember that I used cloning stuff on that one - but my point is that cuttings are generally going to GROW unless we kill them first.)
Yeah there are some strains - and some species of plants - that don't seem to have the vigor to root well. And there are situations where you really want the cuttings to start growing ASAP. And situations where a 98% success rate isn't good enough - if, for example, you just drove 400 miles from Uncle Tommy's house and he only gave you one cutting or you returned home from vacation only to find that your best mother plant was in the last stages of a horrible death by crisping and there was only one branch left that wasn't crunchy - and in such situations, here's hopin' that you've managed to order a bottle of Olivia's Gel (and their Cloning Solution is a helpful thing also) to turn that 98% into a 100% and allow you to sleep peacefully that night.
Other than that, the gels, powders, etc. are a convenience (
and a time-saver). Nice to have and I do highly recommend that you pick something up - but still a convenience.
Hope this helps you feel better (or cures your insomnia; I didn't mean to run on so, lol),
~TS~
