Cuttings - What am I doing wrong?

I've never had much success doing cuttings. I've followed monty dons advice and did some penstemon cuttings how he described. He said they should root in a couple of weeks. This is what happened to mine:

He said to keep them moist but they look like theyve gone mouldy? Too much water? I've never had success with cuttings-any ideas/advice?


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Hi Snorky85
Im no expert and I never had much luck like yourself things just seemed to rot. But I had great success last year by adding sand or perlite to the compost mix. About 50:50 mix. Seemed to really help.





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Thanks @TMAK I will get some perlite and grit today I think and take some more cuttings [emoji4]


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Get some hormone rooting powder as well

 

Thanks peeps! Love this forum. Don't suppose you know a good thing to mix with clay soil for my lotty? Got raised beds which i was going to mix in some manure and then top with good compost.


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I'm afraid I know nothing about clay soils Snorky. I'm cursed with wet/ waterlogged peat which is fun. If you don't get an answer here it might be best to start a new thread for that.


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Order a tonne of spent mushroom compost, raid the paper and cardboard bank, dig trenches, line them with paper, throw as much organic stuff into them as you can, include crumpled cardboard as well as kitchen waste, hair clippings from a barbers/dog groomers, sawdust etc.

Cover the trenches with the mushroom compost and plant broad beans on top

 

I have problems with certain cuttings too, OP. The reason for those troublesome ones is that I am not able to keep up suitable growing conditions to a sufficient degree for the cuttings to strike - these, I have determined, are all connected to watering.

Cue the self-watering container.





I use two large plastic water bottles with string filaments from a mop as the wick. The potting mix is 1 part perlite to 3 parts multipurpose compost. Other mixes using sharp sand, coir or polystyrene beads in place of perlite will also work.

 

Wow that looks ace! Gonna have a go at making one! Been out and got manure for the lotty to dig in before adding regular compost, also got some perlite and rooting powder so will see what happens! Also the wyvale garden centre had loads of seeds reduced to 50p each-all in date. Bought a mass selection [emoji1]


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Also got a pile of cardboard boxes from the house moves so will give a trench a go


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Dug 3 bags of manure into one bed-took put loads of hard clay clumps, then dug in two big bags of multipurpose-got to be better than what it was!


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Yeah, all in date, because you cant grow any of that stuff till next year.

Still probably be ok by then, but they wont be able to sell them.

 

That's fine though as i'm preparing my soil ready for feb/march.


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And they're all sow by 2018-19


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