Sand rooting question

Figlove

Figlove

Member
I am having trouble rooting in sand. I use a clear, plastic sterilite container with white lid. The play sand is about an inch high. I lay the cutting on top of the dry sand and push it in slightly so that the cuttings is maybe 1/3 to 1/2 covered. I spritz it with maybe 5 sprays of water and put the lid on. The cuttings seemed to dry out. When I added 2-3 additional sprays of water with new cuttings, the cuttings grew mold. (Cuttings had been soaked in a 50/50 mixture of water and 3% peroxide and then dried before placing them in the sand.)

The YouTube videos I have seen on the topic say that as long as you can see condensation on the sides of the container, you are fine. That has not been my experience. I have not used heat. Can anybody suggest possible improvements that will help prevent over-watering or under-watering? Thanks in advance!
 
So condensation indicates water not in the medium or around the cuttings, it is moisture lost. You can actually have a pretty dry medium with condensation on the container. So never go by condensation alone.

Typically, play sand is not used for rootingor growing because it is too fine. It may work for storage or pre-rooting though. When doing pre- rooting, you wet the sand so that it is moist and damp, and then you bury the whole cutting in it. You can leave the top out if you like. This is what prevents it from drying out. If the sand is too dry itself, it can take moisture out of the cutting.

Personally, I have had more issue with mold whenever I have sanitized my cuttings with hydrogen peroxide. I recommend not sanitizing at all. It isn’t a lost cause though, it just may be something you have to fight off a little bit.
 
I did some sand propagating last year with some spare cuttings. It turned out pretty well. The sand needs to be moist like Inflorescence said. If you have a lid on it, you probably barely need to spritz it once every 1-2 weeks. Remember, NOT wet. All they need it a little moisture to develop roots.

If the cutting develop mold, the trick is to catch it early. If no roots are growing yet, you can just pick up the cutting a rub it off or spritz it with h202 and place it back in the sand. Also, a little heat helps. I set mine on the back of my cooking range when I wasn't cooking and it just took up the ambient heat. Just give it time.
 
You gotta wet the play sand, it shouldn’t be standing water but it’s gotta be wet or it will probably never root at all. When you pot them up, there is gonna be some stress from it going from like 100% humidity to less. I recommend going to a hybrid fig pop and wrapping anything exposed with parafilm.
 
I put some non-dormant Magnolia cuttings in play sand I pilfered from my grandson's sand box. I got it way too wet, but went with it anyway. One cutting had a couple of small roots on the end. I cut off the top node and potted it horizontally. The rest I potted vertically in a cup.

The rest of these have plenty of lenticles contacting the sand, but no roots yet. Not sure how I'll proceed.
 

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ohiobruce said:
I put some non-dormant Magnolia cuttings in play sand I pilfered from my grandson's sand box. I got it way too wet, but went with it anyway. One cutting had a couple of small roots on the end. I cut off the top node and potted it horizontally. The rest I potted vertically in a cup.

The rest of these have plenty of lenticles contacting the sand, but no roots yet. Not sure how I'll proceed.
Click to expand...

Did you include any fertilizer?

It's a bit tough to tell from the top... how deep are the they into the sand?
 
I have tried again -- this time with moist sand. I'll try to figure out a place to plug up a heat mat. I'm optimistic that it will work this time! Wish me luck! Otherwise, I'll have to go back to fig pops, which are more time consuming to set up but work well.
 
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