If it works I will have to try it out on my surinam cherry plant. I've been trying all summer to get cuttings to root and have had no luck.

Good luck with that guy.

It should also be noted that I root all my cuttings in this:

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It holds a fair amount of water and I've found it works pretty well with rooting the cuttings.

You removed the bark from the splayed part?

I do that all the time - ie quarter the bottom of the cutting with a small trunk splitter & push a pebble up into the split, but if you removed the bark you're likely to only get roots from where the cambium ends or through the periderm. Maybe I'm misinterpreting the photos ....?

Al

I did remove the bark from there, and the thought was that it would allow the cutting to more easily take up water. I guess we will have to see what happens. I've already had one take, I can see roots all in the pot. I just wonder now how long before I should pull it up and check it out....

But if that does happen, I'll remove the roots from that area and keep the cutting planted. Live and learn, live and learn.

When the cutting shows growth beyond just the opening of any existing buds ..... IOW, when a bud has opened AND the cutting has shown additional growth, you can be sure it's rooted. "Checking" for roots greatly increases the amount of time it takes for a cutting to get established because every time the cutting is moved (relative to the position of the container & soil mass) it breaks large numbers of the finest roots, the roots that do all the heavy lifting. You then need to wait until the plant regenerates these roots before you rearrive at where you were before the urge to 'peek'.

Al

I tried this technique on a couple of other Ficus benjamina 'Kiki' cuttings and dug one of them up tonight after seeing great roots. Roots did form where the cambium ended, but I plucked them off and kept the roots where I wanted them:

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I washed the roots down:
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And repotted into some turface:
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I'll let it grow for another month or so and check it again.

Did this technique on a Willow Leaf cutting:
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