A plant cutting can be offered to you in various mediums. Cuttings are sold and shipped in water or moss, for example. It can therefore be confusing how you should deal with the cutting. The cutting should of course get the best chance to develop good roots, so that it can develop into a fully-fledged plant. To help you with this, we have listed some general tips and information for you here:
The cutting is propagated in water
When a cutting is propagated in water, the roots are used to being wet all the time. The transition to soil is therefore a big change for the cutting.
If your cutting does not have enough roots before you plant it in the ground, some of the roots may dry out or die. Since the "water roots" probably do not have much down to absorb water, it will take time for them to develop more down.
Transition from water to moss or perlite
When the method of propagation in water has been chosen, you can consider switching to perlite or moss before placing the cutting in a suitable soil mixture. (We at Plantique use moss for this method ourselves, by the way).
With this method you start propagating in water until the cutting starts to root. While the roots develop, you can switch to moist perlite or moss.
Roots that grow in a solid medium will branch more and develop more down. This makes the transition to a suitable soil mixture less stressful for the plant cutting, because the roots are already used to absorbing water from soil.
The cutting has been propagated in moss or perlite
You can transfer a cutting propagated in moss or perlite from the culture medium to a suitable soil mix when the largest downy white roots are long enough to branch into many smaller roots. The plant must have enough roots to survive the transition. This reduces the risk of leaf loss due to transplant shock.
The cutting is propagated in soil mix
When you have received a cutting in soil mix, it is very important to let the cutting acclimatise on a permanent spot in the room after arrival. The plant must be able to get used to the new environmental factors. We at Plantique strongly advise against repotting a cutting in soil mix within the first 6 weeks after arrival.
By the way, did you know that it is best to use osmosis water or rain water for your plants? You can use it for watering, but also for propagating a cutting!
