potting on cuttings

padmeister

I have some cuttings of salvia caradona which I took just over a month ago.  They're putting on new leaves and look like they've definitely taken.  I've moved them from a cool windowsill inside to the cold frame.

As I'm new to cuttings I was wondering whether I should separate them out into new pots now, as you would with seedlings.  Is this too soon?

punkdoc

Cuttings often develop new leaves before they have grown roots. I would not separate them, until you see roots growing out of their container.
At this time of year, you might find that you don't need to do this until next year.

padmeister

Thanks punkdoc. I'll leave them alone then.

I have a couple of clear pots from orchids in the shed. I’m going to use those for my next experiments with cuttings I think. Might remove the element of guesswork

Arthur1

Generally, roots grow away from light so clear pots might not give you a reliable indicator of the level of rooting. Fun to do though.

JennyJ

It's usually easy to see when roots start coming through the drainage holes, and then ypu can gently turn out the rootball into your hand to get a better look. I often find that there'll be one or two that haven't rooted at all while the others are doing well - those ones get chucked in the compost bin.

JennyJ

Rooting in water works well for shrubby salvias (macrophylla and greggii hybrids) but I don't know about the herbaceaous ones like caradona - I've always proagated those by division.

padmeister

Kate 7 said:

Generally, roots grow away from light so clear pots might not give you a reliable indicator of the level of rooting. Fun to do though.

I should have thought of that 

padmeister

JennyJ said:

Rooting in water works well for shrubby salvias (macrophylla and greggii hybrids) but I don't know about the herbaceaous ones like caradona - I've always proagated those by division.

Thanks.  Yes, I did think about trying water.  If these fail I'll try it next time.

Division was an option but I wanted to get quite a few plants going at once so I can plant them up as a drift of colour down the border.  The original plant isn't particularly big either so ideally I'd want to leave it another year or two before dividing.