First, take a quick look at all the misting components. You are looking for any cracks, breaks, worn areas, etc that may become problems later on. Also think back to the previous year and if you had any problems with the system. If any problems with any components are detected, now is the time to fix them.

If you have a DIG digital misting timer that controls your misting system (and you should!), replace the 9 volt battery. Simply remove the battery cover by giving it a twist, and the battery will drop out. Remove the old and replace with the new. Don’t worry about losing your program, the timer takes about 30 seconds to completely lose power and erase the program.

Remove any misting nozzles that may be installed in your main water line. Note how you remove them so you can reassemble everything back the way it was originally. Rinse out the main water line to flush out any debris that may be in them, rinse the nozzles in warm water, and if you have hard water or other minerals that cause scale, a short soak in vinegar will help dissolve any deposits. Reassemble the nozzles in the main line.

If using Dramm stix, the same vinegar soaking process works for the nozzles on them. One more item to look for on Dramm mist stix is checking the small black tubes for wear. If the end looks worn and has a smaller diameter than the rest of the tubing, cut it off with a razor knife. Using the tubes that have the ends worn will cause them to pop out of the holes in the water line. This can cause you to lose your entire bed of cuttings. Also look for cracks in the tubing along the seam. Replacement tubing for Dramm mist stix can be purchased in the event of a defective tube.

Next, rinse out the solenoid valve. Shake out any excessive water and debris with it. Opening the bypass and blowing out the water is also an option. be sure to close the bypass afterward.

Check the irrigation wire for breaks in the insulation or corrosion of the wire itself. Replace if necessary.

Clean out and rinse any filters you may be using. It is highly recommended to use a filter to eliminate any debris from entering your misting system components. Debris can cause solenoids to stick open and clog misting nozzles. I can hear some of you now “I have [insert water source here] and have never had any problems with debris in my lines”. That may be true. And it may not be.

Wells can have flakes of rust fall off the casing and the pump can pick this up and send it down the line and into your water piping. Occasionally, sand can also be stirred up and sent through your system too. The aerators on your faucets keep these small particles from getting into your drinking water and that may be why you have never seen sand in your glass of water. Water supplied through a local water district is less likely to contain debris, but it does happen. When any repairs are done on any lines by the District, sediment can and will enter the lines. This sediment can and will find its way to your water supply and your misting system. A simple water filter can save you a ton of time and money by keeping this debris out of your misting system. How do I know this?

Soon after the local water district worked on the lines near my friends house, her kitchen faucet stopped working. To make a long story short, the plumber the District sent ended up replacing the faucet because it was jammed with small pebbles that were carried in from the street.

Lastly, take stock of how the system performed the previous year and if you have any plans to expand your misting system the current year. If you had problems, now is the time to correct them. Any plans for expansion can be incorporated before your misting system is put into service for the year without any interruptions to your rooting operations.  For instance, if you are adding a zone, installing a splitter or manifold with multiple outlets to deliver the water to it will be easier when there is no water in the lines. Also, the system will not have to be shut down to accommodate the additions.

Doing these simple steps before placing the misting system in service can help eliminate any problems that may arise later.

What do you do to get your system ready for another season of rooting cuttings?

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Small town, big town, it doesn’t matter, if you have a small area in your backyard that you can use for planting, then you can make money growing small plants at home. Actually you can make pretty good money on 1/40 of one acre. That’s an area about 30 feet by 40 feet.

You will be amazed at how many plants you can fit in an area that small, and at how much money you can make. Even apartment dwellers can do this! If you live in an apartment, just to get a feel for how fun and rewarding a tiny nursery can be, find somebody with a little piece of ground that they will either let you use, let you rent it, or do a joint venture with you.

Is there really a market for small plants? The market is huge, something like 4 billion dollars last year alone, and the demand is tremendous. As a small grower, you have a tremendous advantage over the larger nurseries, their overhead is very high. As a backyard grower yours will be almost nothing.

You might be asking; “I live in a small town in a rural area, how many plants can I really sell?”

Tens of thousands if you want to. Most people don’t realize it, but large wholesale growers are the largest buyers of small plants in the country. They sell so many plants that they just can not produce them fast enough themselves, so they buy them from where ever they can find them. Just pack them up in a cardboard box and ship them anywhere you want.

I routinely buy large quantities of small plants and have them shipped thousands of miles to my house. Why do I buy plants if I know how to grow them myself? There are a lot of reasons, but one is because I am impatient and don’t like to grow Japanese Maples from seed. I can buy Japanese Maple seedlings for as little as 75¢ and all I have to do is pot them up and watch them grow.

I also buy large quantities of flowering shrubs that I would like to start propagating myself. I buy them for 50¢, pot them up, and often sell them the next year for $4.97. But in the mean time I take cuttings from them to propagate for next year’s crop. Then I never have to buy that variety again. Those are the same reasons that many wholesale nurseries are always looking for great deals on small plants. When they find someone like you, growing in their backyard they are delighted, because they know they can buy what they need for less money from a small backyard grower than they can if they buy from a large nursery.

It only stands to reason, your overhead is almost nothing, you don’t have to raise the price of your plants to pay for buildings, hundreds of acres of land, trucks, tractors, and dozens of employees.

How much money do you need to get started?

Almost none. All you have to do is root some cuttings, and you’re on your way! There are dozens of easy plant propagation techniques that are so easy to learn that young children can do them, and with great success I might add. This propagation information is available to you free of charge at www.freeplants.com

The size of the area you need to get started is really up to you, but an area about the size of a picnic table is a start. I’m serious. I root my cuttings in flats that are about 12” by 15”, and can get between 100 and 150 cuttings per flat. In an area about the size of a picnic table you should be able to root several thousand cuttings at a time.

And guess what?

As soon as they are well rooted, they have a value and can be sold immediately! Isn’t that cool?

Typically a rooted cutting is worth about 50¢. Let’s see now, 1500 cuttings at 50¢ each, that’s $750.!!! Wow!!! The wheels should be turning now.

But you don’t have to sell 50¢ plants, you can grow them until they’re bigger and get more money for them.  That’s what I do, I pot them up in small pots and they sell like crazy right from my driveway at $4.97 each.  This spring we sold over $25,000. worth of $4.97 plants right from our driveway.  One the people that bought my Backyard Nursery E-book held a sale this spring and sold $2,800. worth of plants her first weekend.  She was ecstatic!

Of course we also sold plants for much more than that.  I used to grow Japanese Red Maples and we sold those for $45. each,  and they sold like hot cakes!

This is one of the most fun and rewarding home businesses you could ever get involved in. My kids have learned work ethics, the value of a dollar, and skills that will last them a lifetime.  Anytime they needed a little extra money all they had to do was step out the back door and earn the money they need.

It costs very little to get started, and the rewards can be quite high. It’s certainly not a get rich quick plan (because there is no such thing!), but plenty of people have done very well in the nursery business.  All it takes is determination and hard work. You can learn it as you go along. It’s much easier than you think.

You can see photos of my backyard nursery on this page:  http://www.freeplants.com/backyard.htm

Michael J. McGroarty is the author of this article. Visit his most
interesting website, http://www.freeplants.com and sign up for his
excellent gardening newsletter, and grab a FREE copy of his
E-book, “Easy Plant Propagation”

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Let’s discuss how easy it is to start a business selling lining out stock. That’s what nurseryman call the little plants that they buy to plant out in the field or in containers. Lining out stock, or liners for short.

“Nurseryman buy plants?” You might be asking.

Yes they do. Nurseryman probably buy more plants than any other group of people in the country. Why would they buy them if they know how to grow them?

Because sometimes they can’t grow them fast enough to keep up with the demand. Or maybe they would like to grow a certain variety of plant, but can’t grow it themselves because they don’t have any place to get several thousand cuttings. So what they do is buy in rooted cuttings, plant them in the field or in containers, and then they either grow them on to sell, or they grow them on and just keep them around a year or two longer so they can take cuttings from them.

Then once they have a supply of their own plants they can sell the ones they bought in, that are now landscape size. Does this make sense?

Let’s say that Mary the nursery owner buys 1,000 Variegated Weigela rooted cuttings @ 50¢ each. She plants them in the field in the early spring and they take off growing like crazy. That summer she goes out and takes 3 cuttings from each plant (They need pruning away, right?).

She sticks those 3,000 cuttings under intermittent mist and in about 5 weeks she has 3,000 rooted cuttings that she can plant out that fall, and she does just that. The following summer she can get about 6,000 cuttings from the original 1000 plants that she bought, plus another 9,000 cuttings from the 3,000 she planted out last fall. That’s a total of 12,000 cuttings.

She continues to plant her rooted cuttings out in the field and keeps taking cuttings from them until she has all she wants to grow. From then on she can take as many cuttings as she needs from the plants that she has in the field. By now the original 1,000 plants that she bought @ 50¢ each are large enough to dig and sell, and they are worth $10.00 to $15.00 each wholesale. That’s $8,000 from a $500. investment, plus she can produce as many variegated weigela as she wants without buying any more cuttings.

Does it really happen this way. Yes it does. I was recently talking to a friend who grows and sells all kinds of plants and he told me that he has been buying Dwarf Alberta Spruce cuttings and growing them on and selling them. He doesn’t even root any himself, he just buys 5,000 every year, pots them up and sells them wholesale. How many other nurseryman across the country do you suppose do that?

To get started you can either buy a stock plant or two, or buy several hundred cuttings of the variety that you would like to sell. Instead of planting them out in the field, I would plant them in beds. Make each bed 4’ wide so you can reach the center to weed and take cuttings, and place the plants in the bed 10” apart.

As long as you keep taking cuttings the plants will remain fairly small, and compact. Then after a two or three years dig them up, put them in pots and sell them. By then you will have thousands more coming on that you can take cuttings from. Start out slow until you know what there is a market for.

Of course if you are subscriber to my Backyard Nursery Newsletter then as you know I let you know what is in short supply. You’ll have to use some weed control measures if you are growing in beds, but that’s all covered in my report “How to Start Your Own Backyard Nursery on 1/20 Acre or Less”. In the report I also cover how to sell the rooted cuttings.  http://www.freeplants.com/backyard.htm

Michael J. McGroarty is the author of this article. Visit his most
interesting website, http://www.freeplants.com and sign up for his
excellent gardening newsletter, and grab a FREE copy of his
E-book, “Easy Plant Propagation”

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“Timing and technique”.

When you do your cuttings is every bit as important as how you do them. So if you do the right thing, at the right time of the year, your efforts are sure to bring success. Through this article you will learn both.

“Rooting Hardwood Cuttings of Deciduous Plants”

Hardwood cuttings are much more durable than softwood cuttings which is why hardwoods are the best technique for the home gardener. A deciduous plant is a plant that loses it’s leaves during the winter. All plants go dormant during the winter, but evergreens keep their foliage. Many people don’t consider Rhododendrons, Azaleas, and and Mountain Laurel evergreens, but they are. They are known as broad leaf evergreens. Any plant that completely loses it’s leaves is a deciduous plant.

There are three different techniques for rooting cuttings of deciduous plants. Two methods for hardwood cuttings, and one for softwood cuttings.   In this article we are only going to discuss rooting cuttings using the hardwood methods.  If you are interested in softwood cuttings, you’ll find a very informative article at http://www.freeplants.com

Of the two hardwood techniques is one better than the other? It depends on exactly what you are rooting, what the soil conditions are at your house, and what Mother Nature has up her sleeve for the coming winter. I have experienced both success and failure using each method. Only experimentation will determine what works best for you. Try some cuttings using each method.

When doing hardwood cuttings of deciduous plants, you should wait until the parent plants are completely dormant. This does not happen until you’ve experienced a good hard freeze where the temperature dips down below 32 degrees F. for a period of several hours. Here in northeastern Ohio this usually occurs around mid November.

Unlike softwood cuttings of deciduous plants, where you only take tip cuttings from the ends of the branches, that rule does not apply to hardwood cuttings of deciduous plants. For instance, a plant such as Forsythia can grow as much as four feet in one season. In that case, you can use all of the current years growth to make hardwood cuttings.

You might be able to get six or eight cuttings from one branch. Grapes are extremely vigorous. A grape vine can grow up to ten feet or more in one season. That entire vine can be used for hardwood cuttings. Of course with grape vines, there is considerable space between the buds, so the cuttings have to be much longer than most other deciduous plants. The average length of a hardwood grape vine cutting is about 12” and still only has 3 or 4 buds. The bud spacing on most other deciduous plants is much closer, so the cuttings only need to be about 6- 8” in length.

Making a deciduous hardwood cutting is quite easy. Just collect some branches (known as canes) from the parent plants. Clip these canes into cuttings about 6” long. Of course these canes will not have any leaves on them because the plant is dormant, but if you examine the canes closely you will see little bumps along the cane. These bumps are bud unions. They are next year’s leaf buds or nodes, as they are often called.

When making a hardwood cutting of a deciduous plant it is best to make the cut at the bottom, or the butt end of the cutting just below a node, and make the cut at the top of the cutting about 3/4” above a node. This technique serves two purposes. One, it makes it easier for you to distinguish the top of the cutting from the bottom of the cutting as you handle them. It also aids the cutting in two different ways. Any time you cut a plant above a node, the section of stem left above that node will die back to the top node. So if you were to leave 1/2” of stem below the bottom node, it would just die back anyway. Having that section of dead wood underground is not a good idea. It is only a place for insects and disease to hide.

It is also helpful to actually injure a plant slightly when trying to force it to develop roots. When a plant is injured, it develops a callous over the wound as protection. This callous build up is necessary before roots will develop. Cutting just below a node on the bottom of a cutting causes the plant to develop callous and eventually, roots. Making the cut on the top of the cutting 3/4” above the node is done so that the 3/4” section of stem above the node will provide protection for the top node. This keeps the buds from being damaged or knocked off during handling and planting. You can press down on the cutting without harming the buds.

When rooting cuttings this way it helps to make the cut at the top of the cutting at an angle. This sheds water away from the cut end of the cutting and helps to reduce the chance of disease. Once you have all of your cuttings made, dip the bottom of the cutting in a rooting compound. Make sure you have the right strength rooting compound (available at most garden stores) for hardwood cuttings. Line them up so the butt ends are even and tie them into bundles.

Select a spot in your garden that is in full sun. Dig a hole about 12” deep and large enough to hold all of the bundles of cuttings. Place the bundles of cuttings in the hole upside down. The butt ends of the cuttings should be up. The butt ends of the cuttings should be about 6” below the surface. Cover the cuttings completely with soil and mark the location with a stake, so you can find them again in the spring.

I know this sounds crazy, but rooting cuttings this way does work.  To increase your chances of success you can cover the butt ends of the cuttings with moist peat moss before filling in the hole. Make sure you wet the peat moss thoroughly, then just pack it on the butt ends of the cuttings.

Over the winter the cuttings will develop callous and possibly some roots. Placing them in the hole upside down puts the butt ends closest to the surface, so they can be warmed by the sun, creating favorable conditions for root development. Being upside down also discourages top growth. Leave them alone until about mid spring after the danger of frost has passed. Over the winter the buds will begin to develop and will be quite tender when you dig them up. Frost could do considerable damage if you dig them and plant them out too early. That’s why it is best to leave them buried until the danger of frost has passed.

Dig them up very carefully, so as not to damage them. Cut open the bundles and examine the butt ends. Hopefully, you will see some callous build up. Even if there is no callous, plant them out anyway. You don’t need a bed of sand or anything special when you plant the cuttings out. Just put them in a sunny location in your garden. Of course the area you chose should be well drained, with good rich topsoil.

To plant the cuttings, just dig a very narrow trench, or using a spade, make a slice by prying open the ground. Place the cuttings in the trench with the butt ends down. Bury about one half of the cutting leaving a few buds above ground. Back fill around the cuttings with loose soil making sure there are no air pockets. Tamp them in lightly, then water thoroughly to eliminate any air pockets.

Water them on a regular basis, but don’t make the soil so wet that they rot. Within a few weeks the cuttings will start to leaf out. Some will more than likely collapse because there are not enough roots to support the plant. The others will develop roots as they leaf out. By fall, the cuttings that survived should be pretty well rooted. You can transplant them once they are dormant, or you can wait until spring. If you wait until spring, make sure you transplant them before they break dormancy.

There really is no exact science when it comes to rooting cuttings, so now I am going to present you with a variation of the above method.

This method still applies to hardwood cuttings of deciduous plants.  With this variation you do everything exactly the same as you do with the method you just learned, up to the point where you bury them for the winter.

With method number two you don’t bury them at all. Instead, you plant the cuttings out as soon as you make them in the late fall, or anytime during the winter when the ground is not frozen. In other words, you just completely skip the step where you bury the cuttings underground for the winter. Plant them exactly the same way as described for method number one. As with all cuttings, treating them with a rooting compound prior to planting will help induce root growth.

Hardwood cuttings work fairly well for most of the deciduous shrubs. However, they are not likely to work for some of the more refined varieties of deciduous ornamentals like Weeping Cherries or other ornamental trees.  Rooting cuttings of ornamental trees is possible, but only using softwood cutting techniques.

Now let’s discuss rooting cuttings of evergreens, using hardwood techniques.

Hardwood cuttings of evergreens are usually done after you have experienced two heavy frosts in the late fall, around mid November or so. However, I have obtained good results with some plants doing them as early as mid September, taking advantage of the warmth of the fall sun. When doing them is early, they need to be watered everyday.

Try some cuttings early and if they do poorly, just do some more in November. Hardwood cuttings of many evergreens can be done at home in a simple frame filled with coarse sand. To make such a frame, just make a square or rectangular frame using 2” by 6” boards. Nail the four corners together as if to make a large picture frame. This frame should sit on top of the ground in an area that is well drained. An area of partial shade is preferred.

Once you have the frame constructed remove any weeds or grass inside the frame so this vegetation does not grow up through your propagation bed. Fill this frame with a very coarse grade of sand.  The sand used in swimming pool filters usually works.  Mason’s sand is a little too fine.  If you have a sand and gravel yard in your area visit the site and inspect the sand piles.  Find a grade that is a little more coarse than masons sand.  But keep in mind that most any sand will work, so just pick one that you think is coarse enough.  If water runs through it easily, it’s coarse enough.

Make sure you place your frame in area where the water can drain through the sand, and out of the frame.  In other words, don’t select a soggy area for your cutting bed.  Standing water is sure to seriously hamper your results.

Making the evergreen cuttings is easy. Just clip a cutting 4-5 inches in length from the parent plant. Make tip cuttings only. (Only one cutting from each branch.) Strip the needles or leaves from the bottom one half to two thirds of the cutting. Wounding evergreen cuttings isn’t usually necessary because removing the leaves or needles causes enough injury for callous build up and root development.

Dip the butt ends of the cuttings in a powder or liquid rooting compound and stick them in the sand about 3/4” to 1” apart. Keep them watered throughout the fall until cool temperatures set in. If you have some warm dry days over the winter, make sure you water your cuttings.  Keep in mind that sand in a raised bed will dry out very quickly.  Don’t worry about snow.  Snow covering your cuttings is just fine, it will actually keep them moist, and protect them from harsh winter winds.

Start watering again in the spring and throughout the summer. They don’t need a lot of water, but be careful not to let them dry out, and at the same time making sure they are not soaking wet.

This method of rooting cuttings of evergreens actually works very well, but it does take some time. You should leave them in the frame for a period of twelve months. You can leave them longer if you like. Leaving them until the following spring would be just fine. They should develop more roots over the winter.

Rooting cuttings of the following plants is very easy using this method.  variegated Euonymus varieties, Taxus, Juniper, Arborvitae, Japanese Holly, Boxwood, and English Holly. Rhododendrons and Azaleas prefer to have their bottoms warmed before they root.

Michael J. McGroarty is the author of this article. Visit his most
interesting website, http://www.freeplants.com and sign up for his
excellent gardening newsletter, and grab a FREE copy of his
E-book, “Easy Plant Propagation”.

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The old rule of thumb was to start doing hardwood cuttings of evergreens after you have experienced at at least two hard freezes. After two hard freezes the plants are completely dormant. However, based on my experience it is beneficial to start doing your evergreen cuttings earlier than that. So instead of doing “by the book” hardwood cuttings you’re actually working with semi-hardwood cuttings. The down side to starting your cuttings early is that they will have to be watered daily unless you experience rain showers. The up side is that they will start rooting sooner, and therefore are better rooted when you pull them out to transplant them.

To prepare an area in which to root cuttings you must first select a site. An area that is about 50% shaded will work great. Full sun will work, it just requires that you tend to the cuttings more often. Clear all grass or other vegetation from the area that you have selected. The size of the area is up to you. Realistically, you can fit about one cutting per square inch of bed area. You might need a little more area per cutting, it depends on how close you stick the cuttings in the sand.

Once you have an area cleared off all you have to do is build a wooden frame and lay it on the ground in the area that you cleared. Your frame is a simple as four 2 by 4’s or four 2 by 6’s nailed together at each corner. It will be open on the top and open on the bottom. Just lay it on the ground in the cleared area, and fill it with a coarse grade of sand.

This sand should be clean (no mud or weed seed), and much coarser than the sand used in play box. Visit your local builders supply center and view each sand pile they have. They should have different grades varying from very fine to very coarse. You don’t want either. You want something a little more coarse than their medium grade. But then again it’s not rocket science, so don’t get all worked up trying to find just the right grade. Actually, bagged swimming pool filter sand also works and should be available at discount home centers.

Once your wooden frame is on the ground and filled with sand, you’re ready to start sticking cuttings. Wet the sand the day before you start, that will make it possible for you to make a slit in the sand that won’t fill right in. In this propagation box you can do all kinds of cuttings, but I would start with the evergreens first. Taxus, Junipers, and Arborvitae.

Make the cuttings about 4” long and remove the needles from the bottom two thirds of the cuttings. Dip them in a rooting compound and stick them in the sand about an inch or so.  Most garden centers sell rooting compounds.  Just tell them that you are rooting hardwood cuttings of evergreens.

When you make the Arborvitae cuttings you can actually remove large branches from an Arborvitae and just tear them apart and get hundreds of cuttings from one branch. When you tear them apart that leaves a small heel on the bottom of the cutting. Leave this heel on. It represents a wounded area, and the cutting will produce more roots because of this wound.

Once the weather gets colder and you have experienced at least one good hard freeze, the deciduous plants should be dormant and will have dropped their leaves, and you can now propagate them. Just make cuttings about 4” long, dip them in a rooting compound and stick them in the bed of sand. Not everything will root this way, but a lot of things will, and it takes little effort to find out what will work and what won’t.

This is a short list of just some of the things that root fine this way. Taxus, Juniper, Arborvitae, Japanese Holly, Blue Boy/Girl Holly, Boxwood, Cypress, Forsythia, Rose of Sharon, Sandcherry, Weigela, Red Twig Dogwood, Variegated Euonymus, Cotoneaster, Privet, and Viburnum.

Immediately after sticking the cuttings thoroughly soak the sand to make sure there are no air pockets around the cuttings. Keep the cuttings watered once or twice daily as long as the weather is warm. Once winter sets it you can stop watering, but if you get a warm dry spell, water during that time.

Start watering again in the spring and throughout out the summer. The cuttings should be rooted by late spring and you can cut back on the water, but don’t let them dry out to the point that they burn up.

By fall you can transplant them to a bed and grow them on for a year or two, or you can plant them in their permanent location. This technique takes 12 months, but it is simple and easy.

Michael J. McGroarty is the author of this article. Visit his most
interesting website, http://www.freeplants.com and sign up for his
excellent gardening newsletter, and grab a FREE copy of his
E-book, “Easy Plant Propagation”

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When it comes to your woody ornamentals and perennials, you always want the best method to keep your plants healthy. Using intermittent mist to root your cuttings is one of the most efficient means of asexually reproducing your plants in large quantities. Intermittent mist allows you to supply moisture automatically during critical periods of propagation, by way of timers that control when to release the mist onto your plants at a precise interval. Without the use of intermittent mist, cuttings would need to be kept in a humidity and temperature controlled environment in order to keep them from wilting and dying from overheating and transpiration.

Transpiration happens when the moisture from plants leaves, flowers, stems, and roots evaporates. Using intermittent mist helps raise the humidity levels around your cuttings, which will lessen the transpiration process, allowing the cuttings to form a root and callus, and reduces the temperature around your cuttings. All of which can be accomplished without the need for an expensive greenhouse that requires temperature and humidity controls. Under more ideal conditions, certain softwood cuttings will root under intermittent mist in as little as 2 to 3 weeks, allowing you to root multiple batches of cuttings in a single season.

There are lots of variations of misting facilities, providing a perfect fit for whatever needs you have. Larger scale propagators may be found using large misting houses with elaborate lighting and plumbing, while a more smaller family owned nursery may use simple hoophouses or root the cuttings in sand beds outdoors, using more simple misting systems and natural lighting. Proper location for outdoors misting areas are extremely importing. Too much wind or sun can be hazardous to your cuttings. The proper rooting media is also very critical when rooting cuttings under intermittent mist. Sand has been a widely used, a greatly successful and inexpensive element for many years, however a mixture of peat moss with an equal amount of perlite , vermiculite, or sand can be an even better rooting medium. This mixture will be more porous than sand alone, and is well aerated and better drained than sand.

Duration and interval of mist are also very critical elements to the ability of the cuttings to survive and be successful at rooting. Too little or too much time between mists can result in the cuttings drying out, wilting and dying. Too little mist can also result in the cuttings overheating, which can also result in your cuttings dying. Too much mist, or too little time between your mists, will result in a constantly wet cutting and constantly wet rooting medium. Another key aspect to remember when choosing intermittent mist, is temperature. It’s often overlooked while rooting cuttings, and should be kept between 50°F and 69°F. Once your cuttings have developed roots, the frequency of your intermittent mist should be gradually reduced, to begin hardening off the cuttings and to get them accustomed to a more normal growing condition. Over a period of a month or so, you should reduce the amount of watering to once a day. Your cuttings will now be ready to be transplanted into pots, grow beds, or planted into landscape, and should be established enough to be watered only during long dry spells.

Dwayne Haskell is the author of this article. Visit his most
interesting website, http://mistkits.com and sign up for the newsletter, as well as the newsletter, be sure to grab a copy of the free report “10 Reasons You Should Be Using Intermittent Mist”.

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Excellent question.

As fall arrives and winter is right around the corner, you need to begin to think of exactly when to take apart and winterize your plant propagation misting system. Turning it off to prematurely may damage your cuttings, too late and your misting system itself may be damaged. Read the article on winterizing your misting system using an air compressor, and this one on winterizing your misting system using gravity, both at the Mistkits.com blog,  for a few things to consider before you begin to winterize your misting system.

Now that you have an understanding as to how the winterizing process is done, you need to figure out precisely WHEN to do it. That is not as hard as you may believe.

The one thing you need to know before dismantling your misting system is the distinction between a frost and a freeze. Kathy Purdy at Cold Climate Gardening has previously written a great post on the differences, so I wont get into all the particulars, but to excerpt her article:

Both [the frost advisory and the freeze warning] are only issued during the growing season. A Frost Advisory is issued when the predicted temperature is expected to fall to 36 degrees or lower in the next 3 to 30 hours during the growing season. So temperatures 35 to 40 range would also dictate a frost advisory. A Freeze Warning is issued when there is an 80% or greater chance that the temperatures are expected to fall to 32 degrees (F) or lower in the next 3 to 30 hours during the growing season. If the temperature is expected to fall below 28 degrees (F) this is considered a Hard Freeze.

Learn more at: Cold Climate Gardening

So essentially what we need to worry about when deciding when to disassemble the misting system is when the temperature will fall below 32° F (0° C). If the temperature is predicted to fall below 32° the water within the piping, solenoids, and misting nozzles will freeze. When water freezes, it expands. This expansion is where we run into trouble. A misting system that freezes has the potential of having the piping, solenoids and mist nozzles breaking because of this expansion. Depending on exactly where the freeze occurred, you have the potential of water constantly running onto the ground or your cuttings because of a water main break, your cuttings getting no water when they should, or the cuttings getting too much water if the misting nozzles are damaged.

To minimize the likelihood that you will have frozen and damaged misting components you need to be sure you drain the system before the first freeze.

As I write this, Maine is experiencing very cold temperatures. This is very unusual for October. Just two days ago I made the determination to drain my misting system for the winter. I did this based on the weather forecast that the evening temperatures would get below 32° for a few nights. This time of year, the cuttings I took a month or so ago are essentially semi-hardwood anyway and misting them is almost a waste of time. If I keep them watered, they should eventually root. Even if they do not root, the crop is worth much less than my misting equipment.

One thing to keep in mind when making the decision to drain and winterize your misting system for the winter is the impact of frozen and broken equipment. It is much easier to start a new crop of softwood cuttings in the spring than it is to fix misting equipment. Just keep the cuttings watered until the ground freezes and they should be fine.

Dwayne Haskell is the author of this article. Visit his most
interesting website, http://mistkits.com and sign up for the newsletter. As well as the newsletter, be sure to grab a copy of this free report “10 Reasons You Should Be Using Intermittent Mist.”

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