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I just thought I would share some results from my limited experience.
This year I thought I would give bottom watering a try. Harvey the rat killer and many others have had good success with it and it seems very easy and time efficient.
First, when I make my cups I melt four equidistant holes on the bottom and twelve on the sides. In the past I have used a spray bottle on rough mist to water gently on top and through the holes wherever moisture is needed, or tip the cup at a 45 and spray on the lower top edge to run a bead of water straight down the side of the cup, always erring in the side of too little vs too much. Time consuming, but I try too keep my numbers under 20 with 12 or less figlings being even better. My cupping mix is 2:1:0.5 screened perlite/peat/screened vermiculite. I started using the bottom watering on my front runners, luckily there were only 3. I would partially set them in a cup of about an inch of water for 3-8 seconds, then let them drain for a bit and then set them on a paper towel as well to pull more excess water. I think I used this method 3 times. Two of the three front runners are dead from rot. The third seems okay but will still have a droopy day if it's clear skies with higher light levels coming in to it, which indicates to me it definitely took some damage but has roots that are above the rot as well, however this girl still isn't in the clear. The funny(or not) thing is that the roots against the cup don't ever really look bad so you can't go by that, it's the cutting wood that is rotting and not the roots. Heck, sometimes I've watched a root get damaged on the proximal end and completely dry up(by an air hole) while the distal end still grows for days with no evidence of it's imminent doom.
I had said in a some thread a few weeks ago that I thought of way to remedy this scenario, but it didn't work. I took one of the doomed cuttings and cut the bottom 1/3 off to what looked to be 90% or more clean green wood. Then stripped all the leaves except the biggest most terminal one, just like you would do a summer cutting and put it in a cup of water. Within a couple hours the leaf had regained full turgor pressure and was looking good. Over the next week or so it gradually lost pressure and finally gave in. I think the rot had enough of a foot-hold above where I cut that it just didn't matter. So, this could still work but if you try it make sure the clean cut is entirely green with not a speck of brown in the green layer; that's what I had..a speck of brown.
I'm not sure, but I think the cup mix I use isn't favorable for bottom water of cuttings. Harvey and the others I have read about who have success have been using ProMix HP or similar. I think these mixes don't absorb as much water as quickly, whereas the mix I use allows the water to penetrate very fast and drains well.. but it will still hold way more water than the cutting can use when totally saturated and it doesn't have enough peat to wick the remaining water up into the upper levels of the cup.
Just my thoughts, hope it might help someone. Oh, and all of my later cutting that I have only used the spray bottle with are fine.
This year I thought I would give bottom watering a try. Harvey the rat killer and many others have had good success with it and it seems very easy and time efficient.
First, when I make my cups I melt four equidistant holes on the bottom and twelve on the sides. In the past I have used a spray bottle on rough mist to water gently on top and through the holes wherever moisture is needed, or tip the cup at a 45 and spray on the lower top edge to run a bead of water straight down the side of the cup, always erring in the side of too little vs too much. Time consuming, but I try too keep my numbers under 20 with 12 or less figlings being even better. My cupping mix is 2:1:0.5 screened perlite/peat/screened vermiculite. I started using the bottom watering on my front runners, luckily there were only 3. I would partially set them in a cup of about an inch of water for 3-8 seconds, then let them drain for a bit and then set them on a paper towel as well to pull more excess water. I think I used this method 3 times. Two of the three front runners are dead from rot. The third seems okay but will still have a droopy day if it's clear skies with higher light levels coming in to it, which indicates to me it definitely took some damage but has roots that are above the rot as well, however this girl still isn't in the clear. The funny(or not) thing is that the roots against the cup don't ever really look bad so you can't go by that, it's the cutting wood that is rotting and not the roots. Heck, sometimes I've watched a root get damaged on the proximal end and completely dry up(by an air hole) while the distal end still grows for days with no evidence of it's imminent doom.
I had said in a some thread a few weeks ago that I thought of way to remedy this scenario, but it didn't work. I took one of the doomed cuttings and cut the bottom 1/3 off to what looked to be 90% or more clean green wood. Then stripped all the leaves except the biggest most terminal one, just like you would do a summer cutting and put it in a cup of water. Within a couple hours the leaf had regained full turgor pressure and was looking good. Over the next week or so it gradually lost pressure and finally gave in. I think the rot had enough of a foot-hold above where I cut that it just didn't matter. So, this could still work but if you try it make sure the clean cut is entirely green with not a speck of brown in the green layer; that's what I had..a speck of brown.
I'm not sure, but I think the cup mix I use isn't favorable for bottom water of cuttings. Harvey and the others I have read about who have success have been using ProMix HP or similar. I think these mixes don't absorb as much water as quickly, whereas the mix I use allows the water to penetrate very fast and drains well.. but it will still hold way more water than the cutting can use when totally saturated and it doesn't have enough peat to wick the remaining water up into the upper levels of the cup.
Just my thoughts, hope it might help someone. Oh, and all of my later cutting that I have only used the spray bottle with are fine.
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