Against convention: propagate in jars of water

It’s frowned on by green thumbs. But when I just stick my cuttings in a jar of water on the window sill and replace the water every few days I have a very high success rate at them growing roots.

For all the problems they mention, like them being the wrong type of roots, or weak roots, they’ve had great success when planted in the ground later. The stems being struck in pots of soil are too finicky for me, like they dry out and dye, and need constant watering and temperature fluctuates too greatly outdoors.

So far I’ve propagated rosemary and passionfruit. Figs and blueberries look like they’re breaking out roots too.

I have really good luck doing this combined with root trimming.  As soon as the roots get a couple inches long, I cut them back to 3/4 of an inch or so.  It forces more roots, and forces the current roots to develop the small feeder roots.  The roots look like feathers after being trimmed a few times.

I am an experimenter by nature.      I have been combining the Kratky method of growing plants with cutting propagation.

The best setup so far for me is to use a combo approach,   I put the cuttings in a jar or dipped into my fish water ( water from my water filter from my 1000 gal fish tank )...


Then after that I put a clear plastic top over that,   Inside of this is a Jar with a cloth towel in that wicks water into the chamber so the leaves of the cuttings stay nice an moist.

This works like a champ.      The sweet potato cutting roots have really gone crazy for me in this setup.

More pictures

Mart, could you explain more about what the cloth does?  Does it just wick water from the bin below to increase humidity or ?  I'm not really understanding your setup and I'd like to give it a try.

Trace Oswald wrote:Mart, could you explain more about what the cloth does?  Does it just wick water from the bin below to increase humidity or ?  I'm not really understanding your setup and I'd like to give it a try.

Sure... in the clear tupperware plastic turned upside down is a peanut butter jar filled with water.    The cloth in that peanut butter jar increases the humidity inside the tupperware so the leaves stay nice and moist.


I have also put in wet rags inside of the upside down clear plastic.      Just be sure it does not touch the cutting at it will cause it to rot, but inside not touching the plant works wonders till the plant gets rooted.

Thanks for taking time to explain Mart.  It's a cool setup.  I'll have to try it.

Mart Hale wrote:I am an experimenter by nature.      I have been combining the Kratky method of growing plants with cutting propagation.

The best setup so far for me is to use a combo approach,   I put the cuttings in a jar or dipped into my fish water ( water from my water filter from my 1000 gal fish tank )...


Then after that I put a clear plastic top over that,   Inside of this is a Jar with a cloth towel in that wicks water into the chamber so the leaves of the cuttings stay nice an moist.

This works like a champ.      The sweet potato cutting roots have really gone crazy for me in this setup.

I really really love this set up. We have a big fish tank with top filter I could do that on. Why did I never think of it before!

elle sagenev wrote:

Mart Hale wrote:I am an experimenter by nature.      I have been combining the Kratky method of growing plants with cutting propagation.

The best setup so far for me is to use a combo approach,   I put the cuttings in a jar or dipped into my fish water ( water from my water filter from my 1000 gal fish tank )...


Then after that I put a clear plastic top over that,   Inside of this is a Jar with a cloth towel in that wicks water into the chamber so the leaves of the cuttings stay nice an moist.

This works like a champ.      The sweet potato cutting roots have really gone crazy for me in this setup.

I really really love this set up. We have a big fish tank with top filter I could do that on. Why did I never think of it before!

Well it goes against everything they teach you in aquaponics.     They say you must have air into the water or horrible things happen with anerobic bacteria....

But.....    after reading on what people do with the results of methane genearation, and also korean natural farming ( uses anerobic ) methods, I decided to venture where they tell you not to go.