Is it normal for coleus cuttings to wilt before roots?

10 years ago

The Lowes near me has two foot coleus for 4 dollars a piece, so I had to get some! They're all bushy, and I want to grow a few standards, so I took lots of cuttings.

Unfortunately, my sun coleus will wilt within thirty minutes of being removed from the original plant, and will continue to do so. My perilla looks good, just the leaves are somewhat droopy.

The ones that wilted the quickest were those that I put in soil. The next were the ones in perlite, following the one in water. I never had this problem before. Is it because I'm not using root hormone? Then again, last time I had coleus I was in the Chicago area, so it was much more humid. Any help?

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Comments (6)

User
10 years ago
Yes, I think it is. I always water root mine (it's been a long time) but recall Coleus seems very quick to dry out.

I suspect one need to cover (enclose the whole set up in plastic bag) newly potted Coleus cuttings to keep them moist enough to root.
rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
10 years ago
Your medium needs to be coarse textured and moist. Make your cuttings about five inches or less. Remove the bottom leaves, keeping only the top two or so; pinch off any flowers if present. If those leaves are large, you can snip off half to reduce the surface area.

Pre-drill holes with a pencil or skewer, place the cutting into the hole and water again to force the mix around the stem. No pinching, poking, or tamping with your fingers. Place your cuttings in a shaded location, out of the heat but not in frigid air conditioning. You can certainly cover with plastic to reduce transpirational loss during the rooting period.

Don't pull on the leaves to check on their progress for at least three or four weeks.

If the medium that you are using is overly peaty and dense then you may want to add fifty percent perlite.

I always prefer rooting in a medium of some sort, rather than water.
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Back to when you repotted: if you just took the plant out of the old pot and placed it in the new one it may still be tangled up in its old root ball. If you take it out again, shake off the new mix and take a look. The bottom of the ball needs to be open at this point. No mat of roots at the bottom. If there is - take an old but sharp knife and slice off an eighth to a fourth of that bottom tangle. Take a chop stick or similar and gently tease out SOME of the old mix in the middle. Enough so the ends of the roots are free of old mix. If your preferred mix comes with grit or perlite added you may not need any more. If it is peat-based then you might. The added grit helps the plant to form a good foraging root mass. Instead of the pebbles at the bottom lay in a piece of fine plastic mesh - or a tissue - to hold the mix in the pot. (The pebbles drain just fine but the mix is more dense. When you water a little wet patch forms between the mix and the pebbles - and the roots at the bottom can die.) Plant the roots over a little cone of mix that you place above a base layer of about half an inch. Then fill up around the roots with the new mix, and tap the pot on the bench to settle the mix. Leave about half an inch between the top of the mix and the top of the pot so you can water deeply. Ease back as winter comes in unless you have clear skies for most of the time. The cuttings are absolutely easy - and well worth doing. I've found Coleus to do well in bright but indirect light. Do remember to turn it so all sides grow evenly.
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Does anyone know why cuttings curl up (and out of the water) when potted in water? I just made my cuttings yesterday and the stems all curled up when I checked on them this afternoon. Each cutting was placed on a separate can of water and water was filled until it covered a little above the lowest nodes. In addition to the curled stems, the leaves also seem to be curling a bit. Does anyone know what's happening to my cuttings? Are they wilting or dying? What should I do to save them or keep them healthy. Please help! Thank you in advance.
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Heythere, Vintage. Good to hear from you! You can absolutely use a wine bottle, or BBQ sauce bottle, coffee can, whatever you have that is clean and will hold water. I quit using glass I want to keep because our water is so full of lime. After a few weeks, glass items are etched with lime deposits, a caveat to others who might have lime-y water. Brandon has some excellent info (gleaned from experience) to share about propagating in general. I don't blame him for sticking to his general view that water propagation is the red-headed step-child of propagation. His objections inspired me to share more of what I've experienced and I look forward to doing a better job with taking more pictures this coming spring. His warnings that most plants won't yield the same results with this method are valid, and his contributions to this discussion are appreciated, at least by me. I don't know if the person who started this discussion imagined it becoming so "big." My description of my last picture added did prove to be true. There are at least 4x as many cuttings as what is pictured Nov. 19. Some have been separated more, other jars with large openings still have up to 10 cuttings in them. Ken, you might be interested to know that the accumulation of your comments about the size of cuttings in general inspired me to stick the tiny tip of a Coleus plant next to the mama when I accidentally broke it off. It's been at least 3 weeks so I think it's safe to say that it's going to live since it's not crispy brown yet. You have to look closely at the very bottom of the pic to see that it's a separate, tiny piece, just a couple leaves. (The mama is a cutting I appropriated from a giant overgrown planter in Sept.) It was already well-rooted by the time "panic night" rolled around, and partly due to this discussion, and partly due to testimonials I've read from others who do have success keeping potted Coleus alive for winter, I potted it up at the same time as taking the other cuttings. Don't know if the soil purists will consider this a good comparison since it had "water roots" before going into a pot. Someone above mentioned newer style windows with UV protections and that definitely could have and probably did contribute to my failures in OH. My dwellings all had at least double-pane windows and at my last one, where I really went nuts and failed miserably the last winter I tried, I had the windows replaced in January with all of those fancy options. Great for furniture and carpet, really can have disastrous effects on plants. Become more honest with myself about the vast difference in light for a plant right on a windowsill vs. one 4 ft. from the window also.
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rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
10 years ago
Your medium needs to be coarse textured and moist. Make your cuttings about five inches or less. Remove the bottom leaves, keeping only the top two or so; pinch off any flowers if present. If those leaves are large, you can snip off half to reduce the surface area.

Pre-drill holes with a pencil or skewer, place the cutting into the hole and water again to force the mix around the stem. No pinching, poking, or tamping with your fingers. Place your cuttings in a shaded location, out of the heat but not in frigid air conditioning. You can certainly cover with plastic to reduce transpirational loss during the rooting period.

Don't pull on the leaves to check on their progress for at least three or four weeks.

If the medium that you are using is overly peaty and dense then you may want to add fifty percent perlite.

I always prefer rooting in a medium of some sort, rather than water.
garyfla_gw
10 years ago
Hi
naturally they will wilt since there are no roots to transport water to the leaves .. Keep them warm ,shaded and moist and they will recover. Except for philos they are the worlds easiest plant to root.lol. If you want ,you can avoid the wilting by putting a bit of LF sphag where you want it to root . .When roots develop simply snip just below
ready to transplant and the original plant is already on the way to recovery. I don't ever recall having a cutting fail no matter what method was used ?? gary
birdsnblooms
10 years ago
Morning Everyone,

Cs..I've successfully rooted Coleus in water. No rooting hormone is needed.

What size are stems you're attempting to root? If too long, they'll naturally wilt.

I know you're trying for a standard, 'you'll have to tell me how it's done,' but rooting longer pieces are more difficult.

Stem shouldn't be any larger than 6". Remove lower leaves, then place in room-temp water. Change water every other day.

BTW, except for succulents, I haven't luck rooting in soil, but that's me. Many here haven't any problems rooting in mediums.

Since your Coleus is large, perhaps you should root 2-3 cuttings in soil using rooting hormone, and 2-3 in water.

Good luck, Toni
teengardener1888
10 years ago
Pirate, some advice

I always used to use the water method, it is quicker and easier. But I find that if you stick it in potting mix and enclose it is a salad container(clear) it roots and takes off tenfold faster than the water method. Do you plant the roots young or do you let them grow in the water for a long time. I also find that some cultivars simply root better than others in water . I have saved my Inky Fingers cultivar for years and with a near 100 percent cutting survival rate, yet I find that broad leaved cultivars tend to rot easier if rooted in water

Is it normal for coleus cuttings to wilt before roots?

Comments (6)

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rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7

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