Hi,

Sorry you're having trouble w/ this, but you don't offer any of the info. we need to assess this.

You haven't said how you're growing these, or where or how you are watering, or how much & what kind of light you are giving it. Without any of that info. we can't begin to guess if it's under or overwatering, wrong mix, too much sun or something else. If you could pls. answer the above questions & we could then TRY to help you.

Ditto Pirate Girl. We don't know what you're doing wrong until we know what you're doing PERIOD!

Keep your chin up, once the light bulb goes on you'll be able to root almost anything! There's lots of ways to be successful at this.

Sorry for leaving out the details. I planted the cuttings in newly purchased potting mix (I'm not home now so I can't look at the bag to name it) and the pots sit in my living room on the lower shelf of a table in front of an eastern window. They get a lot of light but no direct sunlight as the lower shelf sits well below the window level.

Other plants that are doing well in just about the same spot are a hoya, a Florida beauty, a dracaena marginata, and the sprigs of grape ivy that did not die.

In trying to get the wandering Jew cuttings established, I kept the soil moist at all times, not allowing it to dry out between waterings. I use tap water, usually that has sat out overnight or longer. The pot is a ceramic McCoy pot with drainage and attached saucer.

Does this help?

I would suspect too much fertilizer in the potting soil, in conjunction with possible overwatering. You said the plants "arrived." Were the cuttings mailed? Were the roots from water or soil (if you could tell?) It sure has been hot...

Hey, leafy...I think that I've misunderstood your posting. Are you trying to keep ROOTED cuttings alive or are you trying to root some cuttings. ;-)

Hmmm, I'll try to answer as best I can.

Purpleinopp, my wandering jew cuttings did arrive in the mail. They had no soil on them when I got them, had been packed in wet paper towels and looked perfectly healthy when they arrived. The roots area was about the size of a penny on each one and the cuttings were about six inches long. My grape ivy cuttings I took myself from my mom's plant, wrapped in wet paper towels to get them home, sat them in water until I saw roots starting to grow, then planted. That was back in early spring and not the same potting mix as my recently departed wandering Jew.

tapla, so it sounds like you're saying the problem might have been too much leaf surface for the root development to support,fungus, or too wet soil?

It's difficult for anyone to pinpoint an exact cause of failure from an armchair ..... much easier to outline the areas that need attention if you're to expect consistent success. Soggy soils and too much transpiration for the plant to keep up with water loss, as well as exposure to fungal infection are all common causes. Also, cuttings taken from weak parent material have the deck stacked against them from the outset.

For most plants, 'ideal' would be a highly aerated, sterile medium (like screened perlite or screened Turface) that is damp, but not wet. Root zone temperatures in the 60-75* range with air temps being about 10* cooler than root temps. Bright light but not direct sun, and high humidity (90%+) surrounding the cutting. If you want me to, I'll take some photos to show you how I would prepare a herbaceous and a woody cutting for propagation .....?

Al

I agree with the surface-area theory and mostly strip something like coleus but, assuming that by "wandering jew" you mean one of the Tradescantias, that wouldn't ordinarily be a factor. I do think it would have been wilted if it was damaged by heat in transit. So that doesn't sound like the culprit. Sometimes plants don't adapt well when they go from "water roots" to soil. But definitely not usually total failure of several known-to-be-easy-to-root cuttings.

Some potting soils come with fertilizer in them that could overwhelm "water roots."

I'd place the Wandering Jew in water until they're fully rooted. Once roots are 4" or more, pot in soil.
WJ roots fairly fast, though quicker in spring/summer.

Grape Ivy roots in water too, but might take longer. Toni