Here is what I do when propagating: I use "play sand" that is available at any box stores. I place the sand in a plastic container which you can obtain from wall-mart or dollar store. I cut holes on the bottom for good drainage. I fill the container with sand and than saturate it with water. (Don't worry about the sand coming out of the holes. Once the sand is wet, it will hold together) I select the tip of the plant that is approx. 3 to 4 months old and cut a piece that is approx. 5 to 6 inches long. I take off all the bottom leaves leaving two at the top. I dip the end in the rooting material and after cutting a little trench in the sand I place the cutting about an inch deep and press the sand around it. (I do a minimum of 25 to 35 cuttings using the container mentioned) I then use a white kitchen garbage bag and place the container inside and then I mist the inside. I blow in the bag and then tie the end and place it under a tree. I check the container for moisture after 7 days. If there is condensation on the bag, I leave it alone. The cuttings should be taking root after three to four weeks. I have a 90% success in rooting cuttings using this method. Hope this helps.

I don't know what others will think about them, Lizzy, but I don't recommend using any sort of permeable pots out here with our low humidity. Watering for some plants can be hard enough, and when the moisture can evaporate up, down, and every-which-way-possible, keeping the plants wet enough without overwatering can be very difficult. I even stopped using clay pots a long time ago because watering was too hard when I was using them. At one of our swaps a couple years ago somebody (have no idea who it was) brought some seedlings in paper pots, they were very small (don’t know when they had been seeded), and, to me they looked like they were really struggling to grow . I noticed that the paper looked like it was mostly dry, but when somebody picked one up and looked closely at it they commented that the soil was saturated. I wasn’t interested in the particular plants in the pots, so I didn’t look at them any more closely, but based on the appearance of the plants I didn’t think it looked like a good idea. A few years ago at a swap I gave away what I had left of some VERY old peat pots and pellets I had. They just don’t work out here in my opinion, and I gave fair warning to the person who took them. I don’t know what happened with them after that! I recommend (and use) plastic pots. Square ones are the most “efficient” since they fit closely together , and if you get the right size to fit into the “segmented flats” like the ones used at garden centers, it will make using, growing, and moving your plants around very easy. The flats have holes in the bottom so water retention is no problem. With plastic the soil will dry from the top down (rather than from "all sides") so you can help promote good root growth by letting the soil dry deeper and deeper in the pot before watering them again. Long ago I used to always wash my pots before reusing them, and then I soaked them in a mild bleach solution to be sure they were all the way clean. Then I ran out of time and started just reusing them “as is,” and, having never had any sort of a major disease problem, I never noticed any problems with doing that. I do still occasionally wash a few for a “special project” if there’s something I want to be absolutely sure about, but I find myself doing that less and less often too now--VERY few things get a “clean” pot with me! (I do still use clean pots if I'm rooting cuttings I think I might have a problem with.) I don’t now what “cow pots” are (made out of cow pies???) but I’m thinkin’ they’re something very close to peat/paper pots. If you do decide to try the paper pots, be sure you remove as much of the pot as possible before putting your plants in the ground or I’m pretty sure you’ll continue to have the same problems you did with the “cow pots.” I’ve always kind of wondered how well the peat--and similar--pots decompose even when they’re planted in the Midwest or some other humid place, but out here it just doesn’t work. Any “pot” left above the soil line will just wick moisture away from the roots, and even “pot” left in the ground will interfere with moisture moving from in or out of “the pot” to the surrounding soil. There was a thread about paper pots around here a couple years ago, and if you go to the search box on the BOTTOM of the main RMG page (by “birthdays”) you can search just this forum to look for it if you want to. Don’t really remember what all was said! If you do decide to try some of them, come back and give us a report after you’ve had time to decide what you think of them. Skybird This post was edited by skybird on Thu, Jan 9, 14 at 15:23

Try using cardboard rolls from paper towels and toilet rolls to make seedling pots. They work great, I just transplanted flower seedlings from them. The cardboard holds up to repeated mistings and does not fall apart. To make; flatten the cardboard cylinder and cut into three sections from the longer roll; in half for the toilet roll. At one end cut thru the flatten roll 3/4" to 1"; open the roll and refold to make another 3/4" cut. You should have four flaps on one end of the open cylinder if you did it right. Fold the flaps down into a box fold and your little cardboard seedling starter pot should look squarish with a folded flap bottom. When I transplanted my seedlings yesterday, I opened the bottom and push the seedling soil block out, but you probably could plant the whole container, just open the flaps and trim off. I hope you can get the jest of making these from my description. I plan to start all my tomato seeds in these this Fall. Mary

Hi Joshua. The Philippines is USDA Zone 14, which doesn't really exist! It's just used for reference. But this means you have the perfect climate for adeniums. My sister grows them there using roughly the same substrate you are using. If they germinated in the sun, you should keep them in the shade for about three days after repotting, just to be safe. If they germinated indoors or in the shade, keep them in bright shade longer--say about a week. Then slowly move them into morning sun only, for about a week and so on for longer periods. I strongly recommend using small disposable pots like plastic cups or something. In that zone, they will outgrow them very very quickly. It's like buying shoes for kids---you don't want to spend too much since they outgrow them in months. Wait a year before you invest on more permanent pots. And yes, you can water them immediately after repotting. Pagan