You could scrape the part that was buried to see if there is still some life down there then if so dip it in rooting hormone just to try something different from the others. If your medium is really loose I can't see that hurting but new roots can tear off easily.

Ah so that was perhaps the roots I was seeing ? I did see something stringy.. like a mm long but was very thin but just a slight touch with my hand will make it peel off. So I thought it was part of the media but maybe those were actually roots?? And do you see any roots or something of that sort from the picture ?

Just a guess but the roots should be white and only darken later, I have not rooted hinoki.

Three months is nothing when rooting chamaecyparis cuttings!! They are not fast to root - could take as much as a year - and pulling them out of the media before a good root system has developed is a sure way to kill them off. Leave them alone and be patient. They should be able to be planted out or potted up by late summer or early fall.

I was told by Dave Olszyk that this genus takes about 3-4 months to root? So the 2 cuttings that I pulled out is guaranteed dead?? I did put them back in the media, watered it. Sigh well I guess I lost 2 of my only 7 cuttings I have which only leaves me with 5 more

you are not thinking in tree time... much too impatient ...

so dave's info was in regard to first time novices .. i doubt it ... pro's can do all kinds of things.. that you can not do with your first ever propagation system ...

flip the coin.. are they still green and vibrant.. yes.. you win that part ...

i dont see why pulling one out for a couple mins... and then reinserting means they are dead.. for that alone ...

a root is a root.. there shouldnt be much confusion over it .. when you see it ... i have no clue what the strand you saw was ...

i remind you.. that we cautioned you to waterproof your mat ... just for the heck of it ...

ken

a professional setup with bottom heat, cool air, blue light, frequent misting (at least hourly), good ventilation and rooting hormone that regular people can't easily get, will get you roots in 3-6 months.

Hinokis can be tricky. The easiest conifers to root are arbs and yews. I recommend practicing with those to start. There are a couple guys on FB who are rooting black pines. They're also very secretive about their techniques. One of them is working on patenting his setup.

I watched the pros at Iseli in action once. Their first task was to pack down the rooting medium at tightly as possible. That was impressive. It's almost as if air around the cutting is a detriment.

Regular people using tubs or plastic bags and dip-n-grow are best counseled to dip, stick and forget for a year. Don't peek, don't mess with them, and by all means don't pull them out to look at them.

Lucky for those that can have access to good facilities like that. I try packing down the medium but when you insert the cutting do you just let the cutting itself penetrate into the soil or are you supposed to open a hole with a chopstick or toothpick before inserting? If you do that won't the medium become very loose again? Depends on how deep the cutting will go in but once you insert the cutting in and when I try to pack it in, I can't tell for sure if its tight all around the cutting.

I use plastic bags as you mentioned before but I find that they will still dry out overtime and I need to take it out of the bag and water it. The bag does get filled with intense humidity and you can see the water droplets all around the bag but they still dry out eventually. So as much as I want to just leave it I really can't because of that. Is there a way to get around this issue?

oh and Ken, I actually almost close the whole ziplock bag. They were just taken off so I can take pics.

You don't necessarily need to remove the bag to water, not that brief exposure will make much difference. You can bottom water. Keep the pots in a tray. (Which will also keep water off your heat mat.) Fill it with water when you think the pots are dry. When you see water appear on the surface of the pots pour off the superfluous water in the tray and drain the pots thoroughly.

Crap I would’ve missed your post if I didn’t Check up on it. Some of you don’t give off notifications ! Ok well if you say brief exposure won’t make a difference I think I will just keep doing what I’ve been doing but I will get a tray this time. The cuttings are exposed about 5-10 min before placing back in bags. If that’s too long then I will do what you said. I’m also going to use that white plastic bin lid that I have as the mat(if Im ok with taking it out of the plastic bags)but only concern is it won’t be warm enough because the heat needs to penetrate through the plastic lid so do I have to raise the heat higher to make up for it? I haven’t done that because I was worried any slight changes to the environment for the cuttings may kill it.. and I already got 3 months in without killing it so I didn’t want to take any risks.

I'm not aware that there is any way to 'give off notifications'. You have to go into your profile and set it up from your end.

A few minutes without the bag won't hurt. In fact it will allow an exchange of fresh air. You're overthinking again.