hi! my gorgeous chocolate drop had a terrible mishap and didn't dry out properly and got root rot. in efforts of saving it, I cut off the rot.

I'm having trouble propagating; I cut it with a clean knife, use cold water to help the bleed, sprinkle rooting hormone over the cut end and set it in a room away from direct light and it's having trouble rooting without molding.

I've gone through this process twice so far—cutting far enough up so that the cut is clean with no rot but seems like I'm not finding the right environment for it to callous properly.

Any pointers? I'm in zone 10A/B (San Francisco) and it's averaging 60 degrees during the day with high 40s at night. I tried putting it in our dining room (avg 60 degrees fahrenheit through the day), but i'm wondering if I should try my bedroom since I put on the heater in there for most of the day?