OK, I ran out of space in my upstairs, after filling 50 plastic crates, so I put a bunch of cuttings in cups in this large plastic box, covered it with plastic and sealed it as air tight as possible (to retain humidity), and put it outside in mostly shade. It gets morning and late afternoon sun. That pretty much violated everything I knew about rooting: uneven, fluctuating temps, between high 40s some nights, to near 80 some days; direct sunlight; no fresh air, etc. If this had been a plastic crate, indoors with no air circulation, many or most of the cuttings would be moldy in a few days. These have been in the box for 8 days, never opened or unsealed, and have no sign of mold. Possible reasons are cold night temps inhibiting mold growth and solarization (direct sunlight) killing mold, though I don't think it truly gets direct sun on the cuttings, and there is always a layer of condensation on the under side of the plastic.  Just observations for now, but will have to experiment more. Obviously (?) not going to work in Detroit in February, but seems worth further experimentation.

No cuttings were harmed in this experiment (so far). I am using 2-3 varieties of which I have more than enough without endangering one-of-a-kind cuttings.

Jon,

Just to be sure again...are all these cuttings that rooted in bags then were moved to cups?

Do you start ANY cuttings in cups of perlite/vermiculite (in boxes) from the beginning?

I think I've mentioned it in private emails to you, but here in the deep South, AKA land of consistent humidity, my most successful method of rooting is to put cuttings in a very sandy (extremely well-draining) potting soil in pots and put them outside in shade (only a little filtered sun).  I put out several dozen cuttings this way around the first of March, and it appears many of them have rooted.  Only a very few show signs of possibly not being viable any longer. 

Henry

I start everything in bags. There are a couple of exceptions, such as large cuttings, which go to deep pots with potting soil, and a bag over them, and a few varieties such as Black Mission of which I have several hundred cuttings, and get tired of putting them in cups, so I plant them in bulk, in a 5 gallon pot, in potting soil, with a bag over them, and get 10-20% success, which is more than enough.