I am attempting to root three Kathleen Black hardwood cuttings.  One is a fairly thick piece of wood that I placed vertically in potting medium (half perlite/half potting mix).  The other two are small 1-2 node cuttings that I buried horizontally about 1-2 inches deep.  Until today I have had them in doors in a plastic storage box in front of a south-facing window that gets a moderate amount of sun.  The temperature is around 78 degrees.  To keep the humidity up I've kept the lid on and sometimes there is a bit of residual water in the bottom.  As you can see, all three are showing leaves but, of course, with my set-up I can't see root development.

My question is how/when to transition these to the outdoors.  Where I live the highs have been around 85-90 with 60-90% humidity.  I have a screened-in porch where I can regulate the amount of sun.  Is the ambient humidity outside enough to not use the box lid or a plastic bag over the pot at this point?  Or should I play it safe for a while and keep them indoors with the lid on?

Cheers,
Steve

The thing to do is put them out and see how they handle it, as individuals. You should check them very often the first few days, and also any day that is really hot or windy. Some might even like morning sun because they have more roots, some might soften their leaves in the first hour. You just never know until you try. Good Luck.

Thanks Brent,

I value your "know how"

Brent, thanks for your thoughts.  That's essentially the approach I've been taking so far - I'll quickly retreat the cuttings back into the house if they seem stressed but hope for the best in the meantime.

By the way, I forgot to acknowledge that the cuttings came from a very generous figs4fun member - thanks!

Very neat way of rooting Rewton.If your porch does'nt get much sun I would recommend leaving them in your screened porch in the shade and let them get a little morning sun after a week or so.Great job on your sucess in rooting KB.Goodluck.

i had 1" cutting left over with one node after sending off the cuttings to few members. i put that under about 1" of potting soil and nicely watered it. after a week or so, it has bud coming under the soil. for whatever reason, i kept watering the darn thing.

couple of weeks later, i checked on that bud and it was rotted. i thought it was dead for sure.. but i noticed that the roots were very good. so i up ended the whole thing and put it veriticaly into the soil. few days later, i noticed this tiny green thing on the stump. i thought it was slow release fertilizer so tried to scrap it off. it wouldn't come off.

few weeks later.. a leaf started to come out of that little green thing. now it has about 3 leaves coming out.

it's hard to kill Kathleen's Black :)

gina,

i'm sure your thumb is greener than mine :) i was comparing KB to Black Madeira or Ischia Black.. but you got Ischia Black growing nicely.

I was teasing. But the truth is, the KB's were some of the more successful of all I have tried in terms of success rate. Of the 4 cuttings you kindly sent, like loaves and fishes, I got 5 plants, with still 2 in the rooting tray and hoping. Of course the 5 rooted are still quite young, and bad things can still happen. Like a heat wave.