Just wondering when to toss unrooted cuttings and if there are ways to salvage them. I have a few that are showing no signs of growth or rooting after 5 weeks. I have others started at the same time that are fully rooted. I thought about cutting the bottom off and trying the paper towel in a bag method. Any ideas other than patience or blind faith?

Here it is

Scratch some of the bark off with your thumb nail, if the cambium layer is still bright green, the cutting may still be viable.

I have struggled with this situation many times.  I wish I had a magic answer for you.

I would take a careful look at them and if there is any rot on the cutting if so cut that away. 
Then if the cutting still looks good (green healthy) I soak them for 2-3 days in water to make sure they are re-hydrated. 
If they start smelling a bit that means rot has set in and I find might as well toss them.
If they don't smell then it may  be worth trying to root them again.  Hopefully soaking them woke them up.
 

Looks healthy enough. Wash off the soil, and root in a plastic Tupperware type container. With sphagnum moss or coco coir if you have it. If not the paper towel method is ok. Wrap loosely and don't cover the bottom of the cutting. Leave it stick out just a little bit.

I am with Aaron on this one. The cutting still looks good. Probably it was not warm enough for it to root. I would try in a moist paper towel in a plastic bag on top of your fridge, ventilating every other day. You may see the root starts in 1 week easily.

Don't give up on that cutting, it looks like in time you will have roots and leaf growth. Mine look and smell terrible before I give up. When they smell and bark peels away, then I toss. I can not tell but if it is a tip cutting, you may want to cut off the tip, maybe with an extra node, and place both in a bag like Igor mentioned, get it warm, and just maybe, this will stimulate some root growth. Some just throw the tip away but I have reservations of throwing any part of a cutting away that has any chance of rooting. Keep in mind, this is just a suggestion so be patient and listen to more suggestions from the more experienced growers.

Even after all that, ive had cuttings that start to turn to mush from the inside out. I usually just put them in a pot of soil and leave them outside. One of my attempts from last year miraculously sprouted from one of the middle nodes months later.. Sometimes they come back from pretty grim situations. As said above, yours still looks good.

I would wait a bit. It still looks good and it obviously depends on the varietal, but I've waited around 8 weeks for certain cuttings to root - also as stated above, depending on the conditions. I can say I'm getting quicker results with some cuttings this year by using heat mats. I hadn't used bottom heat in years past, but I definitely think it's speeding things along this year. Good luck!

Never give up on them, I agree.
Last year I left 5 cuttings for dead in the grow box, with no water or light, for 3 months.
Three of them had budded when I checked at the end of the summer, and two of them looked pretty good by the time winter came.
It's been said before - they need to be neglected to grow well.

Most of that cutting looks good but  the bottom may be gone.  It didn't root because your "soil" doesn't have enough air in it.  After 4 weeks if a cutting doesn't root I throw out the medium and start over.  Get fresh perlite, as coarse as you can find.  Rinse or sift out the fine particles.  Use 90-95% perlite and the rest peat or whatever potting soil you have.  You should have lots of visible air spaces and water should run out rapidly.  If the bottom of the cutting looks soft cut it away until you get green cambium, sterilizing the pruners after each cut.  I score the bark at the lower part of the cutting and use clonex on mine but many don't.  Just in case that's glass in your photo, there should be drainage holes in the bottom of your rooting container.  It's best to have the bottom of the cutting at least an inch or 2 above the bottom of your container so perched water isn't an issue.

I wouldn't give up on it.  It looks better than some of the ones that I had that rooted even after I'd given up on them.  Hang in there.  Remove anything seems squishy or really dried up.

Good advice Robert, that's one of the issues starting cuttings in potting mix from the start. Air is critical and sifted perlite with a little moss does the job. I am using Jons baggy method on about 30 cuttings and have been impressed.

For what what it's worth, sometimes cuttings just don't want to form roots at the bottom end, but you might get some at middle nodes instead. Baggy or moss box methods might give the cuttings more moisture around the midsection to produce root growth. Your cutting looks like one of those ideal "knotty" looking sticks that tend to produce roots from various nodes along the cutting. Keep at it!

Thanks for all the replies! I have a few that are not showing signs of life. Just wondering if I should soak them before I put them in the new cup of perlite or bag? I bought powdered rooting hormone - Should I use that on the refreshed cuttings?

Hi TroyB, as a rule, most folks have had poor results with powdered hormone (seems to promote rot) -- although many swear by gel-type hormones. There were a few posts last year about (and some historical articles as well) about soaking sticks in warm/hot water to 'wake them up' prior to rooting. A number of folks agreed this helped. 

I don't use any hormone,never have.

Had 41 cuttings infested with Fungus Gnat Larvae, took the out of the moss, washed everything real good, transferred to potting mix.  Saved all but 11 so far.  Key is to get to them early enough to still have green.

Hi,
When the cutting is entirely dark, you can toss it - Problem is entirely means above and under potting medium ...
Last year, I had 3 cuttings in a pot with compost .
2 leafed out in the flat, one stalled for 3 or 4 months .
The two got a bit water sick and came May, and the pot went to the garden to swim or sink .
One of the two dried, the second did stabilize and grow . By the time it stabilized, the third fired a tiny green shoot.
At the end of the season they had the same size.

Your cutting looks still green so hold on to it.
The only thing wrong I see, is that you seem to have more nodes above dirt than nodes buried and that's not good for humidity inside the cutting.
I would cut that cutting in two for burying 3/4 of each cutting under the dirt.
Or use a higher pot and don't cut the cutting in two . If so, try to put it in diagonal and not straight up .
Good luck !

I refreshed all of the ones that didn't have roots. I'm glad I decided to do it now because some were showing signs of rotting on the bottom. Thanks for all the advice. I just repotted them in 100% perlite, cut them off where they rotted, and then put them deeper into the pot as suggested. I think they will root.

Troyb, because of your thread I went yesterday and started taking my cuttings out of the perlite and mixing in some potting medium and looking at the bottoms.  I saw no rot and on 2 I saw roots.  On some of the ones that didn't look to peppy I dipped them in root tone.  Bad, I don't know...  I realized that about half way through, maybe I shouldn't be mixing up soil, perlite in one set would have FMV.  But it was sort of a oh crap moment... What will be will be.  Now I have a red underline on everything I wrote...???

Troyb, thanks for starting this subject. I went and changed my rooting chamber to a 4 foot fish tank today. A lot of my starts where getting over 10 inches and had to go to a taller tub. I then checked for moister content and on all it was way to hi. Mixed up a 70/30 rooting mix of perlite to potting soil. I lost 3 starts due to rot. 3 starts had the beginning of roots and 3 just green leafage. Hope this will save the cuttings. Good lesson learned hear for the newbie. The fish tank will let me start about 10 new ones. Also have two single node with green shoots.



_________________________
Rick Lakewood WA  Zone 8


Growing DK and Olympian

Rooting way to many for fist try.

Greenbud and rx2, good luck. I'm really glad I joined this forum , I would have been really upset if I lost all if those cuttings (even though I'm still not in the clear).

One of my cuttings rotted out from the top in its cup. When I pulled it out, I saw the bottom was fine and had a node starting to push leafs, so I flipped  it over stuffed it back inthe cup upside down. Within in a couple days, it was putting out roots and now growing strong and happy.

So like everyone says, you never know, don't give up.