softwood season is what makes me love propagation

softwood season is what makes me love propagation. I build this greenhouse for it, and these not fancy benches ad hoc put together for every summer have misting nozzles going off all day. about my fifth year into it, there's a bit of magic in the suite of variables to collect a cutting ... (do some recipe) ... and then get a plant in a pot. it's both easier to get some result than you would expect, and harder to get perfect and know all the ways to kill a plant than you'll anticipate. my posts here lean toward the behind the scenes, because it's what I enjoy and I think it's interesting - maybe there's some educational angle but it's in these small pieces if you find my blog where i've put it together. today is july 6, and yesterday we had a power outage (lightning strike to an electrical pole) so for 18 hours the mist didn't run. I hand watered, but was impressed that none of the cuttings drooped or looked stressed or wilted. quite a few have small roots now, and the mist can get backed off. in fact they're starting to be ready to pot up, especially the ones over a heat matt. this workflow I use, differs from what you might google - I use 4" pots of peat/perlite mix and stick 10-15 cuttings each. it's way too close to grow the plants, but it's perfect to root them. a little easy to get too wet, and then leaves drop, but in the error brackets for it to work, if you have more room then more spaced is better, airflow between misting and at night when it's off is better. there is some fun stuff rooting in here this year, dare I say it's the only collection like it.