As I have written before in my article Misting for Plant Propagation, an intermittent misting system is essential to be consistently successful with rooting cuttings.
Here are 10 reasons you should be using intermittent mist:
1.Misting keeps the cuttings moist, minimizing transpiration from the leaves. Transpiration is the evaporation of water from the leaves of the plant.
2. Intermittent mist keeps the cuttings and the immediate area cool. Keeping the cuttings cool reduces stress, allowing the cutting to root.
3. A misting system allows you to produce multiple crops per year. Once rooted, cuttings are moved out of the mist, allowing room for another crop.
4. Once set up, the system runs with minimal supervision. Intermittent misting systems use a predetermined schedule and follow that schedule 7 days a week.
5. You can concentrate on other tasks, knowing the misting system is taking care of your cuttings. As the system is misting the cuttings, you can take more cuttings to be placed under the the mist.
6. In the event a batch of cuttings fail, intermittent mist allows you to immediately start another. A failed batch can be quickly replaced with a fresh crop of cuttings, minimizing the impact of the failure.
7. You can produce 10’s, 100’s, 1000’s, or even 100,000’s of cuttings at a time with a misting system. Because the cuttings root quickly, multiple batches can be rooted in a single growing season.
8. With intermittent mist, certain cuttings like hydrangeas form roots in as little as 3 weeks. With these extremely fast rooting plants, literally thousands of plants can be produced in a short time.
9. Using an intermittent mist system reduces the amount of labor involved over other propagation methods. Most other methods of cutting propagation require daily attention to ensure the cuttings are not drying out.
10. An intermittent misting system will allow you to produce rooted cuttings that you can plant in your own landscape, give away as gifts, or sell. Your landscape will quickly be filled with beautiful plants. Friends, relatives, and neighbors, will appreciate getting beautiful plants as gifts.
And how about the best reason you should be using an intermittent mist system?
Selling rooted cuttings produced under intermittent mist can be quite profitable!
Rooted cuttings can be sold right from your home, over the internet, or to nurseries who grow them on and sell them retail. A cutting that cost you pennies to produce can be sold for much more. If a cutting cost you $.25 to produce and it is sold for only $1.00, that is a 300% profit! Multiply that by hundreds or thousands of cuttings, and you can quickly see how vital an intermittent mist system is to your success.
