I removed the cuttings from the plastic bags after about 4 days. My reading on the subject made it sound like the leaves needed to be retained on the cuttings. One method even talked about splitting the leaves in half so they wouldn’t use plant resources. Maybe in a different environment where plastic sheeting instead of plastic bags are used, that method might allow the leaves to survive. The leaves on my cuttings shriveled in the plastic bags even if they were not touching the plastic bag sides. Was worried that the experiment was over. I took the planters out of the plastic bags and they didn’t look so good.
I though that I’d let them dry out a bit and see what I had. Came back the next day and noticed two things. The first thing was that the stems of the cuttings remained green. If they were done, the stems should have gone the way of the leaves and should have been darkening. Second thing was that on one of the cuttings, there seemed to be some sort of projection starting to develop at the very top of the cutting stem. If there is activity, there is a chance the plant is actually developing roots and is still capable of drawing water and nutrients up through the stem. Looks like the cutting is shedding the old leaves and is in the process of creating some new leaves.
I will need to make sure the cuttings get the proper amount of sunlight without shocking them. So, the experiment continues and I remain hopeful that several cuttings will develop into plantings.
While mowing, I encountered dozens of these very small frogs. I’d guess this frog on the deck is no more than half of an inch. If I saw dozens, there must be thousands of them. The croaking will be incredible around here in a few weeks.
