HOW CHARCOAL HELPS ME

All these plants above were started over the late winter by making cuttings from "mother" plants that were just about finished blooming for the year.

I take many cuttings by just placing them in a glass of water, but my secret to real success is the use of activated charcoal powder.

Charcoal powder will keep the water free from bacteria all winter long while the roots grow away. Come spring or whenever I choose to pot up the cuttings, they will take off like a rocket just like these in the picture above.

There are many places where you can buy activated charcoal online but make sure that you get a good price as it can go from very reasonable to outrageous. When I have the time I will put up some links to my favorite places to buy.

Here is how to do it:

Fill a tall container of some kind like a drinking glass or jar with non-chlorinated water and add 1/2 teaspoon activated charcoal to the water. Don't worry about stirring as it will dissolve on it's own and settle to the bottom.

Take your cuttings and add them to the jar and just wait as long as you wish. They will root pretty quickly but you can keep them in the water almost indefinitely.

A trick for potting up cuttings started in water is to make sure that you keep the potting soil very wet for the first few weeks until they become acclimated to a normal soil condition. Otherwise they may die on you. DO NOT ALLOW TO DRY OUT!

That's it for today! Good luck!