taking fuchsia cuttings in winter

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Normally fuchsias are very easy to root through most of the year, but when winter comes the plants want to rest. this is triggered by the drop in temperature as well as the low periods of daylight.
I have been growing Fuchsias for a long time, but getting a good success rate for winter cuttings has always been a problem. you can of course buy expensive growlights and heated propagators, but to me the expense makes it just a tad too much to be worth while. the lamps are expensive and high wattage making the cost of running them high, also the cheaper ones dont last long.
This year I think i have solved the problem.
i used to keep a gold fish which grew year by year so eventually it endedd up in a three foot fish tank, alas three years ago at the ripe old age of 23 goldy went to his maker, the fishtank was consigned to the attic.
I retrieved the fishtank complete with its hood and growlux light, and set it up without water, Iput some smallish pots of fuchsias in it and left the lights on. This seemed to bring the plants out of thier rest and they started to grow new shoots. This wasn’t instant though, it took between two and three weeks befor they reesponded to it, maybe with a higher powered light they may have been quicker.
Once there was enough shoots to take cuttings, I removed the plants and took the cuttings. I collected small pots the type you get yogurts etc. in. Of course they were washed clean. i put an inch of water in each pot and floated abou 3/4 of an inch of pearlite on the water the cuttings were put one per pot into the pearlite, these were put into the fish tank. three weeks later roots could be seen under the pearlite.
when a few roots were established the cuttings were removed and potted up in a gritty compost.
from 53 cuttings 51 were successfull. that is a better success rate than i have had from any method i’ve used over the years even with spring and summer cuttings.
I would be interested in hearing of any other methods that have been tried and brought success

• 11 Dec, 2008
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