AJE what you are experiencing is not uncommon. The cuttings themselves retain enough energy to put on a flush of new growth. This can easily be views as "doing great" when they are using their stored energy to push out buds & leaves while not actually putting out roots. I'm a strong advocate for rooting hormone. If I'm going to put in the effort to take cuttings, I want to give them the best possible chance to survive. When I take cuttings that already have leaves, I typically trim all the leave off except for 1. Also, smaller cutting tend to be more successful for us (depending on what we are cutting) 4-6 buds is all that is usually needed.

Is rooting hormone just a root stimulator? I have root stimulator in the garage that I bought from a place that I bought apple trees from years ago

Thanks.
I may not know til next year if my red osier dogwood cuttings succeeded. They did develop some roots prior to planting.
Everything went droopy though, after doing superb.

1 thing I like about cuttings is ya aren't out much if they sometimes don't work.

Is this the rooting hormone you all are talking about? I saw it at the store today

I cut some elderberry limbs in early March, made 18 plantings from them. Every one of them has growth starting.

Anyone ever try cottonwood or popular.

Cottonwood is easy to propagate by cuttings with rooting hormone. Cottonwood grows very quickly here. It makes good butts for axe throwing and nice wide sheeting for barns. I've never tried poplar, because we don't have any near me, that aren't planted.

Elderberry, honeysuckle, raspberry, grape, lilac and willow have been the easiest for me to root without rooting hormone. Peach, blueberry, hazelnut and pear work at low levels, with rooting hormone in my experience. Cottonwood, black locust,, mulberry Osage Orange, roses and cottonwood are pretty easy with rooting hormone.

Keith

Thanks!
I cut some today and will try to get them to root just in water. Will it work I don't have root hormone application.

The instruction for spruce are exactly how we root azalea.

Anothah question is propagate in water does the water need to be place in sun or inside a building which would be darker?

I would use root hormone on the cottonwood cuttings, put them in a soil less potting mix, tent over them with clear plastic and place them where they only get indirect sunlight.

Cottonwood does grow very easily from seed too. The people caddy corner to me on the state highway have cottonwood trees in their front yard and any disturbed soil I have has a good chance of getting cottonwood seedlings growing in it, when the cotton is blowing around.

Keith

In water inside a building with a good window exposing the sun (if you don't stick them straight in the ground right away). If you want to get fancy I suppose you could use a grow light.

AJE >> thank you.

Any of you ever try it on sand plums?

Domestic plums are fairly easy with rooting hormone and pencil sized cuttings. I've never tried rooting sand plum cuttings, because I don't have access to any.

Oklahoma University has a PDF on sand plums.

https://extension.okstate.edu/fact-sheets/print-publications/hla/sand-plums-for-home-and-commercial-production-hla-6258.pdf#:~:text=Sand%20plums%2C%20also%20known%20as%20Chickasaw%20plum%2C%20Cherokee,making%20jams%2C%20jellies%2C%20and%20wine%20from%20the%20fruit.

They recommend using a misting system to keep sand plum cuttings moist. I would plant a bunch.of cuttings, treated with rooting hormone and see how it goes. If you have long term access to the trees, it might be good to air layer them.

Keith

So am I wasting my time then? They were absolutely flourishing in the pail, then it was as if they ran out of steam & died or maybe just got confused & went dormant. They even had put out roots. I did get half of 'em in the ground while they were still flourishing but then they went droopy kind of like the ones in the water pail. I did notice deer already ate 3 of the branches off 1 of them.