Here is the results after one month, the percentage of each test case that still appears alive:
| Method | Cultivar | Label | 10.Oct | |||
| 1. Oasis cube, Dip’n’grow | B/B | 1B | 80% | |||
| Y/Y | 1Y | 52% | ||||
| 2. Oasis cube, hydrogen peroxide | B/B | 2B | 73% | |||
| Y/Y | 2Y | 43% | ||||
| 3. potting soil, Dip’n’grow | B/B | 3B | 68% | |||
| Y/Y | 3Y | 92% | ||||
| 4. potting soil, hydrogen peroxide | B/B | 4B | 72% | |||
| Y/Y | 4Y | 96% | ||||
| 5. soil/manure, Dip’n’grow | B/B | 5B | 0% | |||
| Y/Y | 5Y | 0% | ||||
| 6. soil/manure, hydrogen peroxide | B/B | 6B | 0% | |||
| Y/Y | 6Y | 0% | ||||
Overview:
- Every single cutting in the soil/manure mix died.
- The dip’n’grow vs. peroxide cuttings are doing about the same.
- The potting soil is keeping the cuttings green and alive looking, but i think they aren’t actually rooting.
I bought a small temperature/humidity logger, and clipped it inside the tent. Here is a typical 11-day period in September, while the cuttings were being misted a few times each day to keep them moist:
As you can see, temperature can dip down to 11ºC at night or spike up to 35ºC on hot days. Humidity it pretty much the inverse of temperature, around 92% at night, dropping as low at 40% on hot days. But the article on the HTS website says: “Propagation of tea plants needs a facility where constant temperature 23-29ºC and humidity (80%) are maintained.” Daytime temperature seems OK, but nighttime is way outside this range, and humidity is almost never close to 80%.
Today i bought a 8×20′ piece of plastic to cover the tent, following Mealani’s shade tent instructions. They said to add this cover for the second month, so that’s what i’m going to try.