My coleus cuttings rotted in a glass of tap water after 9 days

I've been growing coleus for three years and always had luck rooting cuttings in plain water. Last Tuesday I took six nice cuttings from my purple variety and set them on the kitchen sill like always. By day 9, the stems had turned brown and mushy right at the water line, and the leaves drooped fast. Turns out the city flushed the lines that week and the extra chlorine or something just nuked the tender tissue. I switched to filtered water and dipped the new cuttings in rooting powder, and three of them finally pushed roots after 12 days. My question is, has anyone else seen chlorinated tap water kill cuttings that normally root fine? And do you let your water sit out 24 hours first, or is that just an old wives' tale?

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the_wren1mo ago

That "plain water" thing is a trap, honestly. I've had the same rot happen but it wasn't chlorine, it was temperature swings from the kitchen sill at night. My tap water has always been fine, but cuttings sitting in a cold draft act like they're in shock and just give up at the water line. Also, letting water sit out does nothing for chloramine, which is what most cities use now and it doesn't evaporate like chlorine does. I switched to a little aquarium dechlorinator drops and never looked back, it's cheaper than filtered water and works in like 5 minutes. And the rooting powder might've been doing more work than the water change, honestly, that stuff carries a lot of cuttings through the rough patch.

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