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Hi everyone!

I'm new to the forums though not new to gardening. I've recently migrated from my home garden obsession to begin including bonsai. I'm really interested in starting from the very beginning as well as found/gathered plants. So today I thought I'd start an experiment to see if one method works better than any other: aerogarden propagation vs. traditional propagation. I live near Charlotte in North Carolina.

Below is day 0.

What I did:

• Gathered cuttings from 4 different tree species in my backyard (I think I identified these correctly but please feel free to let me know if you think otherwise based on the photos) - Actually I'm lost with 2 of these so would welcome any help!
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1. Sorghum/Sourwood
2. Black Maple
3. Carolina Laurelcherry
4. Poison Sumac (!?) or

Took cuttings (2 of each) - don't worry - I wore gloves!

1 set of cuttings were prepped with rooting hormone gel then placed in the aerogarden

2nd set of cuttings prepped with rooting hormone gel, then potted in a pot with a mix of normal potting mix and each cutting surrounded with liberal amounts of sphagmum moss

Watered in, placed in sun

I'm hopeful that something will happen, but this is all an experiment to me and I'm doing it just to satisfy my curiosity. Perhaps some I will decide to bonsai later, but at this point I'm just waiting to see!

Will update in a little while

Quick followup - nearly an hour later, the cuttings in the pot have begun to wilt - I moved them to a shady location and will see if that helps. Those in the aerogarden remain healthy looing and upright with no droop.

Put plastic bags over them. That holds moisture in, which is crucial since they don't have roots yet.

Day 2 - all cuttings in the putting medium have died. I think they boiled from the sun. While it was mild here over the past few days (72 degrees F), the sun has been strong.

On the other hand, all cuttings in the aero garden are healthy and looking strong.

We are now entering week 2 - I lost all the cuttings I placed in the outdoor pot, and I lost 2 of the 4 cuttings in the aero garden (I think they weren't scarified or deep enough in the sponge). The other 2 however are doing very well and I plan to check them for successful rooting in the next week or 2.

More to come (and photos later as well!)