WI>>cuttings for, buys (used) sand from a sand-blastingcompany!  (It doesn't
 CG> So, builder's and construction sand "works"? I've been hearing that it 
should
 CG> be avoided at all costs.
I wouldn't be the one to tell you, but I *can* tell you what experience has 
shown me.  I grew up using river sand... (I am from the South, and sand has 
never been a problem to come up with, as long as I had a shovl and a bucket   
:)  But, I made, probably, 10,000+ cuttings/year for the last nurseryman I 
worked for.  He was so cheap, he's always get what he wanted to pay for, 
seemingly, not careing whether it was the "best thing to use".  When I told 
him that my favorite rooting medium was half sand, half peat, (actually, I 
prefer leaf mold, but *that* is really difficult to find!, so I settle for 
peat), in cedar trays, he got me sand ... from the sand blase  company, 
because they would pay him to take it off..., so that is what I used.  I like 
sand with bigger granules, but, in all honesty, the 'take'  (yield)  was 
about as good as it should've been, so I really couldn't complain.
The sharpness has nothing to do with "cutting" into the cutting.  This is not 
even desirable, in most instances.  Not all cells in a stem will root, so 
they either do, or they *don't*.  The stem is
better off, intact, as every opening that isn't going to produce roots is 
nothing more than an invitation for trouble.  Soil, of all discriptions, is 
home to pathogens, so keeping them where they belong (in the soil!)  is 
desirable.
cheers,
WL Sakowski
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