Intermittent Mist Propagation - What are the pitfalls?

[growinginphoenix]

I haven't been able to find much information on the details of intermittent mist propagation searching google so I thought I'd ask here. It seems like there are several variables available to tune:

Time between misting
I would guess that this needs to be short enough that the water on the leaves doesn't dry out. Is it possible to have the time between misting be too short? How do I know if it is too short?

Misting duration
Seems like this needs to be long enough that the leaves are coated in the tiny water droplets. How do I know if I have this set too short?

Mist droplet size
I think I have understood that finer is better. Maybe a fogger is optimal? How large of a droplet size can one get away with? How would you know if the droplets are too big?

Shade cloth
It seems like all the setups I have seen have some type of partial shade. How much shade do I need? How do I know if I have too much or not enough?

Media to stick cuttings in
I have found examples of people using 100% vermiculite, 100% perlite, 100% horticultural sand. I imagine if I find that my cuttings are rotting at the bottom I should use a coarser medium. Are there any other considerations?

Of course there is also the type of cutting (hard wood/soft wood), leaves or no leaves, the species' callous temperature, and rooting hormone to take into account.

Are there any other tricks or knobs I'm over looking?

I recently cobbled together my own intermittent mist system and am starting to experiment with it. I used drip irrigation mist emitters 3/4 gal per hour because I had them and the drip irrigation tubing is so easy to work with. I'm not sure what percentage any of the shade cloth is that I used.

[growinginphoenix]

Seems like I'm not doing so hot overall. These have been in my mist setup for maybe 2 weeks. Seems like all the leaves that I cut are rotting at the cut edge. And some that I didn't cut are also rotting? Maybe I should cut back on the frequency of watering?

[DesertDust]

Looks like a good setup overall.
How are your temps in there? AZ temps right now might just be too hot for them to compensate for transpiration even with the leaves cut. I think most plants like it around 80F to root.

[Galatians522]

Foe semi-hardwood, ~50% shade. Uses indole 3 rooting hormone. Stick in 50/50 peat moss pearlite (sterile). Mist for 3 seconds every 5 minutes from sun up to sun down. Off at night.

[growinginphoenix]

Nothing did well in there. I have dissembled everything. I think the mist was not fine enough and the schedule needed to be different during different parts of the day to keep things moist during the middle of the day but not too moist in the cooler times.

I have had much better success putting cuttings in a clear tote in the shade of a large tree. It is cheaper and simpler.

Yea ideal callus temperatures are high 70s to 80s for many plants I think, but our lows are in the 80s for all but one month in the summer so rooting is still possible.

[growinginphoenix]

Foe semi-hardwood, ~50% shade. Uses indole 3 rooting hormone. Stick in 50/50 peat moss pearlite (sterile). Mist for 3 seconds every 5 minutes from sun up to sun down. Off at night.

I think these timing recipes are dependent on the local climate. In Phoenix our humidity is ~10% for all but one month. This makes things dry out very fast. I think I would even need to mist infrequently at night. When I checked on this setup at sunrise it seemed bone dry.