i would be alarmed if this happend to mine! lol, glad you posted this tom. in regards to the watering seedlings question,im working on the theory that they must have to put up with the same amount of rain fall in the wild as there parents so ive let my seedlings grow solid for just over a full year now to get them to a size were they look like they can handle themselves.ill probably stop watering in june let them go dorment and bake in the sun. ill let you all know how many survive lol ben

Could have been the watering issue. Could also be herbicide drift or the sun baking the roots in the black pots. tj

in hindsight.. i dont understand the pic .... there is the obviously brown part i was speaking of ... but i cant tell if the rest of the pic has lesser browning.... or its a poor camera shot ... if the rest is also browning... you have some serious water issues ... either too much [your root rot theory] .. too little.. or improper planting .. or finally.. poor stock to begin with [like severely potbound] .... but.. having no history in regard to any of that.. i cant go further ... no one ever said two plants will react to transplanting the same way .... one would think so.. but one can not assume such .... [it kinda leads into the fact that one may have been poorer stock than the other at purchase????] ken

Disappointing that none made it. Cuttings are pretty sensitive in the rooting stage when it comes to to much water, to little water, too hot it bakes, too cool it doesn't root., sometimes the timing isn't right, and sometimes bad luck. Do you plan on trying again this year? You could try using rooting hormone this time which can improve your chances. You could also try taking a few batches at different times - some of them a bit earlier and some a bit later (late spring, early summer, late summer). I've had different plants that were taken too early and didn't root for some reason even though they looked good. I also had a different set of cuttings that were taken a month after a different batch that rooted and those ones didn't root.