How to Grow Cuttings from Established Plants

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You can grow more plants from the ones you have already in your garden! It's easy , and is a great way to increase your plants.

Steps

Choose the plants you wish to grow from a cutting, e.g. rosemary, lavender, roses. Not all plants will grow from a cutting, but you might surprise yourself with what you can achieve.
Using sharp garden secateurs (pruners), snip off shoots from the plant. Choose reasonably new but mature growth from the parent plant. Cut at a 30 degree angle leaving your cutting with a point. The best size of the shoot varies between different plants, for some, small cuttings 8-12 cm long are best, for others (e.g. poplars, mulberries), larger cuttings (called 'truncheons') up to a metre or two long and 5-10 cm thick can work best. If in doubt, make the cuttings about 10-20 cm long.
Strip a half to two thirds of leaves from the cutting.
Treat the cutting. Place the cuttings in a weak mixture of water and a seaweed-based liquid fertilizer for a period of 3-4 hours (put under a single fluorescent light), and then dip the cut end in rooting hormone just before planting your cutting.
Start your cutting in sand, soil, or even just water. Some actually produce roots better in water than soil. Sand is a sort of compromise, but should be treated like water regarding fertilizer.
- When using water, make it a very dilute fertilizer mixture. Also make certain the plant does not get direct sunlight, as the intense UV rays are hard on the roots. Aside from how well it works, another reason to use water is that you can see what's happening. This is not only fun, but also allows you to know when the plant is ready, without having to worry about guessing whether roots have developed. Once roots finally start, the rate of their visible growth can be astonishing, even hour to hour.
- If using soil, plant cuttings in a moist well prepared garden bed rich in organic material, with a pH around 5.5 - 6.0, but you can place them in pots with good potting mix. Space the cuttings so they are about as far apart from each other as the cuttings are long.
Keep the cutting moist, but not over watered (try a mister). Success rates can be anything between zero (some plants cannot be rooted from cuttings at all) and 90%.
Transplant your cuttings to their final growing spot. With large 'truncheons' of willow, poplar or mulberry, trim a point on the bottom end, and ram the cutting into the ground for ¾ of its length, so just a small part sticks above ground. These are best done where you want the tree to grow; no further action is necessary apart from keeping weeds and plant-eating animals (rabbits, deer) away.

Tips

Cuttings will grow best in times of low "stress" - such as early spring, or early autumn. This allows the cutting time to establish roots and settle before times of excessive heat or cold, or low moisture.
Commercial root growing hormones, such as "Rootex", can be obtained from most nurseries.
Cuttings grow best in spots which are shielded from afternoon sun and excessive wind
Plants grow at different rates so it is difficult to judge when it will be OK to transplant - generally leave 2 to three months if growing in spring/summer, or leave until after the worst of winter if you struck your cuttings in autumn.
You should cull out failed cuttings after 2 to 4 weeks. The failures will be obviously dead. If the cuttings have remnants of green after this period of time, they will probably succeed in growing into a healthy plant.
Some cuttings have much better success rates if you have a greenhouse with undersoil heating cables and mist-spraying equipment. These plants are rarely successful for the casual home grower.

Related wikiHows

Sources and Citations

http://www.jasons-indoor-guide-to-organic-and-hydroponics-gardening.com/cloning-success.html

Article provided by wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world's largest, highest quality how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Grow Cuttings from Established Plants. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

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