Propagate Your Plants

Growing your own plants is a satisfying and inexpensive hobby. Propagation of plants refers to producing more plants by dividing, grafting, or taking cuttings from existing plants. If you have seen a beautiful plant in your neighbor's garden or somewhere else in the area, here is your opportunity to include it in your garden too. Unlike seed, cuttings and divisions of plants will result in an identical plant that will reproduce the same beautiful flowers, blossom etc. that probably attracted you to it in the first place.

Steps

Dividing

  1. Dig the plant up when the flowers have faded.
  2. Shake the soil from the roots.
  3. Break the plant into several pieces. The divisions should follow natural points on the plant (at nodes, or between leaves etc.). The important thing is to make sure each divided piece has shoots and roots on it.
  4. Replant each piece in good soil in a pot or sheltered garden bed and water thoroughly.

Taking Cuttings

  1. Select a suitable pot for your cutting. You might want to use a normal-sized flowerpot for one plant or you can even establish several cuttings in the same pot, planted apart from each other. Seedling tubes are also a good idea for many plants.
  2. Prepare the pot. Get a plastic (polythene bag) and place gravel at the base of the bag. The pot will be placed in here after you have made the cutting. Fill the pot with suitable soil - sand and peat for drainage make an ideal combination for many plants. Finally, the pot must be able to drain well (the water will go onto the gravel, rather than pooling in the plastic bag).
  3. Cut a firm, young shoot from the current season's growth. Cut it off just below a leaf or joint (node).
  4. Prepare the cutting. Once you have cut the plant piece, strip or cut off any leaves on the lower half. You can strip or cut off as high as two-thirds if necessary. If the bark looks like it will tear, use scissors. You can also make a small incision to the lower end of the stem to encourage root growth from this "wound".
  5. Insert the cutting into sand and peat in the pot. Use a skewer, pencil, or similar long object to create a hole for the cutting to sit in. Do not use the cutting itself to push in a hole or you will damage it. The idea is to gently drop the cutting into the hole and carefully in-fill with dirt.
  6. Place both the pot and the cutting into the bag. Make sure the pot is sitting snugly on the gravel.
  7. Tie the top of the bag with a twist tie. This makes it easy to undo for watering and to place back on again.

Final Steps for Both Methods

  1. Keep the soil moist. Do not soak or over-water the cutting or divided plant or it may rot and not take root. Water spray works well for many plants but take care with succulent and furry leaves. They are best only watered directly at the soil level, otherwise the combination of humidity and water may encourage fungal growth.
  2. Pull the cutting or divided plant gently in about 6 - 8 weeks. If you can feel resistance, you'll know there are roots. Most plants will root within 6 - 8 weeks, although some species of plants can take up to 12 months! Do your homework on the plant if you are not sure. Most common garden variety plants will root quickly.
  3. Transplant to a larger pot or the garden when the seedling is well-established.

Understand the difference between asexual and sexual propagation

  1. Use sexual propagation for increasing plant numbers by germinating seed and growing the seedlings to maturity. This is probably the most widely used method by the majority of growers, including many agricultural grain crops.
    • There are many ways to pre-treat seed for attempting germination in the artificial setting of a greenhouse. These are processes used in an effort to overcome seed dormancy and reach successful germination on a human driven schedule. Mother Nature does a wonderful job of overcoming dormancy so seed will germinate at the safest time for the seedlings to emerge into a growth friendly environment. We try to imitate those processes to grow plants indoors successfully.
  2. Use asexual propagation for processes that involve using the leaf, stem, and root cuttings. All of these asexual methods develop plants that are essentially clones of the original specimens. Putting slips into a jar of water in the kitchen window until roots form are stem cuttings. This method as a high risk of mold developing.
    • Divide clumps of plants, such as Hostas, when they get very large is another form of asexual propagation.
    • Plant bits of a rhizome root will cause new plant growth and is another form of cutting. The practice of grafting which is often used with roses and fruit trees is a type of asexual propagation.
    • Use layering with raspberry canes where they are bent over to the ground and covered with soil where new roots will develop.



Tips

  • Some people like to dip the ends of cuttings into a "rooting hormone". This adds a bit more expense, but its growth promoting elements give the cutting a better start. This should be available at gardening stores.
  • Plants can be propagated from cuttings or by dividing at any time of the year but be aware that roots form much more slowly during winter months. If you are in a very cold climate, indoor propagation is the only suitable method during the depths of winter.
  • Avoid woody or hard plant pieces when cutting or dividing. These are unlikely to strike. The same goes for very soft and wilted pieces of a plant. However, sometimes where a plant is rare or unusual, you may have no choice but to make do with whatever divisions or cuttings you can get.

Warnings

  • Equally, do not over-water or you risk encouraging fungal growth or rotting.
  • Don't let your cuttings dry out, get too hot or too wet. Keep them in dappled shade or indoors until established.
  • The knife used to make a cutting must be clean, to avoid any possibility of transferring disease to the plant.

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