Propogating Plants: Cuttings

Last week, Missy, who runs the greenhouse, taught us how to propagate plants via cuttings.  I've always wondered how to do this.  It seemed like a very mysterious process.

We propagated a hydrangea.  Missy guided us through the process.

Missy Says:  To start with, take a long branch off of the bush.

Me and my branch.

Then, cut the branch into pieces so that each branch still has leaf nodes.

My first piece has two sets of leaf nodes.

Put all your pieces in a plastic bag and mist them in order to keep them from drying out while you make your way back to the greenhouse.

Once in the greenhouse, get out a flat of moist soil that you prepared ahead of time.  Make sure to label the flat with what you're propagating!

 Here's where the magic happens:  get out your root hormone.  It comes in different strengths.  We used strength number 3.

 Make sure the bottom end of each hydrangea piece is moist, and apply root hormone to the end with a brush.

 Here's the end of the hydrangea cutting covered in root hormone.

 Now, stick that hydrangea in the soil!  Be sure to pat it in place so there's no air pocket under the dirt around the cutting.  This will cause the cutting to dry out.

 Here's my flat with all its hydrangea cuttings:

 You can also trim the leaves.  We cut our large leaves in half.  This lets the plant spend less energy maintaining its leaves, and use that energy towards making roots.  Also, water is always evaporating from leaves, so the plant can really dry out if it has too much leaf surface area.

One of the large leaves that has been cut in half.

To help the plants stay moist, Missy puts them under a special mister that mists the plants every 15 minutes.  If you're propagating plants at home, you will need to constantly hand-spray them with water.

Missy also showed us another cool way of propagating plants.  Some plants will send roots out of a branch if that branch is touching soil.  With these kinds of plants, you can force them to root by slicing a branch part way through, packing the wound with rooting hormone, and then wrapping moist soil around the wound.  Once roots emerge into the soil, that whole branch can be cut off the main plant and then put in the ground.  Here's Missy wrapping soil around a branch:

Plants can take days to weeks to put out roots, even with the rooting hormone.  Oftentimes, not all plants will survive, especially without an automatic sprayer.  So, it's not a super easy process.  Also, some plants root more easily than others, so do your research before trying this at home.