The four main types of stem cuttings are herbaceous, softwood, semi-hardwood, and hardwood. These terms reflect the growth stage of the stock plant, which is one of the most important factors influencing whether or not cuttings will root.
The major methods of asexual propagation are cuttings, layering, division, budding and grafting. Cuttings involve rooting a severed piece of the parent plant; layering involves rooting a part of the parent and then severing it; and budding and grafting is joining two plant parts from different varieties.
A good rooting media contains equal parts of coarse, sharp sand and peat moss. Instead of sand, we can use perlite, and instead of peat moss, we can use vermiculite. However, I often will pot my cuttings with just coarse sand alone. By this method, the cuttings grow just fine.
Can you put cuttings straight into soil? You can put a cutting into a fresh pot of soil or try rooting them in water, but it's often best to put the cutting straight into soil.
Success factors for rooting your cuttings
They'll root faster with plenty of sunlight, but avoid setting them in direct sun. Temperature is also important, the warmer the better to speed things up. For cuttings that are more valuable or difficult, adding a little aquarium pump to oxygenate the water will help a lot.
Propagating plants from cuttings is one of the easiest and most used methods of propagation. Many plants will root from just a section of a plant. Some plants will root in water, but cuttings will develop a better root system when rooted in a soil-less potting mix.
Marcotting - also known as air layering - is the process where the branch of a carefully selected successful 'mother' tree grows an independent root system whilst still attached to the tree. It is a process that essentially produces a clone of the 'mother' tree so it will therefore have the same qualities.
This process involves collecting stem sections, treating the lower part with rooting hormones, and then either inserting ("striking") them into trays filled with growing medium until they form roots ("pre-rooting") or "direct striking" them into the growth container.
Cuttings can be made from any part of the plant. Most frequently, however, either a stem or leaf is used. A stem cutting includes a piece of stem plus any attached leaves or buds. Thus, the stem cutting only needs to form new roots to be a complete, independent plant.
The best time to take softwood cuttings is from mid-spring to early summer. Hardwood cuttings are taken later in the year, from mid-autumn to mid-winter.
Propagators should use fertilizers such as 13-2-13 and 15-5-15 in the propagation area weekly at concentrations of 50-100 ppm nitrogen.
Known as "propagation," starting plants from cuttings is one of the easiest and least expensive ways to expand your garden, but there are other benefits, too. When plants are started from seeds, each new seedling varies — like siblings in a human family. But with stem cuttings, each new plant duplicates its parent.
Storage of cuttings
It is best to harvest cuttings in early spring and plant immediately but if this is not possible, cuttings can be stored safely for about 4 months. Store cuttings in a cool, dark, and moist place.
Marcotting gives a strike rate of at least 80 percent, whereas grafting is more variable. The use of rootstocks for manipulating tree size, production and fruit quality is not well developed.
Girdling, also called ring-barking, is the circumferential removal or injury of the bark (consisting of cork cambium or "phellogen", phloem, cambium and sometimes also the xylem) of a branch or trunk of a woody plant.
A cutting is a small shoot or branch cut from a plant and placed in water, soil, or planting medium to root and form a new plant. Layering is bending and pegging the shoot of a living stem to the soil. The shoot takes root while still attached to the parent plant.
On the other hand, soil will have nutrients, which will speed up growth. As such, hardy cuttings can be rooted directly in soil to speed up the growth process and remove the need for transplanting. Cuttings in soil and soil amendments will need to be watered at least once a day to keep the cutting fresh and growing.
The internode is the section of the stem between leaf sets. Some plants form new roots from the node (where the leaves attach), some form them along the internode section. The key is to cut as close to the node as possible on those plants that form at the node and halfway for those that root along the internode.
Additionally, it breaks down into water and oxygen, providing oxygenation to the rooting medium, which is crucial for root growth. Therefore, these benefits contribute to improved success rates and faster root development when using hydrogen peroxide for propagating your plant cuttings.
Willow is good for rooting cuttings because it contains high concentrations of Indolebutyric acid (IBA), and also salicylic acid, from which aspirin is derived and which protects against fungi and other pathogens. To make willow water, simply gather around 2 cups of fresh willow growth chopped up into short lengths.
Add a Pothos! I'd heard of using willow as a natural rooting hormone (no idea where to source that however), but didn't know Pothos has this 'super power' too! Just pop a Pothos cutting in with the water with your slow-to-grow cuttings and it helps speed up root development.