The secret of growing landscape plants from cuttings can be summed
up in two words. "Timing and technique". When you do your cuttings is every
bit as important as how you do them. So if you do the right thing, at the
right time of the year, your efforts are sure to bring success. Through this
little booklet you will learn both.
Hardwood Cuttings of Deciduous Plants
We'll start with hardwood cuttings because they are the most durable,
and that is important for the home gardener.
A deciduous plant is a plant that loses it's leaves during the
winter.
All plants go dormant during the winter, but evergreens keep their
foliage.
Many people don't consider Rhododendrons, Azaleas, and Mountain
Laurel evergreens, but they are. They are known as broad leaf evergreens.
Any plant that completely loses it's leaves is a deciduous plant.
There are two different ways to do hardwood cuttings of deciduous
plants. Is one better than the other? It depends on exactly what you are
rooting, what the soil conditions are at your house, and what Mother Nature
has up her sleeve for the coming winter. I have experienced both success
and failure using each method. Only experimentation will determine what works
best for you. Try some cuttings using each method.
When doing hardwood cuttings of deciduous plants, you should wait
until the parent plants are completely dormant. This does not happen until
you've experienced a good hard freeze where the temperature dips down below
32 degrees F. for a period of several hours. Here in northeastern Ohio this
usually occurs around mid November.
Method Number One:
Unlike softwood cuttings of deciduous plants, where you only take
tip cuttings from the ends of the branches, that rule does not apply to hardwood
cuttings of deciduous plants.
For instance, a plant such as Forsythia can grow as much as four
feet in one season. In that case, you can use all of the current years growth
to make hardwood cuttings. You might be able to get six or eight cuttings
from one branch.
Grapes are extremely vigorous. A grape vine can grow up to ten feet
or more in one season. That entire vine can be used for hardwood cuttings.
Of course with grape vines, there is considerable space between the buds,
so the cuttings have to be much longer than most other deciduous plants.
The average length of a hardwood grape vine cutting is about 12" and still
only has 3 or 4 buds. The bud spacing on most other deciduous plants is much
closer, so the cuttings only need to be about 6-8" in length.
Since hardwood cuttings must be done during the winter months, you
probably will want to work in your garage or basement where it is not quite
so cold. Of course there are still some nice days after the first freeze
when working outside is possible.
Making a deciduous hardwood cutting is quite easy. Just collect
some branches (known as canes) from the parent plants. Clip these canes into
cuttings about 6" long. Of course these canes will not have any leaves on
them because the plant is dormant, but if you examine the canes closely you
will see little bumps along the cane. These bumps are bud unions. They are
next year's leaf buds or nodes, as they are often called.
When making a hardwood cutting of a deciduous plant it is best to
make the cut at the bottom, or the butt end of the cutting just below a node,
and make the cut at the top of the cutting about 3/4" above a node.
This technique serves two purposes. One, it makes it easier for
you to distinguish the top of the cutting from the bottom of the cutting
as you handle them. It also aids the cutting in two different ways.
Any time you cut a plant above a node, the section of stem left
above that node will die back to the top node. So if you were to leave 1/2"
of stem below the bottom node, it would just die back anyway. Having that
section of dead wood underground is not a good idea. It is only a place for
insects and disease to hide.
It is also helpful to actually injure a plant slightly when trying
to force it to develop roots. When a plant is injured, it develops a callous
over the wound as protection. This callous build up is necessary before roots
will develop. Cutting just below a node on the bottom of a cutting causes
the plant to develop callous and eventually, roots.
Making the cut on the top of the cutting 3/4" above the node is
done so that the 3/4" section of stem above the node will provide protection
for the top node. This keeps the buds from being damaged or knocked off during
handling and planting.
You can press down on the cutting without harming the buds. Although
not necessary, it helps to make the cut at the top of the cutting at an angle.
This sheds water away from the cut end of the cutting and helps to reduce
the chance of disease.
Once you have all of your cuttings made, dip them in a rooting compound.
Make sure you have the right strength rooting compound for hardwood cuttings.
Your local garden center should sell rooting compounds.
Line them up so the butt ends are even and tie them into bundles.
Select a spot in your garden that is in full sun. Dig a hole about 12" deep
and large enough to hold all of the bundles of cuttings. Place the bundles
of cuttings in the hole upside down. The butt ends of the cuttings should
be up. The butt ends of the cuttings should be about 6" below the surface.
Cover the cuttings completely with soil and mark the location with a stake,
so you can find them again in the spring. It is beneficial to cover the butt
ends with moist peat moss before filling in the hole.
Over the winter the cuttings will develop callous and possibly some
roots. Placing them in the hole upside down puts the butt ends closest to
the surface, so they can be warmed by the sun, creating favorable conditions
for root development. Being upside down also discourages top
growth.
Leave them alone until about mid spring after the danger of frost
has passed. Over the winter the buds will begin to develop and will be quite
tender when you dig them up. Frost could do considerable damage if you dig
them and plant them out too early. That's why it is best to leave them buried
until the danger of frost has passed.
Dig them up very carefully, so as not to damage them. Cut open the
bundles and examine the butt ends. Hopefully, you will see some callous build
up. Even if there is no callous, plant them out anyway.
You don't need a bed of sand or anything special when you plant
the cuttings out. Just put them in a sunny location in your garden. Of course
the area you chose should be well drained, with good rich topsoil.
To plant the cuttings, just dig a very narrow trench, or using a
spade, make a slice by prying open the ground. Place the cuttings in the
trench with the butt ends down. Bury about one half of the cutting leaving
a few buds above ground.
Back fill around the cuttings with loose soil making sure there
are no air pockets. Tamp them in lightly. Water them on a regular basis,
but don't make the soil so wet that they rot.
Within a few weeks the cuttings will start to leaf out. Some will
more than likely collapse because there are not enough roots to support the
plant. The others will develop roots as they leaf out. By fall, the cuttings
that survived should be pretty well rooted. You can transplant them once
they are dormant, or you can wait until spring. If you wait until spring,
make sure you transplant them before they break dormancy.
Method Number Two:
When using the second method for rooting hardwood cuttings of deciduous
plants you do everything exactly the same as you do with method number one,
up to the point where you bury them for the winter.
With method number two you don't bury them at all. Instead, you
plant the cuttings out as soon as you make them in the late fall, or anytime
during the winter when the ground is not frozen. In other words, you just
completely skip the step where you bury the cuttings underground for the
winter.
Plant them exactly the same way as described for method number one.
As with all cuttings, treating them with a rooting compound prior to planting
will help induce root growth.
Hardwood cuttings work fairly well for most of the deciduous shrubs.
However, they are not likely to work for some of the more refined varieties
of deciduous ornamentals like Weeping Cherries or other ornamental
trees.
Hardwood Cuttings of Evergreens:
Hardwood cuttings of evergreens are usually done after you have
experienced two heavy frosts in the late fall, around mid November or so.
However, I have obtained good results with some plants doing them as early
as mid September, taking advantage of the warmth of the fall sun. Try some
cuttings early and if they do poorly, just do some more in
November.
Hardwood cuttings of many evergreens can be done at home in a simple
frame filled with course sand. To make such a frame, just make a square or
rectangular frame using 2" by 6" boards. Nail the four corners together as
if to make a large picture frame. This frame should sit on top of the ground
in an area that is well drained. An area of partial shade is
preferred.
Once you have the frame constructed remove any weeds or grass inside
the frame so this vegetation does not grow up through your propagation bed.
Fill this frame with a very coarse grade of sand. This frame must be well
drained, and coarse sand drains very well. Fine sands do not drain well at
all. Standing water is sure to seriously hamper your results.
Making the evergreen cuttings is easy. Just clip a cutting 4-5 inches
in length from the parent plant. Make tip cuttings only. (Only one cutting
from each branch.) Strip the needles or leaves from the bottom one half to
two thirds of the cutting. Wounding evergreen cuttings isn't usually necessary
because removing the leaves or needles causes enough injury for callous build
up and root development.
Dip the butt ends of the cuttings in a powder or liquid rooting
compound and stick them in the sand about 3/4" to 1" apart. Keep them watered
throughout the fall until cool temperatures set in. Start watering again
in the spring and throughout the summer. They don't need a lot of water,
but be careful not to let them dry out, and at the same time making sure
they are not soaking wet.
Hardwood cuttings of many evergreens will root this way, but it
does take some time. You should leave them in the frame for a period of twelve
months. You can leave them longer if you like. Leaving them until the following
spring would be just fine. They should develop more roots over the
winter.
This method of rooting hardwood cuttings can and will work for a
variety of different evergreen plants, both needled and broad leaf
evergreens.
There are some varieties that are more difficult and will not root
unless special care is provided. For most of the more difficult to root
evergreens, the addition of bottom heat will help to induce root
development.
Keep in mind that any time we attempt to root a cutting of any kind,
we are asking the plant to establish roots before the top of the plant starts
growing. Once the plant begins to grow it will die if it has not established
roots first.
Softwood cuttings are very delicate and will collapse if not cared
for carefully. However, softwood cuttings root very quickly and can be growing
on their own roots in a matter of a few weeks. Hardwood cuttings on the other
hand are much more durable and can survive for months with very little care
or roots. However, hardwood cuttings are very slow to develop
roots.
Softwood Cuttings Using the Upside Down Fish Tank Gardening
Method:
A softwood cutting is a cutting that is taken in early to mid summer.
It is relatively new growth that is only a month or two old. Softwood cuttings
are very soft and pliable. They root very quickly, but they are extremely
delicate, and will wilt down in a matter of minutes of not cared for
properly.
Professional growers use complicated watering systems that apply
very small amounts of water on a frequent basis to keep their cuttings from
wilting. Due to the cost of these systems it's not practical for home gardeners
to make use of them.
So instead you can use an age old idea with a new twist. One of
my readers shared with me how he does softwood cuttings using old fish
tanks.
He goes to flea markets and finds old fish aquariums that he can
buy for a dollar or two. Once he gets them home he place strips of masking
tape across the bottom, sides, and ends of the tank, leaving just one inch
of exposed glass between each strip of tape. Once he has the aquarium all
taped up, he paints the entire outside of the tank with white latex paint,
painting over both the exposed glass and the masking tape. Once the paint
dries, he removes the masking tape, leaving his aquarium with alternating
stripes of clear glass and white paint.
The white paint is to reflect the suns rays, while the strips of
clear glass allow about 50% sunlight through.
He then builds a wooden frame on the ground using 2" by 6" boards.
The frame is the same shape as the aquarium, except that it is a few inches
larger in each direction. He fills the frame with coarse sand, moistens the
sand, and then places the aquarium on top of the sand, in the upside down
position. He then presses down on the sides of the aquarium to make an imprint
in the sand. He removes the aquarium and sticks his softwood cuttings inside
the area of the imprint.
Once the area is full, he then waters the cuttings and the sand
thoroughly to make sure there are no air pockets around the cuttings, then
place the aquarium over top of the cuttings in the upside down position once
again. The aquarium maintains a humid condition around the cuttings, and
at the same time provides filtered sunlight to reach them.
Tips to Increase Your Success with Softwood
Cuttings
* Don't take the cuttings too early. Let the new growth harden off
a little, around June 1st. If they wilt do some more a week or so
later.
* Dip your cuttings in a rooting compound.
* Don't do softwoods of evergreens until mid July, and then you
can do them until fall.
That's about it. I wish you the best of luck with your propagation
efforts. To learn more plant propagation techniques, starting your own money
making backyard nursery on 1/20 acre or less. Visit
http://www.freeplants.com, McGroarty's
Backyard Nursery, P.O. Box 338, Perry, Ohio 44081. |
