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Offline Peggy

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Propagation by Cuttings
« on: Jan 06, 2009, 02:09:23 PM »
Propagating with Cuttings
Softwood & Hardwood
By: Peggy A. Rowe-Snyder

I have loved gardening for a long, long time.  My father planted gardens in our backyard of our suburban San Francisco Bay Area home site.  I loved the taste of his homegrown vegetables.  My grandparents were farmers, and my great grandparents were farmers.  No one could grow peas like grandpa!  I guess, it’s in my blood so to speak. 

As a high school student, I took classes to prepare for college and for a work life because I couldn’t make up my mind what I wanted to do.  A writer, a journalist on the political sciences beat, a vocalist, a counselor, a teacher, a librarian, a landscape contractor.

Because I loved gardening so much, I did two things to try and make my want to be in that kind of profession happen.  I got a job at a small business called, “The Puddle Pot.”  We at that business got plants ready for sale at local grocery stores, and for rental by doctor’s offices, and other places of business.  AND, I took what was then called a R.O.P (Regional Occupational Program) Class.  I took two years of Landscaping classes.  This class was taught by a local Junior College professor who was a licensed Landscape Contractor.  The class was taught onsite at a local, and well established (the oldest in the bay area) nursery.  And one of the first things I learned about was how to propagate plants. 

Plants can be propagated by seed.  Most people know this.  But there is also layering, grafting, and cuttings.  This article talks about cuttings.

Cuttings are really easy so long as you have chosen a plant that does well under these circumstances.  Most people know what it is, even if they might not know the name.  Do you know someone who wants a Weeping Willow and sticks some branches in a bucket of water and waits for the roots to come? This is a cutting. Maybe not the best procedure but the end result if it grows is the same, another plant!
 
And that is how my father made baby Weeping Willows!

Types of Cuttings

Tip cuttings probably are the most common type for use with deciduous plants during the growing season; they generally do not give the best results at any other part of the year. The tip section of a shoot is more subject to winter cold damage, may have flower buds rather than shoot buds, and may not have the proper internal nutritional and hormonal balance for good rooting during the dormant season. Simple or straight cuttings, starting 8 to 10 inches from the shoot tip, are usually more satisfactory for dormant cuttings.

Tip cuttings are most common for evergreen plants and generally give satisfactory results. Cut them about 4 to 10 inches long from stem tips, using stems one year or less in age. Make tip cuttings from the main shoot or long side branches. Large cuttings produce a usable plant in shorter time than small cuttings but may require more care while rooting.

Simple or straight cuttings from long, one-year-old shoots can be cut into sections. This is the most common type of cutting for propagating leafless (dormant) cuttings of deciduous plants. It might occasionally be used for broad-leaved evergreens.




Heel cuttings are made from side shoots produced on stems two or more years old. To make the cuttings, pull the side shoots from the main stem. Pull directly away from the tip end of the main stem. This usually leaves a heel of older, main-stem tissue attached to the basal end of the side shoot. The heel cutting also can be cut from the main stem with a knife.





Mallet cuttings, similar to heel cuttings, include a complete cross-section of the older, main stem at the base of the side shoot. Use a knife or a pair of small pruning shears to make this cut.



Softwood Cuttings

Softwood cuttings are how many trees and shrubs are propagated. Softwood cuttings are best taken in spring when the softwood is, well, softest. Softwood refers to the new growth on a tree or shrub. It is possible to propagate deciduous shrubs from cuttings taken during the summer.



The easiest way to tell if a plant is good softwood candidate is to look at a branch. The softwood will look and feel like a regular plant, soft and easily crushed between your fingers. The softwood will lead down to the hardwood , which will feel like a normal tree branch, with a rough bark (or bark-like) covering and hard to crush. The softer the wood the better the cutting will root. As soft wood ages, it becomes more and more like hardwood.

Get a pot of soilless potting mix. When I was learning, the preferred ‘medium’ was called Perlite.  Today, this soilless “dirt” is most container mixes you buy at the store.  It’s best not to use ‘dirt’, meaning the stuff you find in your yard.

Here’s how:
1.  Once you have determined where the softwood is, take a 4 - 8 inch cutting of the softwood. If there is no 4 inch piece of softwood, you may have a difficult time getting the cutting to root.

2.  Strip the leaves off the bottom half to third of the stem.

3.  Dip the stripped part of the stem in water and then in a rooting hormone like Rootone. The stripped part of the stem should be covered by the rooting hormone.

4.  Stick your finger in the soilless mix to make a hole.

5.  Stick the cutting in the hole and push the dirt around the cutting with your fingers. You do this so that the rooting hormone will stay stuck to the stem. If you just shoved the cutting into the dirt, the rooting hormone would be left on top of the dirt.

6.  Place the cutting in indirect light and try to keep it moist and in a humid environment.
Don’t panic if your cutting looks a bit peaked. Plants go through a ‘shocked’ stage, just like you would if you were ‘uprooted’.  Keep in mind, some cuttings root better than others. Not all of your cuttings will survive.

Other hints:
•   The best time to take cuttings is early in the day, when shoots are fully hydrated.
•   Avoid weak, thin shoots, as well as overly thick, heavy ones.
•   The best way to test if a stem has reached the softwood stage is to bend it. If it snaps, it's ready to be cut.
•   The average cutting should measure between 3 and 5 inches.
•   Cuttings should contain at least two sets of leaves.
•   Trim each set of leaves to minimize transpiration loss.
•   Cuttings should be rooted in 3-4 weeks, and ready to transplant.

Plants you can use softwood cuttings method:
Beautyberry (Callicarpa japonica)
Beautybush (Kolkwitzia amabilis)
Blue mist shrub (Caryopteris x clandonensis)
Burning bush (Euonymus alatus)
Butterfly bush (Buddleia davidii)
Chinese stranvaesia (Stranvaesia davidiana)
Crape myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica)
Daphne (Daphne caucasica)
Deciduous azaleas (Rhododendron cvs.)
Elders (Sambucus spp.)
Enkianthus (Enkianthus campanulatus)
Flowering quince (Chaenomeles speciosa)
Forsythias (Forsythia spp.)
Honeysuckles (Lonicera spp.)
Hydrangeas (Hydrangea spp.)
Japanese maples (Acer palmatum cvs.)
Kerria (Kerria japonica)
Large fothergilla (Fothergilla major)
Lilac (Syringa vulgaris)
Magnolias (Magnolia spp.)
Mock orange (Philadelphus coronarius)
Redtwig dogwood (Cornus alba and sericea)
Rugosa rose (Rosa rugosa)
Serviceberries (Amelanchier spp.)
Slender deutzia (Deutzia gracilis)
Smoke tree (Cotinus coggygria)
Spireas (Spiraea spp.)
Stewartia (Stewartia pseudocamellia)
Summersweet (Clethra alnifolia)
Sweetshrub (Calycanthus floridus)
Viburnums (Viburnum x burkwoodii and carlesii)
Virginia sweetspire (Itea virginica)
Weigelas (Weigela spp.)
Willows (Salix spp.)
Wintercreeper (Euonymus fortunei)
Winter hazels (Corylopsis spp.)
Witch hazels (Hamamelis spp.)

Hardwood Cuttings

This is a quick & easy method of reproducing trees, shrubs and hedging plants

Cuttings of species that root easily can be planted directly out of doors in a sheltered site with well-drained soil. Place cuttings in a trench with a layer of sand in the base. Check the trench after frost and firm back if required. Cuttings should be left in place until the following autumn ensuring that they do not dry out.

The cuttings are inserted in the ground with two-thirds of the cutting below ground as they will root along the stem. A few buds remain above the ground to allow the plant to grow away in spring.

Alternatively, the cuttings can be inserted into deep containers of general-purpose compost. Keep the pots in a sheltered cold frame until the following autumn, ensuring that they do not dry out.
Hardwood cuttings is a method used to propagate deciduous plants. These kind of cuttings are made when the parent plants are completely dormant.

When taking softwood cuttings of deciduous plants you take tip cuttings from the ends of the branches only. 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 years 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 keep disease and insects away from the cuttings.

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.  You can use either liquid or powder rooting compounds, they both work equally as well.  I like liquid because you dilute it to the strength you need, and the directions are right on the bottle.  But with powder rooting compounds you have to buy different strengths depending on whether you are doing hardwood cuttings or softwood cuttings.  Brand name really doesn't matter, they are all very similar.
Once you have your cuttings made and dipped in the rooting compound

You can mound some soil up around the base to keep the wind from drying things out.  The freezing weather will not hurt your hardwood cuttings.  For the most part they'll remain dormant until spring comes, and then they'll develop roots at the same time they produce leaves.

You can propagate hardwood cuttings of deciduous plants throughout most of the winter.  Starting in late spring or early summer you can use your homemade plant propagation system to do softwood cuttings of both deciduous plants as well as evergreens.

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.

Plants that root from hardwood cuttings:

Cornus, Salix, Populus, Buddleja, Roses, Forsythia, Honeysuckle, Grape,
Currant, Willow, Poplar, Narrow-leaved (called needles) evergreens, such as low-growing juniper, arborvitae, and false cypress and Broad-leaved evergreens—as camellia euonymus, and cherry laurel




How are you?  I'm great!  Glad to see you! Hope we meet again!

Offline Bonnie

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Re: Propagation by Cuttings
« Reply #1 on: Jan 07, 2009, 12:30:03 PM »
This is a great post, lots of good info.Thanks for sharing it with us.
This is me ->?

Offline Peggy

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Re: Propagation by Cuttings
« Reply #2 on: Jan 07, 2009, 04:56:21 PM »
you are welcome!! I gave a presentation today to the local garden club.  Someone was visiting from the neighboring town's club. Now they want me to do one too! Anyways, this is basically the notes from the talk. Thought I'd share!  :) Peg
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Offline Dianna

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Re: Propagation by Cuttings
« Reply #3 on: Jan 07, 2009, 05:11:16 PM »
Great tutorial on cuttings, Peggy! Thank you for sharing this with us... :grinnnn:
"Be careful what you water your dreams with. Water them with worry and fear and you will produce weeds that choke the life from your dream. Water them with optimism and solutions and you will cultivate success." - Lao Tzu

Offline Peggy

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Re: Propagation by Cuttings
« Reply #4 on: Jan 08, 2009, 01:49:31 AM »
welcome, welcome! :) Glad to share!!! :) Peg
How are you?  I'm great!  Glad to see you! Hope we meet again!

Offline pat

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Re: Propagation by Cuttings
« Reply #5 on: Nov 02, 2009, 05:03:27 PM »
just wondering if you thought that euonymus fortunei (which seems to be very willing to propagate) might work merely suspended in water until rooted.  i did it successfully with pachysandra and it was so easy i wondered if it might work with wintercreeper.  i have a lot of the plant so a smallish success rate would be okay

Offline Dianna

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Re: Propagation by Cuttings
« Reply #6 on: Nov 02, 2009, 05:08:58 PM »
Since you have a lot of the plant to work with, Pat, I would think it would be worth a try... :grinnnn:
"Be careful what you water your dreams with. Water them with worry and fear and you will produce weeds that choke the life from your dream. Water them with optimism and solutions and you will cultivate success." - Lao Tzu

 

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