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It’s time: how to propagate plants by cuttings
In order to have more flowers and shrubs in the garden, it is not necessary to buy new seedlings. You can do it on your own.
“Green shoots reproduce better herbaceous perennials, semi-lignified shoots of the current year – shrubs and vines”, – says our expert, agronomist Dmitry Lukyanov.
Fission ready
It is better to cut the cuttings in the morning or in the evening from the young part of the plants, the shoot itself should be still green, and its base should already be woody. Cut it so that a pair of leaves and one internode remain on each piece. Remove the top with a bud or unripe buds. Make slanting cuts, 1 cm above and below the base of the leaves.
It is good to root small annual twigs entirely, pinching the top, and freeing them from the leaves by 5 cm from the bottom. If there are a lot of them or they are large, some are removed to reduce moisture evaporation.
Smooth landing
You will need a greenhouse for seedlings, you can buy it inexpensively or make it yourself, and small plastic boxes. If the area has good fertile soil, take it with a little sand to improve air permeability. Or compose the soil yourself: make a mixture of coarse sand and peat in a 1: 1 ratio. The soil does not have to be nutritious, it doesn’t matter for rooting. But you need to take care of the absence of infections: fry the soil in the oven, and then spill it with phytosporin.
Plant the prepared cuttings in the ground obliquely, at a distance of 5–7 cm from each other, in rows of 10 cm. Do not forget about the peg tags: during the cultivation process, you can forget where which crop is. Water liberally and place in the greenhouse.
Easy care
Until autumn, make sure that the soil in the cuttings does not dry out, remove dead blackened plants. In September, when the cuttings are already rooted, remove the film. In early October, set pegs on both sides of the cuticle and cover with spruce branches and spunbond. In the spring, open the cuttings and either plant them in a permanent place, or, if we are talking about capricious crops (conifers and rhododendrons), grow them for another year under a film.
Special rules
The most popular and effective garden seedlings are clematis, hydrangea and rose. Each plant from this trio has its own characteristics.
Hydrangea. All species, except for paniculata, cut well at any time. It is propagated when balls appear – bud embryos. For grafting other species, it is beneficial to use branches cut before winter. Cut them into pieces that have a lignified area and a green shoot extending from it. Remove the top and immediately plant on the garden bed, cover with peat and cover with dense spunbond. By summer, the cuttings will take root.
Rose flower. Ground cover, miniature roses, climbing and floribunda are well cuttings. Worse – varieties with yellow flowers and wrinkled park roses. For autumn pruning, prepare cuttings, wrap sphagnum in moss and dig in until spring. Start rooting in early spring, the surviving shoots will take root perfectly.
Clematis. In flowering liana, annual cuttings take root easily. During budding, take only the middle part of the shoot. It is better to plant twigs with one pair of leaves, leave 1–2 cm of the stem at the bottom, 2–3 cm on top, remove some of the leaves. It is necessary to bury the bud 1 cm into the soil, so that the upper tip of the cutting and leaves stick out.