The Secret of Rooting Cuttings
|
Article by: Michael J. McGroarty The secret of rooting 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 article you will learn both. "Rooting Hardwood Cuttings of Deciduous Plants" Hardwood cuttings are much more durable than softwood cuttings which is why hardwoods are the best technique for the home , How to Grow Red Oak Trees Near Quakertown Pa gardener. A deciduous plant , Directions for ing a White Pine Tree is a plant , Closet Organizers that loses its leaves during the winter. , A Gardner's Diary All plants , Practical Feng Shui - Debunking the myths and finding out what we can actually learn from the ancien go dormant during the winter, , Trades and Barter are My Favorites 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 , Flower Delivery in New York that completely loses its leaves is a deciduous plant. , What's in Store for National Home Gardening Club Members? There are three different techniques for rooting cuttings of deciduous plants. , A Gardner's Diary Two methods for hardwood cuttings, and one for softwood cuttings. In this article we are only going to discuss rooting cuttings using the hardwood methods. If you are interested in softwood cuttings, you'll find a very informative article at http://www.freeplants.com Of the two hardwood techniques is one better than the other? It depends on exactly what you are rooting, what the soil , Guide to basic Lawn Mower Maintenance conditions are at your house, , A Few Simple Facts About Purple Martins and what Mother Nature , The Cranberry Viburnum Will Thrive In Quakertown Pa has up her sleeve for the coming winter. , Tips and Tricks for Better Bedrooms 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, , Selling Your House - $100,000 Pets you should wait until the parent plants , An Alarm Clock Will Help You Start The Day Right are completely dormant. This does not happen until you've experienced a good hard freeze where the temperature , Why You Should Be Gardening dips down below 32 degrees F. for a period of several hours. Here in northeastern Ohio this usually occurs around mid November. Unlike softwood cuttings of deciduous plants, , All About Riding Lawn Mowers where you only take tip , A Few Simple Facts About Purple Martins cuttings from the ends of the branches, that rule does not apply to hardwood cuttings of deciduous plants. , Roses At 40 Below? For instance, a plant , Trades and Barter are My Favorites such as Forsythia can grow , Bird Garden-Practical Tips as much as four feet in one season. , Flower Delivery in New York 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 , The Green Giant Arborvitae Story up to ten feet or more in one season. , Why You Should Be Gardening That entire vine can be used for hardwood cuttings. Of course with grape vines, there is considerable space between the buds, , Know Your Yellow Roses! so the cuttings have to be much longer than most other deciduous plants. , The American Arborvitae Grows well in Danboro Pa. The average length of a hardwood grape vine cutting is about 12" and still only has 3 or 4 buds. , Things to Know About Fountain Pumps The bud , Choosing The Best Plants For Your Garden spacing on most other deciduous plants , Guide to basic Lawn Mower Maintenance is much closer, so the cuttings only need to be about 6- 8" in length. Making a deciduous hardwood cutting is quite easy. Just collect some branches (known as canes) from the parent plants. , Choosing The Best s For Your Garden Clip these canes into cuttings about 6" long. Of course these canes will not have any leaves on them because the plant , How to Grow Red Oak Trees Near Quakertown Pa is dormant, but if you examine the canes closely you will see little bumps along the cane. These bumps are bud , Safety tips for a Riding Lawn Mower! unions. They are next year's leaf buds , Rawhide Lamp Shades - Professional Secrets to Shade Life or nodes, as they are often called. When making a hardwood cutting of a deciduous plant , Looking After Your Rose Garden 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 , Overwintering Pond Fish 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 , Choosing The Best Plants For Your Garden underground is not a good idea. It is only a place , 8 Lawn Care Tips for Your Garden for insects and disease , Preventing in your garden to hide. It is also helpful to actually injure a plant , Directions for ing a White Pine Tree slightly when trying to force it to develop roots. , Gardening Tips for Avoiding Fungal Diseases When a plant , Bird Garden-Practical Tips is injured, it develops a callous over the wound as protection. This callous build up is necessary before roots , A Few Simple Facts About Purple Martins will develop. Cutting just below a node on the bottom of a cutting causes the plant , Gardening Gifts for All Occasions to develop callous and eventually, roots. , Patio Design and Patio Furniture - The Use of Focal Points 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 , ?’m A Leaf Thief And A Composting King from being damaged or knocked off during handling and planting. You can press down on the cutting without harming the buds. , Trades and Barter are My Favorites When rooting cuttings this way it helps to make the cut at the top of the cutting at an angle. This sheds water , Flower Delivery in New York away from the cut end of the cutting and helps to reduce the chance of disease. , Looking After Your Rose Garden Once you have all of your cuttings made, dip the bottom of the cutting in a rooting compound. Make sure you have the right strength rooting compound (available at most garden , All About Riding Lawn Mowers stores) for hardwood cuttings. Line them up so the butt ends are even and tie them into bundles. Select a spot in your garden , Tips For Cutting Roses For Display that is in full sun. , Overwintering Pond Fish Dig a hole about 12" deep and large enough to hold all of the bundles of cuttings. Place , A Few Simple Facts About Purple Martins 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 , Preventing Septic Tank System problems. and mark the location , Why You Should Be Gardening with a stake, so you can find them again in the spring. , It's Gardening Season! I know this sounds crazy, but rooting cuttings this way does work. To increase your chances of success you can cover the butt ends of the cuttings with moist peat moss before filling in the hole. Make sure you wet the peat moss thoroughly, then just pack it on the butt ends of the cuttings. Over the winter , How to Grow a Pineapple the cuttings will develop callous and possibly some roots. , An Alarm Clock Will Help You Start The Day Right Placing them in the hole upside down puts the butt ends closest to the surface, so they can be warmed by the sun, , The Cranberry Viburnum Will Thrive In Quakertown Pa creating favorable conditions for root , Choosing The Best Plants For Your Garden development. Being upside down also discourages top growth. Leave them alone until about mid spring , Safety tips for a Riding Lawn Mower! after the danger of frost has passed. Over the winter , A Few Simple Facts About Purple Martins the buds , Preventing disease in your garden 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 , Mulching Benefits / Organic and Inorganic Mulch Types 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 , Things to Know About Fountain Pumps them out anyway. You don't need a bed , Selling Your House - $100,000 Pets of sand , Looking for a high quality mixer? Try a KitchenAid Mixer! or anything special when you plant , Rawhide Lamp Shades - Professional Secrets to Shade Life the cuttings out. Just put them in a sunny location , Know Your Yellow Roses! in your garden. , ing Tips for Avoiding Fungal Diseases Of course the area you chose should be well drained, with good rich topsoil. To plant , Bird Garden-Practical Tips the cuttings, just dig a very narrow trench, or using a spade, make a slice by prying open the ground. Place , Using the Propagation Technique Known as Budding to Grow Beautiful Ornamental Trees the cuttings in the trench with the butt ends down. Bury about one half of the cutting leaving a few buds , The American Arborvitae Grows well in Danboro Pa. above ground. Back fill around the cuttings with loose soil , Using the Propagation Technique Known as Budding to Grow Beautiful Ornamental Trees making sure there are no air , It's Gardening Season! pockets. Tamp them in lightly, then water , Looking After Your Rose Garden thoroughly to eliminate any air , Why You Should Be Gardening pockets. Water , Things to Know About Fountain Pumps them on a regular basis, but don't make the soil , It's Gardening Season! 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 , Preventing disease in your garden to support the plant. , Preventing disease in your garden The others will develop roots , Preventing disease in your garden as they leaf out. By fall, , How to Grow a Pineapple the cuttings that survived should be pretty well rooted. You can transplant them once they are dormant, or you can wait until spring. , Directions for Planting a White Pine Tree If you wait until spring, , Easy to Grow - The Eastern White Pine Tree make sure you transplant them before they break dormancy. There really is no exact science when it comes to rooting cuttings, so now I am going to present you with a variation of the above method. This method still applies to hardwood cuttings of deciduous plants. , Looking for a high quality mixer? Try a KitchenAid Mixer! With this variation you do everything exactly the same as you do with the method you just learned, up to the point where you bury them for the winter. , Rawhide Lamp Shades - Professional Secrets to Shade Life With method number two you don't bury them at all. Instead, you plant , Using the Propagation Technique Known as Budding to Grow Beautiful Ornamental Trees the cuttings out as soon as you make them in the late fall, , Know Your Yellow Roses! or anytime during the winter , Patio Design and Patio Furniture - The Use of Focal Points when the ground is not frozen. In other words, you just completely skip the step where you bury the cuttings underground for the winter. , Looking for a high quality mixer? Try a KitchenAid Mixer! Plant , ?’m A Leaf Thief And A Composting King 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 , Bird Garden-Practical Tips growth. Hardwood cuttings work fairly well for most of the deciduous shrubs. , Know Your Yellow Roses! However, they are not likely to work for some of the more refined varieties of deciduous ornamentals like Weeping Cherries or other ornamental trees. , Choosing The Best Plants For Your Garden Rooting cuttings of ornamental trees , Choosing the right house cleaning service for your home. is possible, but only using softwood cutting techniques. Now let's discuss rooting cuttings of evergreens, using hardwood techniques. Hardwood cuttings of evergreens are usually done after you have experienced two heavy frosts in the late fall, , How to Grow a Pineapple around mid November or so. However, I have obtained good results with some plants , An Alarm Clock Will Help You Start The Day Right doing them as early as mid September, taking advantage of the warmth of the fall , Gardening Tips for Avoiding Fungal Diseases sun. When doing them this early, they need to be watered every day. 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 , Rawhide Lamp Shades - Professional Secrets to Shade Life in a simple frame filled with coarse sand. , How to Grow Red Oak Trees Near Quakertown Pa To make such a frame, just make a square or rectangular frame using 2" by 6" boards. Nail , Gardening Tips for Avoiding Fungal Diseases 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 , Patio Design and Patio Furniture - The Use of Focal Points or grass , Mulching Benefits / Organic and Inorganic Mulch Types inside the frame so this vegetation does not grow , It's Gardening Season! up through your propagation bed. , REPLACING ALUMINUM FRAME SINGLE PANE WINDOWS Fill this frame with a very coarse grade of sand. , The Cranberry Viburnum Will Thrive In Quakertown Pa The sand , Roses At 40 Below? used in swimming pool filters usually works. Mason's sand , Closet Organizers is a little too fine. If you have a sand , Patio Design and Patio Furniture - The Use of Focal Points and gravel , Perennials in the Flower Garden yard in your area visit the site and inspect the sand , How to Grow Red Oak Trees Near Quakertown Pa piles. Find a grade that is a little more coarse than masons sand. , Rawhide Lamp Shades - Professional Secrets to Shade Life But keep in mind that most any sand , A Few Simple Facts About Purple Martins will work, so just pick one that you think is coarse enough. If water , Mulching Benefits / Organic and Inorganic Mulch Types runs through it easily, it's coarse enough. Make sure you place , Burning Bushes ....Brilliant Fall Foliage your frame in an area where the water , Gardening Gifts for All Occasions can drain through the sand, , Flower Delivery in New York and out of the frame. In other words, don't select a soggy area for your cutting bed. , A Gardner's Diary Standing water , Easy to Grow - The Eastern White Pine Tree 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. , How to Grow a Pineapple Make tip , Burning Bushes ....Brilliant Fall Foliage 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 , Mulching Benefits / Organic and Inorganic Mulch Types development. Dip the butt ends of the cuttings in a powder or liquid rooting compound and stick them in the sand , It's Gardening Season! about 3/4" to 1" apart. Keep them watered throughout the fall , What's in Store for National Home Gardening Club Members? until cool temperatures , Selling Your House - $100,000 Pets set in. If you have some warm dry days over the winter, , How to Grow Red Oak Trees Near Quakertown Pa make sure you water , Comfort and Style for your Bedroom! your cuttings. Keep in mind that sand , Tips For Cutting Roses For Display in a raised bed , Mulching Benefits / Organic and Inorganic Mulch Types will dry out very quickly. Don't worry about snow. , How to Grow Sprouts Snow , All About Riding Lawn Mowers covering your cuttings is just fine, it will actually keep them moist, and protect them from harsh winter , Rawhide Lamp Shades - Professional Secrets to Shade Life winds. Start watering again in the spring , ?’m A Leaf Thief And A Composting King and throughout the summer. , 8 Lawn Care Tips for Your Garden They don't need a lot of water, , ?’m A Leaf Thief And A Composting King but be careful not to let them dry out, and at the same time making sure they are not soaking wet. This method of rooting cuttings of evergreens actually works very well, 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 , How to Grow Sprouts would be just fine. They should develop more roots , Easy to Grow - The Eastern White Pine Tree over the winter. , Guide to basic Lawn Mower Maintenance Root , Directions for Planting a White Pine Tree ing cuttings of the following plants , Flower Delivery in New York is very easy using this method. Variegated Euonymus varieties, Taxus, Juniper, Arborvitae, Japanese Holly, Boxwood, and English Holly. Rhododendrons and Azaleas prefer to have their bottoms warmed before they root. , An Alarm Clock Will Help You Start The Day Right Article Source: http://www.articledashboard.com
Michael J. McGroarty is the author of this article. Visit his most interesting website, www.freeplants.com and sign up for his excellent gardening , Bird Garden-Practical Tips newsletter. Article provided by gardening-articles.com |
  
|
mygarden.net.au Gardening | Landscaping | Climate Change | Home Improvement | How To DIY | Home Garden | Interior Design | Home Security | Home Finance | Forum | DIY | Add Your Link |