I've been getting ready for next year's #nursery by starting cuttings in our mist bed propagation system. We will be expanding into some flowering perennials next year.

I wanted to share some quick notes on propagation by cuttings in case there is interest. Many woody perennials are propagated this way, not from seed. We are "cloning" the plant so we get a copy.

This is just one technique for propagation.

Where a plant stem has leaves coming out, provides us with the cells needed to produce roots. This area on the stem is called a "node". Therefore, for most varieties of plants we need a set of nodes below the soil to provide cells for roots.

Here is a 2 node cutting from a butterfly bush called 'Black Knight', before and after making the cutting. The leaves are stripped from the bottom node that will go under the soil. The leaves are also cut back to reduce water loss from drying out:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

If we have some plants that would have a very short space between nodes, we can make longer cuttings. Again, one node with leaves cut back that go above the ground and then strip off the leaves on all other nodes. I also wound the bottom of the cutting a bit to encourage rooting. These are cuttings from a Korean lilac called "Miss Kim":

BEFORE:

AFTER:

One exception to the rule is hydrangeas, those you can get away with a single node above ground and they will then root from the stems. This is an Annabelle Hydrangea:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Regardless of the cutting type, I dip the cuttings in a rooting hormone called "Dip And Grow" and stick the cuttings fairly close in a bed full of concrete sand. This bed is in the shade.

The cuttings should root within a few weeks. I mist 8-12 seconds every 10 minutes from 8:00 AM until about 8:30 PM at night with an automated timer.

After they root, I can leave them in the sand bed until they go dormant, or if I dig them up and pot them up I just need to keep them misted until they recover from the transplant shock.

An other option other than the mist bed is to stick them right in plastic cell packs and mist them there. That alleviates the transplant shock but takes up more room.

It varies a bit, but you can figure you can get about $1.35 per well rooted cutting, or if these are grown out and sold next year I'll be asking $10 for them.

The last thing I'll say is you can only do this legally, freely,with plants that are not patented, or whose patents have expired.

Please feel free to ask questions!

#propagation #permaculture #grownostr #plantstr #garden