Cuttings

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	Cuttings Grow a twin to your favorite plant.

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Transcript: Cuttings

Have you got a favorite plant at home that you would like to make more plants out of? Rooting your own cuttings is really not that difficult. Let me show you how.

You want to start with a quality mix: something very loose but holds moisture and drains well at the same time. You want to moisten the mix and place it in some type of container. Now, one of the easiest rooting containers for do-it-yourself home rooting is a simple clear pop bottle. Cut the top off, make holes in the bottom so that it drains well. It makes a nice little mini greenhouse for growing plants.

Now the next step is to take the plant that you want to root and remove the bottom few leaves. Some woody species need a little help in rooting. For that, we use a rooting hormone product that’s available in most nurseries and garden centers. Rather than dipping your cuttings into the hormone, which can contaminate the bottle, place a little bit into a cup, dip your cuttings into that, and, as you can see, a little bit clings to the bottom cutting. We don’t want to shove it into the soil mix because that would simply wipe the hormone off. Instead, use the tip of a pencil to open up a small hole, place it into the mix, and then pinch it around the cutting.

After a period of time, usually about three or four weeks, your cuttings will begin to root. Here’s one that we can see that’s just starting to root. And you don’t want to pull them up every few days to check or they’ll die on you, but you can see the roots beginning to form on the base of this cutting. And after about a month or two, it will have filled the container with roots and be ready for transplanting into a larger container or outdoors.

With your common sense tip on rooting your own cuttings at home, I’m Skip Richter.

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Last Updated: July 6, 2006