Propagating plants by green and semi-ripe cuttings

Well, today I posted on my facebook page that I was really pleased how well my salvia and lavender cuttings are doing. I only took them about 3 weeks ago and have already started potting some of them on. Phil asked if there was any chance I could cobble a blog together on how to take cuttings, so in my best Blue-Peter style, here we go...I should explain first that I'm by no means up to scratch when it comes to professional nursery standards, but taking cuttings is a really basic form of propagation and one that any gardener can try. Propagating plants can be one of the most rewarding things to do in the garden taking cuttings is one of the easiest ways to propagate plants from your garden. They used to say that my grandmother was such an expert at taking cuttings that she could get a pencil to root, but you don't need to be especially green-fingered to give it a go. If you take a little bit of time, you can produce enough new plants to fill out your own borders and still have a few left over to pass on to neighbours and family.Before we start hacking away at our cherished plants, I'll begin by talking about compost. When you're taking cuttings, you're trying to create good conditions for part of a plant to make roots where it wouldn't usually need to make them. The cutting will need a good compost which will provide the right conditions to make roots. That means that it needs to have a reasonably open texture for the roots to grow but have enough organic matter to retain moisture once the roots begin to develop. I try to use a mix of about 50/50 general purpose compost to sharp sand, and have found this to be a reasonably balanced mix.When it comes to containers for cuttings, you'll need to use something which is suitable for the type of cutting. When I'm taking small cuttings, of lavender or woody varieties of salvia for example, I tend to use the small 'plug' seed trays as they're really easy to handle and once the cuttings have taken you can pot them on with relatively little root disturbance. Don't compress the compost too much as you want it to be quite an open texture - all you need to do is lift the pot or cell tray up an gently tap it down on the work surface to settle the compost. The picture below shows a plug cell tray which I have cut in half and which will take 20 cuttings:

So, we've got our cuttings compost ready so we'll look at taking a cutting of a lavender plant. What you're looking for is a lateral shoot (that's one which is coming off a main stem) to cut. In the two pictures below, you can see the lavender plant and a closer shot of the lateral shoot which I'm going to cut. What you're looking for here is to take a young shoot which hasn't developed flower heads yet. If it's too old and woody, it will take longer to root but a shoot that's too young won't have developed enough to be capable of withstanding the shock of being cut. On this plant I've found a shoot which should be fine for cutting, down on the left hand side of the plant towards the bottom.The 'parent' plant:

And the cutting which I'm going to take:

When you've found a shoot which you're happy with, you'll need to make the cut. There's absolutely no mystery about this, all you need to do is cut the stem of the lateral just above a pair of leaves:

This should produce a cutting with a few leaves and a very short length of stem:

Once you've got this far, you'll need to take a few of those bottom leaves off. This will give the stem of the cutting enough depth to make it stable while still giving enough leaf area to absorb water while the roots develop. The cutting should look something like this:

And now the cutting is ready to go into the prepared compost.When you've filled up as many cuttings as you are going to take, water them in well making sure the leaves are well soaked. Put the cell tray in a small propagator with the lid on and the air vents (if there are any) closed. Thiss will provide a warm and moist environment for the cuttings while they try to make roots. Put the propagator in a warm (but not very hot) place in good sunlight but try to avoid strong direct sunlight if at all possible - this will heat the propagator too much and cause the cuttings to lose water. Check on the cuttings a couple of times a day and make shure they are regularly watered or misted, making sure to wet both the leaves and the compost. Avoid having the compost sitting in a tray of water as this can cause the cuttings to rot.The chances are that you'll lose a few of the cuttings, but if you take more cuttings than you need, enough of them will survive and you'll have a few left over to grow on and give away.

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Comments

Robert Smale July 25, 2009 at 9:10am

thanks for that, i have a client with a really old lavender bed that should provide hundreds of these cuttings.

any advice on layering?
Andrew Fereday July 25, 2009 at 9:25am

Hmm, Lavender's quite difficult to layer as its stems are often quite woody and just snap rather than bend. You can try building up a little soil around some of the lower branches if they're bare and all the growth is at the top. That should encourage the stem to send out roots. Cuttings are very easy to take though and although you'll lose some of them, you should easily be able to grow enough to replace the older plants.
PRO

Phil Voice July 25, 2009 at 10:53am

HI Andy - I have one two year old Lavender that is extremely healthy and it has romped away. Can you think of a way of producing loads of new cuttings in a small space - i.e. can I bunch 3-4cm semi-mature stems together and pop them into moist sand?

I know that I might get tangled roots - I don't have any set-aside propagating area - any thoughts?
Andrew Fereday July 25, 2009 at 11:01am

I'm not quite sure exactly what you mean Phil. Do you mean taking cuttings and bunching them together or layering? You can always use a common or garden plant pot and put the cuttings in around the edges. Cover it with a clear plastic bag with an elastic band to secure it to help keep moisture in. I'd use a mix of sand and compost as sand might be a little too free-draining on its own.