Easy Fall Plant Propagation Techniques
As a home gardener, fall should be a really special time for you. Fall is that the best season of the year for plant propagation, especially for home gardeners who don’t have the posh of intermittent mist. The technique that i’m getting to describe here are often equally effective for evergreens also as many deciduous plants.
The old rule of thumb was to start out doing hardwood cuttings of evergreens after you’ve got experienced a minimum of two hard freezes. After two hard freezes the plants are completely dormant.
However, supported my experience it’s beneficial to start out doing all of your evergreen cuttings before that. So rather than doing “by the book” hardwood cuttings you’re actually working with semi-hardwood cuttings. The down side to starting your cuttings early is that they’re going to need to be watered daily unless you experience rain showers. The up side is that they’re going to start rooting sooner, and thus are better rooted once you pull them bent transplant them.
To prepare a neighborhood during which to root cuttings you want to first select a site. a neighborhood that’s about 50% shaded will work great. Full sun will work, it just requires that you simply tend to the cuttings more often. Clear all grass or other vegetation from the world that you simply have selected. the dimensions of the world is up to you. Realistically, you’ll fit about one cutting per sq in of bed area. you would possibly need a touch more area per cutting, it depends on how close you stick the cuttings within the sand.
Once you’ve got a neighborhood cleared off all you’ve got to try to to is build a wooden frame and lay it on the bottom within the area that you simply cleared. Your frame may be a simple as four 2 by 4’s or four 2 by 6’s nailed together at each corner. it’ll be open on the highest and open on rock bottom . Just lay it on the bottom within the cleared area, and fill it with a rough grade of sand.
This sand should be clean (no mud or weed seed), and far coarser than the sand utilized in a play box. Visit your local builders supply center and consider each sand pile they need . they ought to have different grades varying from very fine to very coarse. You don’t want either. you would like something a touch more coarse than their medium grade. on the other hand again it’s not rocket science, so don’t get all aroused trying to seek out just the proper grade. Actually, bagged swimming bath filter sand also works and will be available at discount home centers.
Once your wooden frame is on the bottom and crammed with sand, you’re able to start sticking cuttings. Wet the sand the day before you begin , which will make it possible for you to form a slit within the sand that won’t fill right in. during this propagation box you’ll do all types of cuttings, but i might start with the evergreens first. Taxus, Junipers, and Arborvitae.
Make the cuttings about 4” long and take away the needles from rock bottom two thirds of the cuttings. Dip them during a rooting compound and stick them within the sand about an in. approximately . Most garden centers sell rooting compounds. Just tell them that you simply are rooting hardwood cuttings of evergreens.
When you make the Arborvitae cuttings you’ll actually remove large branches from an Arborvitae and just tear them apart and obtain many cuttings from one branch. once you tear them apart that leaves alittle heel on rock bottom of the cutting. Leave this heel on. It represents a wounded area, and therefore the cutting will produce more roots due to this wound.
Once the weather gets colder and you’ve got experienced a minimum of one good hard freeze, the deciduous plants should be dormant and can have dropped their leaves, and you’ll now propagate them. Just make cuttings about 4” long, dip them during a rooting compound and stick them within the bed of sand. Not everything will root this manner , but tons of things will, and it takes little effort to seek out out what is going to work and what won’t.
This is a brief list of just a few of the items that root fine this manner . Taxus, Juniper, Arborvitae, Japanese Holly, Blue Boy/Girl Holly, Boxwood, Cypress, Forsythia, Rose of Sharon, Sandcherry, Weigela, Red Twig Dogwood, Variegated Euonymus, Cotoneaster, Privet, and Viburnum.
Immediately after sticking the cuttings thoroughly soak the sand to form sure there are not any air pockets round the cuttings. Keep the cuttings watered once or twice daily as long because the weather is warm. Once winter sets it you’ll stop watering, but if you get a warm dry spell, water during that point .
Start watering again within the spring and throughout out the summer. The cuttings should be rooted by late spring and you’ll crop on the water, but don’t allow them to dry bent the purpose that they spend .
By fall you’ll transplant them to a bed and grow them on for a year or two, otherwise you can plant them in their permanent location. this system takes 12 months, but it’s simple and straightforward .
