Shiraz Web Publications UK - Advice on Softwood Cuttings

HomePage		Apart from raising plants from seed, propagation by stem cuttings is perhaps the most common and versatile method of producing new plants, especially when it comes to shrubs. Indeed cuttings are really the only way to ensure that propagated plants are genetically identical to the parent. Whilst many plants are easily propagated by taking cuttings and will root with ease, it would be disingenuous not to point out that some are not so obliging and require increasing levels of skill to encourage them to root. However, the whole process of producing plants from cuttings is a highly addictive pastime and would not be worthwhile without some challenges to overcome. Whether increasing your plant collection by obtaining cultivars of good specimens from friends' gardens, or simply ensuring replacement plants for less hardy types of your own that may be lost over Winter, nothing can be more spiritually rewarding than having worked alongside mother nature to create new plants, or more satisfying than handing out a few excess plants to grateful friends. The only request that we would make is that you have respect for others and do not ever take cuttings from their plants without obtaining permission first.
Propagation
Techniques
Cuttings - Softwood
Cuttings - Hardwood
Cuttings - Root

Propagation of Bulbs
Propagation of Lilies
Division of Herbaceous Perennials
Division of Bulbous Plants
Growing Plants From Seed
Layering
Micro-Propagation



Equipment
The Essential Tool Kit You Will Need

It is naturally assumed that there are specific times when cuttings of different species should be taken; happily whilst this is true for a minority of difficult examples, the majority of plants can be propagated at most times of year, using young shoots at various stages of maturity and appropriately adapting the techniques used.

Cuttings taken in Spring will be soft and full of growth hormones, and are the best material for propagating more difficult subjects such as Magnolia or Japanese Maples. They root rapidly and produce new plants more speedily. However, the softer growth is more susceptible to fungal infections, dries out more quickly, and is far more easily damaged. Thus cuttings taken in Spring require more care and attention being paid to them whilst they form their first roots, requiring the provision of a warm and humid environment, and constant observation so that any developing fungal infection can be removed or treated.

Cuttings taken in Autumn, when the leaves have fallen, will have become woody and hard, such cuttings are far more robust and require less attention, but will be far slower to produce roots.

Summer produces semi-ripe cuttings. The current year's growth has largely finished, but there is still plenty of regenerative vigour left. This is the ideal compromise between the two extremes of rooting potential and vulnerability.

Softwood, semi-ripe, and heel cuttings

Stem tip cuttings are the quickest and most successful way of propagating many perennials, shrubs, biennials and alpines. The cutting taken may be soft or semi-ripe. A softwood or slightly more mature greenwood cutting is taken from the active growing tip of a plant during early Summer. Choose strong, healthy, young growth, which will be lighter in colour than older wood.

Later during Summer, when the shoots begin to ripen or become woody and stiff is when semi-ripe cutting should be taken. A simple test is to bend shoots, where if they split they are still soft, and if they spring back they are semi-ripe.

When taking stem tip cuttings, cut off a shoot between leaf nodes about 4in (10cm) long. Handle it carefully as the tissues are soft and easily damaged, and place it straight into a polythene bag containing a little moist tissue to help prevent it drying out before you return to the potting shed. Ideally cuttings should be prepared and potted as soon as possible, but that is not always practical, for example when taking cuttings from a friend's garden.

To prepare your cutting remove all but the top 2-4 leaves to prevent excess transpiration until roots are produced, and if the leaves are excessively large consider reducing the size of those that remain. Using a very sharp knife to cut just below a leaf node where the growth hormones are usually more concentrated. Avoid using a blunt knife since this will crush plant cells and both reduce the possibility of rooting and encourage the prospect of fungal infections.

Most cuttings can be fully immersed in a fungicidal solution to protect against rot, and the bottom of the cutting dipped into a rooting hormone to encourage the production of new roots. However, some plants like Fuchsias resent fungicides and will fail to thrive if a fungicide is used. In fact like many other plants most Fuchsias do not need either rooting hormones or fungicides to produce roots.

As always there are exceptions to the general rules on preparing cuttings, and Clematis is such a plant, requiring inter-nodal cuttings to be taken, where the bottom of the cutting should be a point between the nodes where leaves are produced.

Heel cuttings: Plants like Lavender and many evergreens are best propagated from heel cuttings, where a young shoot of approximately 4in (10cm) is torn from the hardwood of the main stem taking a small piece of the old stem and a sliver of bark with it, this heel, which is high in growth hormones should be trimmed to remove papery tissues that may rot, and thereafter treated in the same way as softwood or semi-ripe cuttings.

The traditional way to start ones cuttings into growth has been to plant them in a plant pot containing a very freely draining mixture of peat and grit / sand, then cover the plant pot with a polythene bag to retain a humid environment whist the hoped for new plants do the job of producing roots.

However, research has demonstrated that better success rates can be obtained by using Horticultural Vermiculite and/or Horticultural Perlite as a rooting medium.