I’d recommend seeing Dirr / Heuser ‘The Reference Guide to Woody Plant Propagation’ or Google to learn whether something is rootable.
Since I’m rooting Arborvitaes, I’m going to show you how to do anything but we’ll be using them.
When I can, I find the bud scar situated directly between the semi-hardwood growth and hardwood growth. A scar: is an impression in the wood where buds form.
I’m rooting during winter and must use flats/cafeteria trays/etc- without drainage. You need a tall pot for prevention of rot to cuttings and roots. I use 5.5" x 2 7/8" Anderson Tree Band pots but any pot that tall or taller will work great. The reason to use flats/reservoirs without drainage is to water from beneath allowing the media in the containers to absorb water. To water from above is to disturb (a) cutting.
The pictures will show the process if you would like to skip ahead.
Doesn’t matter if an arborvitae or a kiwi, a grape or a clematis, fig, or conifer; they’re all hardwoods when it comes down to it. The methods are the same for all hardwood trees/shrubs & vines.
As is shown are the mixing proportions for ‘Dip n’ Grow’ rooting hormone on my plastic beaker. This is what determines what age of wood you are going to root; whether readily growing late-Spring/Summer’s ‘green wood’ having slowed its growth & is now stiff enough to stand on its own as a cutting (June/July), or, semi-hardwood & hardwood cuttings.
If you’re rooting deciduous material that’s leafy, you need to cut the leaves back the same. Say you’re summer rooting under shade cloth & mist, or, using an indoor system the same as mine. Here’s these arborvitaes.
one side wounded. You scrape it with a knife using a fast motion.
flipped stick over and wounded other side:
time to dip and then insert into media whether flats or tall enough containers. A lot of the time we water from below when rooting because then the soil(s) aren’t being disturbed.
Too much water is what creates rot that’s what kills cuttings and is the #1 problem (a stem-cutting that isn’t high enough above any standing water as well as media that’s excessively wet) rotting either the stem trying to produce callous or roots.
Use a pencil/pen to poke a planting hole in the potting media, prior. Dip in hormone, gently place cutting in hole & pack soil tightly against it. Get all the soil in the pot packed down, too. You should have the cutting at the proper height in the pot where the wound stopped. Now forward, water your pots from below:
Bottom heat is a necessity when not using mist systems for the commercial grower. A heat mat has two applications in rooting: 1) humidity & 2) to aid in root formation.
Inside walls should have either fog or fine mist particles. Large water droplets means there is too much water in the air & will rot the tops of cuttings. You need to find your balance of how water precipitates up into your tenting chambers / humidity chambers.
I recommend for rooting: any of the Pro-Mix blend(s) available at big box centers such as Menards or Lowes or The Home Depot, Walmart.
‘Dip n’ Grow’ is all I use or need.
Dax
