Propagation by rooted cutting, methods and species, ideas and techniques

[resonanteye]

not seeds, not graft- rooting cuttings or suckers or the like. i would love to hear what you’ve been able to get to root from cutting or piece, and how you did it. if you know of posts where someone explains a technique they used, please link it! I’ve seen so many scattered posts on here about doing this with various plants in so many different ways, i wanted to see if i could get a lot of the info into one place for reference this coming year.

questions:

what plants do you do this with?

what kind of setup do you use, or are you hands-off?

what time of year is best to take cuttings?

how do you pot up or plant out once roots are present, and what time of year do you prefer to do that?

so far I’ve had minor success with figs, grapes, and raspberry. i cut figs in spring, winter and fall. the autumn chunks have always done best for me. i wrap in buddy tape or parafilm then stick them upright, in clear or translucnt cups of wet optisorb on a heat mat in a place without strong light and wait.

i have gotten 50/50 success.

with grapes I’ve only managed to get a few to take root. deep peat in the little tree pots, heat mat, damp but not soaked. most dried and died. i did not wrap in parafilm though or use a dome. i couldn’t tell when they had rooted or not either.

raspberries ice cut the end of a cane that was bending down and simply put that so there’s dirt over the cane, holding the tip against the soil. in pots. maybe 8 out of ten took.

i have tried all 3 ways with mulberry- all failed. one success was simply sticking a cut piece as i was pruning in the fall, directly into the ground. it has started to grow!

I’ve put tomatoes (suckers) and basil cuttings in water to root, then gently planted them in and they do fine. 100% of the time.

I would like to try gooseberry, currant, more mulberry, even peppers, citrus, roses (?), rosemary, thyme, and more this way. I’m very uneducated on flowers in general but if you know of some that this will work with, I’m listening!

Have you had any success or failure? what are you trying, and what have you tried?

successful fig, grapes, tomatoes, and basil cuttings. ( another grape in that last photo with the basil)

[resonanteye]

some helpful posts, old and new:

blackberry and raspberry:

Propagating cane fruits by root cuttings

Raspberries propagate from root cuttings. Black/yellow raspberries and blackberries are tip-rooting. You propagate them by staking the tip of a primocane to some soil. It is possible to dig up a blackberry bush and divide it, but it is not as good as tip rooting. I have heard that root cuttings do not work as well with blackberries. I have had success propagating blackberry by carefully digging up suckers with significant root mass attached. They tend to get a slow start.

a very explanatory comparison of fig rooting:

"UpDated" 2018-19 Figs Cuttings Rooting Propagating Experiment in Coco Coir Vs Perlite Vs Sphagnum moss Vs Pro mix HP Vs 3-1-1 Mix

I just posted this on ourfigs and thought to share over here, may be somebody can benefit from this. Please post your comments and figs Cuttings rooting Propagating process pictures too. Last Year I did all of my cuttings in Coco coir and I was close to 100% rooting but in transition lost so many cuttings. So this year I decided to do an experiment with different methods so here is my findings. Please read whole post for better understanding. I know there are so much information available b…

a thread about haskap and honeyberry rooting:

Propagate Honeyberry / Haskap cuttings? Follow along

[image] took cutting from 6 varieties of honeyberry tonight. Dipped in hormone and stuck in 50/50 promix bx and de. Will be kept outside under shade and humidity tent.

Bob talks about gooseberry, currant, and provides a link about elderberry:

Propagating currants and gooseberries from cuttings - when and how best done?

Currants and gooseberry are pretty easy. Similar to elderberry I think. Here’s my recent thread on elderberries rooting: In my experience, it has been easier to root all 3 of them in the ground, than indoors. I’ve had very high (90%+) takes on all by sticking a cutting in the moist ground in the fall (~November) and doing nothing else. One year I had a perfect 100% take on about a dozen of them, except for the one I put in upside down (don’t do that… ). Indoors though has …

a thread about grapes, and a variety of methods:

Did I start these grape cuttings correctly?

Hello all In case it doesn’t show up, I’m in Japan maybe zone 9B. This is my first year growing grapes, and I have a Peone vine that’s doing very well. I just did a bit of summer pruning, and have made some cuttings to root. They are all small, two or three nodes each with one leaf or leaf shoot out the top. I cut and trimmed down the larger leaves using an X-Acto knife dipped and alcohol. I dipped the lowest node or two in rooting hormone, put in Pete Moss and vermiculite mix. I’m goi…

the difficult nature of blueberries:

Propagating blueberries

There is a guy i have talked to that also does this. When he prunes in July/August he sticks cuttings and buries some in the woodchips and mulch under the mother plant and by the next spring he has rooted cuttings. So these would be semi hardwood on his method. He said he has alot of success burying horizontally as well. Blueberries seem to be nearly the same as canefruits… higher success of semi hardwood than hardwood…and easier than soft cuttings if you dont have a misting room/tent/a…

citrus bits:

Rooting citrus cuttings?

Just potted this one up in anticipation of warmer weather ahead, had rooted pretty nicely: [PXL_20220625_222211389] [PXL_20220625_222634524] [PXL_20220625_222552758.MP]

on the use of optisorb/granular DE

Can Paw Paw be grown in a 22 or 23 inch pot?

About 5 years in the root pouches I use. I’m still learning too. I use a 3-1-1 1/2 soil mix 3 parts pine bark fines 1/4 inch diameter is about perfect, but larger and powder will work too. 1/4 pebbles of bark is the ideal. 1 part compost. I like to use compost in peat, or my own compost. 1 part potting soil, any type, I use Promix all purpose 1/2 DE which is mostly silica and contains silicon which is super beneficial to plants. Often sold as a supplement for plants. Diatomaceous earth ho…

hardwoods that shouldn’t be able to root from a cutting/scion, and how alcedo was trying to do it.

Alcedo's Technique for Rooting Peaches and Nectarines

Alcedo wrote this article in the GW forum in an answer to someone who wanted to root some cuttings.I was wondering if anyone was planning to try it this year?I have a Nectarine that is producing some water sprouts and may give it a go. Brady http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/1515992/rooting-peach-and-nectarine-cuttings

[Joao]

Figs root really easily from hardwood cuttings, just stick them in damp perlite or even a cup of water and most will take. Mulberries are similar. Gooseberries and currants work well too, I’ve had good results just pushing cuttings straight into the ground in autumn and leaving them.

[resonanteye]

i wonder if i can do pots for cuttings in the fall from my gooseberries. just on the ground next to it, line them up and leave them out.

do you wait until the leaves are gone to do cuttings?

[kohinoor_0612]

persimmon can easily proprogate by root.they are quite good at adventitious budding.

i keep the dead seedling for several month.becouse the remaning root system often produce sucker and bounceback.

that also happen to the eliminated varity. they always bud form root after getting axed. we use lown mower to make sure they stay dead.

most of our plant is grafted. so we can;t propagate with root. that will oly produce more rootstock.

[resonanteye]

so propagation from root suckers rather than cutting. I’ve done this with lilac really successfully

[evilpaul]

Gooseberries I’ve stuck branches while they were dormant and like 80%+ take. I did like ~25 Black Velvet and ORUS8 last year, gave away a bunch, and stuck a bunch in parks/untended public spaces.

While they’re growing sticking a bunch of them in damp (cheap) potting soil (or preferably, probably, something more lighter/more airy that still retains moisture) in 1/3 nursery “gallon” containers. And park them out of direct sunlight for a month or two. Gently remove the clearly dead ones (or leave them and wait, but you’ll probably be able to tell at that point), and move them to partial sun if you’ve got somewhere they won’t roast at that point in the season.

[resonanteye]

has anyone tried any stone fruit from scion or cutting? I’ve read about people getting peach to do this, but it’s always unclear if they are doing a root cutting or if they’re rooting from a cutting, two very different things

[snarfing]

I bought a bunch of gooseberry cuttings and 0% took

Though maybe my source sucked

[dkr06022012]

I have done root cuttings of blackberries and Prunus Americana (Wild American Plum). I would guess about 50-75% take rate on both.

[PlantingOaks]

Would this be worthy of putting in the reference section? It seems like … a good reference.

[AdamNY]

In general, the closer a cutting is taken to the base of a tree or shrub, the more easily it will root—which is why root suckers tend to propagate well. It’s best to avoid taking cuttings from the top of a tree. Seed-grown trees and shrubs also root more readily than long-cultivated named varieties. Even species that are typically difficult to propagate can often be rooted from cuttings if they are grown from seed and then maintained in a perpetual juvenile state by cutting them back to the ground each year. Dr. Sax proposed this as a potential method for nurseries to clonally propagate named fruit tree varieties, though as far as I know, it was never widely adopted.

[EJh]

I did that with some of mine, and we got a late frost and it completely fried all but 2 of 8 that I had in pots. The 3 that I had just pushed into the ground are just fine with no death from the frost. I guess I should have brought them inside but I didn’t really think it would fry them since GB are good with cold.

So i’d suggest just stabbing them in the ground in the fall after they go dormant and then digging them out next fall after they go dormant again if you want to move them.

[resonanteye]

i tried to make the thread about rooting from a cutting, not cutting roots! I’ve failed

[resonanteye]

this is really good wisdom. there’s a thread now about rooting hardwood scion with some peaches mentioned (in the links i posted i think) and I’m thinking maybe that really does make a big difference, cutting low.

[dkr06022012]

Haha no worries! I have done blackberries by cuttings as well. Not as high of a success rate, but still possible.

[AdamNY]

Double Post

[AdamNY]

It definitely does. He’s a little bit from an article about it. Sorry for the terrible photos, I couldn’t find an online copy.

[resonanteye]

that’s fantastic resource info. thank you for getting a picture. a lot of the older books aren’t easy to find online despite being out of print or even out of copyright!

i assume any shoots or buds from further down the trunk will be better than further up based on this, i may try with a few low water sprouts from one tree this winter and see if any successfully make roots

[Joao]

The base of the plant tip is interesting - I’ve noticed the same with figs, cuttings from low on the trunk root much more reliably than tip growth. Makes sense when you think about it, the wood is older and has more stored energy to push roots before it runs out of steam.