- While it is nice to go to the nursery and buy plants,
there's nothing better than making plants for free
directly from your garden.
So there are a lot of ways you can take vegetative cuttings
but I am actually not the master of it.
Our horticulturist Chris up in Vancouver, BC
is an expert at propagation.
So let's head up there
and she's gonna teach you everything you need to know
about vegetatively propagating your plants.
- Hey, it's Chris.
And today I'm looking around my garden to see
if there are any plants that I can clone.
So if you are like me and you have some areas
in the garden that are looking a little bit bare
and you want to fill
with some perennial plants that you already have,
then vegetative propagation can be the way to go.
It can also save you time and money.
So if you're wondering what that term means,
vegetative propagation simply means growing plants
using methods that have nothing to do
with growing from seed.
So in today's video
I'll go over the main vegetative propagation
or cloning methods that you have likely come across,
but maybe haven't had a chance to research.
And the last method we're gonna go over is my favorite.
It is hands off, it's easy.
I can't wait to tell you more about that
so make sure to stick around for that last one.
Division is probably the easiest way to
multiply what you already have in the garden.
So right now I am kneeling on the ground
trying to see what kind
of plants I can just pop outta the ground
and literally rip apart and then just pop them
all around the garden.
To do this method you basically need a digging fork.
If you don't have something like this, just get a shovel
or a spade, because what we're essentially
wanting to do is just lift the entire plant up
and then either use our hands or use a knife or a shovel
and separate these clumps of plants into smaller sections.
So the ideal time for division is actually early spring
before everything kind of wakes up and starts to grow.
Because what we want to avoid is damaging
all of this fresh new growth.
Unfortunately, a lot of my plants are starting to wake up.
There's a lot of fresh tissue.
It's really not the best time for division
but I find this one clump
of geranium that I think we can dig up quite safely.
So what we can do here with this geranium,
you'll see all of the roots down here.
They are kind of easy to separate.
What I wanna do is just get my hand in there.
Or you can also grab a knife
and you just kind of rip it apart.
And there you go.
Here is your brand new little clump of plant.
Right now you can
either pot it up into a container, maybe a one gallon
or you can just pop it directly into the ground.
Not only is division an easy way
to multiply flowering plants, ground covers,
edibles with a crown like rhubarb and chives,
many plants benefit from being divided
maybe every two to four years depending on the plant
because you don't want them to get overcrowded
and fight for nutrients, water, and sun.
This next method is probably the most common one,
not just for home gardeners
but for professional growers as well.
So a lot
of nurseries have built their entire empires on cuttings.
So let's think
about those beautiful leafy houseplants that we love,
those annual bedding plants,
a lot of the culinary herbs that we grow, the mints,
the rosemary, sage, and thyme,
and also fruiting shrubs like figs.
These are all done through root cuttings.
So you can actually look around your garden
and have a lot of fun with this method.
When it comes to timing of when to take cuttings
it really depends on the plant.
So this is my goji.
I prefer to take deciduous hardwood cuttings
in the fall and winter when everything is dormant.
That means I don't have
all of this fresh tissue to worry about.
It's not gonna wither away after I've severed it
from the plant.
But right now it is spring so I have a lot of fresh growth.
If I want to take green or softwood cuttings, I can
but I have to wait
until these shoots are a little bit longer.
So the timing for the goji cuttings is not ideal
but thankfully we have sage
right underneath the goji plant, how convenient.
So this is a great plant to harvest from.
It's really easy to propagate.
But before I take out my pruners and start snipping away
I do wanna say, whenever you take cuttings
you wanna make sure you have a container
or a plastic bag with, you know,
something like a paper towel moistened inside,
just to keep the humidity good in there
keep everything nice and fresh and cool
because once the cutting dries out, it's basically no good.
So for the sage plant
what I'm looking for are nice, healthy tips to harvest from.
You don't want anything that looks kind of sad
or potentially diseased.
And generally for cuttings, you want something
four to six inches in length.
And pro tip, if you don't have a ruler
or if you can't eyeball that length
if you outstretch your pointer and pinky finger
that is roughly six inches.
But here's another pro tip when it comes to taking cuttings.
Don't worry about the exact length when you're harvesting.
When we go back into the greenhouse
or into a controlled environment
that is when you can cut them down to size
as you prepare them for the actual sticking into the media.
Now, I do have to mention that
although it is really exciting taking cuttings
from all sorts of plants, you do have to be aware
that any plants that have those funky names
or anything with a trademark is likely registered.
So legally you cannot clone those plants
without the permission from the plant breeder.
And this is especially important
if you plan on selling the plants
that you grow from cuttings.
Before we start processing our beautiful cuttings
it's really important that we have our stations
set up with all of the materials we are going to need.
So I have here
my cell trays filled up with pre-moistened media.
And when we talk about the media
we're looking for something that can actually
physically hold the cutting while also providing
some moisture and also some aeration.
So what I usually do is get a seed starting mix.
It's nice and fluffy and it also holds on to moisture.
I also add some extra perlite
because as the roots push out and form
that extra airspace will help the roots form beautifully.
And if you are using rooting hormone,
have those handy as well.
And my biggest recommendation
whether you are using gel, liquid, or powder
is to have a container
and dump a little bit of product in there.
That way you get to really control
how much product goes on the cutting.
A little goes a long way actually.
And although it is so tempting to dip the cutting
directly into the container,
by having it in a separate container
you avoid adding extra moisture and debris into the product.
So before we start processing everything
we wanna make sure that our tools are nice, clean and sharp
because we want a nice clean, flush cut.
Now with the cutting, what I'm looking for ideally
is something with a minimum of four nodes.
So when I mean nodes I'm talking about these bumpy areas
along the stem where the leaves and the buds emerge.
Now, I know I talked about four to six inches in length
for an ideal cutting, but it really depends on the plant.
If I'm cutting something that was maybe
a little bit stretched out in the shade,
the internodes or the spacing between these bumps
may be longer so my cutting may be longer.
But something grown in full sun
with really tight inter-nodes
where the spacing is a bit shorter,
my cutting may only be two and a half
to four inches in length.
So don't worry too much about the length.
Just make sure that you have a minimum of four nodes.
That would make a really good cutting.
If you're wondering how to count the nodes
let's look at this catmint right here.
So we would start from the top.
So one, two, three, four.
So those are the four nodes.
And underneath this fourth node that I want to keep
I want to make my nice square cut
just about maybe an 1/8 of an inch
to 1/2 a centimeter underneath, just like that.
The reason why we want to cut underneath the node is
because this area has a higher concentration
of the plant hormone auxin.
And what it will do is help encourage the rooting.
So now that that looks good
what I'm gonna do is just clean up the foliage here.
Any extra foliage will speed up
the drying out of the cutting, which is not ideal.
So something like that is good.
If you are doing a cutting off of a plant
that has really large leaves
and you want to cut down on all of that leafy stuff
that is trapping all that extra moisture
you can just feel free to cut the leaves in half.
Don't be shy, it's gonna be just fine.
Now that we know how to cut these things down
I'm gonna go ahead and process the rest of the sage.
(mellow music)
Now that the cuttings are all prepared
and they're looking pretty uniform
I am going to dip the base into the rooting hormone.
Just a light dip, dip, dip to cover that node
and that cut end.
And now I'm just going to stick it
straight into my prepared container.
And that's it.
I'm not gonna try to rearrange it.
That's not a good thing.
All I'm gonna do now is water it in
and put it into my propagation station.
So nothing fancy, a humidity dome
for the upper parts to keep them fresh
and the heat mat for bottom heating
to help speed up the rooting.
Now with the moisture in there, you do want to air it out
maybe a couple times a day,
just to keep things nice and fresh.
With the rooting, the time required,
it really depends on the plant.
It can take anywhere between
a couple of weeks to maybe a month or more
before you start seeing roots emerge.
So if you're thinking, wow, that's a lot of work
to turn a stem into a plant with roots,
why can't I just stick it in water?
Well, for some plants
like basil, oregano, sage, thyme, and rosemary
they belong in the mint family and they root really readily.
So you can go ahead, pop those into water.
And then once they root, you can stick them in the soil.
But for woodier materials or for other plants
that are not so vigorous with growing roots
the method that we just went over is your best bet.
This next method is one that I need more practice with.
And I'm talking about grafting.
So with grafting
essentially what you're doing is taking different parts
of different plants, and you're trying to fuse them together
so that they grow as one plant.
Now with grafting
you do have to do your homework beforehand
because in order for this to be successful,
the scion or any of the upper parts that you are trying
to fuse onto a root stalk, they have to be compatible.
One of the main reasons for grafting,
especially when it comes to fruit trees
like apples and citrus
is so that you can preserve the qualities that you like
of a variety.
So with apples, they don't grow true from seed.
So if I take the fruit from this tree and then take the seed
and plant it out, that new tree may not share a lot
of the characteristics as this original tree.
So by cloning or grafting from vegetative material,
that's how you're going to ensure
that you get the same variety in the future.
So timing wise
it's ideal to do grafting when the plant is dormant
before the buds start to swell and things leaf out.
Unfortunately my plants have all started to leaf out
so it's not the ideal time, but you can also
do summer grafting from July through to September.
And that's when I'm probably gonna try at least one
of the two more common grafting methods.
One really common method is called whip and tongue.
And this is where you take a really sharp knife
and cut these slanted cuts that are interlocking
on both the scion and root stalk.
And you just kind of slip them together
so that they are nice and snug.
And then you would take grafting tape
and wrap them together.
And then after a period of time, they fuse successfully
and then you get your grafted plant.
This other method is called chip budding.
So you can go and get your knife
and instead of cutting off a section of the scion
you're gonna go and get a bud
off of the current year's wood, remove that carefully
and then go to the root stalk you want to use
and cut a corresponding section to fit this bud.
So I'm just faking it here, obviously
cause this is not connected.
And then you fit it in there and then wrap it
with some grafting tape.
After about a month or so it should fuse.
The next year from this bud
you are going to get the variety that you want to keep
and then you can go ahead
and cut this part off of the root stalk.
So here is my favorite method.
This is layering.
So it is pretty hands off and timing wise, it is less fussy
than the other methods that we just went over.
And with layering, I like to think
of it as like backward taking stem cuttings.
Because with the stem cuttings, if you remember
we are taking parts off of a plant
and giving it the right conditions
and hoping that it puts out roots.
Whereas with layering
we are trying to get this parent plant to push out roots
in the sections that we want to turn into new plants.
First, once the roots emerge then we can sever the section
and then we have our new young plant.
Here I have a really lovely and healthy catmint
and close to the base a lot of these fresh bendy stems.
To layer, it's super easy.
You take these stems and let them touch the soil.
And you just pin it down
with something like a rock or a brick.
What you want is consistent contact with the soil.
After a few months when you lift the plant
you will likely see a whole bunch of new roots.
Here we have some oregano.
I've been layering some stems
again with just the weight of a rock.
Now, if I lift these sections that have been
in contact with the soil, we will see some roots.
All I have to do now is sever this part
from the mother plant.
And now I have this oregano baby that is ready to use
in other parts of the garden.
Layering also works with slightly woody materials.
So here I have a gooseberry and it is a bit woodier.
It's not fresh green growth.
What I'm actually going to do is wound an area.
So I'm gonna flip the stem over
and then just give it a light scratch
where I want the stem to meet the soil,
just to wound it a bit.
The plant will respond this way.
Now I'm gonna scratch open the soil
and pin this down again with just a rock.
And after a few months
we should be able to see some roots emerge.
After the roots emerge, I can sever this section
and then I get my brand new little gooseberry plant.
The reason for wounding or lightly scraping away
at the outer layers is to trigger the stem tissues
to produce adventitious roots at that site.
So adventitious roots are ones that develop
in spots on a plant where they're generally not found.
So in this case, along the stems.
Now I do want to say
that not all plants will respond with the layering method
especially when the plant is older and woodier.
And actually that's kind of true
with a lot of the methods that we talked about.
But if you have some perennials sitting around in the garden
with these low lying stems, why not pin them down
and just experiment and see if they shoot out roots.
Wouldn't that be fun to find these instant plants
a few months later, without having to actually
put in the effort to try to grow them?
So if you have some perennial plants in your garden
that you love and you know that grow well in your garden
try one of these methods out and see
if that can really help speed up with the filling out
of your garden in a very cost effective and fast way.
- I've got a few propagations myself
and actually acting as a pruning job as well
down here on this dragon fruit
because it's already up at the top.
I don't need any of this low growth.
So hopefully you learned a lot
about vegetative propagations.
Stay tuned on the channel,
much more coming in that world.
For now I'm gonna prune my dragon fruit.
Good luck in the garden and keep on growing.