Hello Friends! Today on my viewers request, I have prepared this interesting episode on
the 10 golden rules and Tips and hacks for successful Cloning of plant stem cuttings
in Water. You will learn the Nitrogen Draining Concept and the Oxygenation Concept for successful
rooting, plus you will also learn what nutrients to feed or how to fertilize your fresh stem
cuttings. All thats coming up.
This method of cloning plant cuttings in water is an age-old practice.
If you want to increase the success rate of growing plants in water or rooting your cuttings
in water, you need to follow certain simple tips. The most important advantage of this,
whether cuttings are grown in soil or water or even air layering, you get an identical
copy of your Parent plant (also called the Stock Plant). But This is not the case with
seed grown plant, which differs significantly from its Parent plant.
Please Watch all these Steps and Tips till the end to achieve a great result and have
fun with your gardening hobby. Also some scientific concepts specially Tip #4 and Tip #8 like
the nitrogen draining concept and the oxygenation concept may be completely new and really interesting
to most of us. Also Some of these tips are common when you are propagating cuttings in
soil. With these simple tips and scientific concepts, you can achieve a success rate of
nearly 100 percent.
1. Taking Healthy Cuttings: Yes this is the first and foremost job which is most important
to achieve a good successs rate. Take a cutting from a healthy mother plant, which is free
of pest and disease and has good active growing branches. Choose Semi-woody cuttings, not
hard woody or too soft ones which can easily rot.
2. Making a Sharp Cut at 45 degree angle. A sharp cut with a sharp cutting tool or blade
is also an important factor for success. Preferably sterilize the cutter with some disinfectant
like hydrogen peroxide or any household antiseptic like Dettol.
Cut about half an inch below a node � this is the area where rooting starts and which
is to be inserted into water or your rooting solution.
3. Length of Cuttings: This is generally 6 to 10 inches or atleast 2 or 3 nodes above
the rooting node. The length depends on the internode distance of a branch. Remember one
rule of thumb: , the success rate of cloning is inversely proportional to the internode
distance. That means the lesser the internode distance, the greater the chances of success.
4. Drain Out Nitrogen for the Branch: As you all know, nitrogen slows down rooting process.
Pouring lot of water on the plant or the branch which is to be cut, is believed to drain out
nitrogen. Do this and then take your cuttings from the plant. I don't know how this happens.
but if u know about the concept please let us know in the comments box below this video.
5. Do Not Fertilize your Parent Plant: Applying the same concept of nitrogen drain out, better
not to feed the plant atleast 15 days prior to taking cuttings.
6. Prepare Rooting Solution: You can use just plain clean soft water. Better avoid salty
water or chlorinated water to increase the chances of success. The second option is to
add some ingredients into this water which serves two functions. First, prevents contamination
and rot and secondly, it helps accelerate the actual rooting process. You have many
options for this:
a. Rooting Hormone Powder with indole butyric acid or NAA (naphthalene acetic acid) � just
add half a teaspoon of this to your glass or the container holding the cutting and mix
it well. Add this everytime you change the water till the rooting starts.
b. Aspirin or willow water: Aspirin which is chemically Acetyl Salicylic Acid serves
both functions, including rooting. You can watch a detailed video on this from a link
at top right corner of this video.
c. Fresh aloe vera gel extracted from aloe leaf also contains salicylic acid and other
ingredients which help in preventing rot and accelerate rooting.
7. Use Clean Containers and Change Water or your Rooting Solution every 2 to 3 days: Take
clean containers preferably transparent ones, so that you can actually see through for the
root development. 8. Oxygenate the tissues: Yes this is another
important tip for succuessful rooting. Lift the cutting out of the water once daily and
stir the water atleast once to oxygenate it. Scientists have proved that plants need dissolved
oxygen to survive and that the cutting will consume all the dissolved oxygen in the immediate
vicinity of its rooting zone, so water needs to be stirred in order to maintain healthy
root formation. This is infact the basics of Aeroponics and Hydroponics which will try
to discuss in detail in some other episode.
9. Submerge the cutting into water or your rooting solution, atleast 2 inches above the
lowermost node, that is the rooting area. Keep it Undisturbed preferably on a window
sill to receive indirect light and also optionally Suspend the Cutting into the Container through
a plug like a piece of foam or a cloth. Also it�s a good idea to cover it with a polythene
bag intermittently, specially in night time if its too cool. This is to provide the optimum
temperature and humidity levels for rooting. Now the Question is: what do I feed them:
giving nutrients would be pointless until roots develop as the cuttings cannot absorb
any mineral content. Once the rooting starts, you can feed with very dilute solutions of
water soluble NPK or even very dilute compost tea. But one hack to counter the stress or
the shock to these little cuttings. Vitamin B1 that is Thiamine in the rooting solution
is thought to help alleviate any stress, like how we use Epsom salt solution to water the
plants to counter transplant shock. This effect of vitamin B-1 is actually derived from researches
based on tissue culture media. But I am not sure of this and the mechanism of action and
the molecular concepts behind this.
10. Transplant into Soil: Once you see multiple roots atleast 4 to 5 roots of atleast about
an inch in length, you can carefully transplant into your potting mix.
So there you have it folks. Please click a thumbs up if you found this video helpful.
Also comment below the video with your queries and feedback. Also please share it on social
media with your friends. Consider subscribing if you are new to the channel. Happy Gardening!