Gardening & More: Five tips for starting new plants from cuttings

Editor’s note: Please join us in welcoming Connie Oswald Stofko, publisher of Buffalo-NiagaraGardening.com as our new gardening columnist! Contact her with any questions at Connie@BuffaloNiagaraGardening.com.

Even if you already know how to root a plant in water, you can make the process more successful with great tips from David Clark, professional horticulturist.

He’ll be teaching two horticulture certificate courses at the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens that include a number of topics, including plant propagation. You can enroll in the entire course or take single classes. The horticulture 1 certificate course is already underway and the horticulture 2 certificate course starts Feb. 18. Find out more on the Botanical Gardens’ website, www.buffalogardens.com.

In the meantime, here are some tips Clark has shared on starting plants from cuttings:

1. Create a mini-greenhouse. How many times have you bought bedding or a comforter that comes packaged in a plastic zipper bag? I have many times, and I always think, “I should be able to use this bag for something!”

These bags make great mini-greenhouses for rooting plants or for recently-transplanted plants. Just pop the plant into the bag and zip the bag up part way to keep in moisture. At the same time, having a small opening allows for airflow to prevent the growth of mold.

“I almost always root with a bag, because, unless you have a greenhouse, the plant needs to be enclosed,” Clark said.

The bedding bags can accommodate one large plant or several small plants.

2. Use rooting powders. One of the simplest ways to propagate plants is by placing a plant cutting in water. Cut the stem straight across above a node. This method works well with soft, fleshy plants such as wandering Jew, ivy, arrowhead plant and spider plant.

You can increase your chances of success by using rooting products. Many commercial products are available. These products kill fungus and bacteria to prevent the stem from rotting, and contain a growth hormone to speed the formation of roots.

Pour out a small amount of powder and dip the stem into the powder (don’t stick the stem directly into the product container). Let the stem set for a minute. The plant will absorb the powder. Stick the end of the cutting into water; the water won’t wash off all the powder.

You can also use common household products to aid rooting, according to Clark. Dip the plant stem into cinnamon to kill fungus and bacteria. To promote root growth, create a rooting solution by dissolving an aspirin in water.

3. Give your new plant time to acclimate from water to soil. If you root your cutting in water, it develops roots that are best adapted to get what they need from water rather than from soil, Clark pointed out. If you move the plant immediately from water to soil, the plant may become stressed.

Instead, add a small amount of soil to the water that you’re using to root the cutting. Do this slowly over a period of four or five weeks, to help acclimate your plant to its new growing conditions.

4. Discover leaf section propagation. If you have a succulent such as a sansevieria, you can start new plants from the leaves. You don’t even have to use the entire leaf; a section of leaf will do!

When you cut the leaf, make sure to note which is the top part of the leaf section and which is the bottom part. Place the bottom part of the leaf section into a tray of moist perlite.

You can use this process for other succulents such as Christmas cactus, too.

5. Encourage plants to propagate through runners.

Another way to propagate plants like the wandering Jew is to bury the stem horizontally. Baby plants will spring up from those nodes.

Connie Oswald Stofko is publisher of Buffalo-NiagaraGardening.com, the online gardening magazine for Western New York. You can contact her at Connie@BuffaloNiagaraGardening.com.