Mark Cullen
FOR BRANT NEWS

In these tough economic times, I am bewildered by the traffic at our local mall. Are people spending or just walking?

I ponder this while I enjoy the quiet of my kitchen while the kids are away and Mary is at work. I am plundering my existing inventory of herbs and indoor plants by taking tip cuttings.

Multiplying my inventory of indoor plants and herbs through propagation is not as difficult as many people seem to think it is. Take the garden coleus that I rescued from the late autumn frost in October, for instance. If ever there was “low hanging fruit” in the cuttings department, this is it.  It hangs right next to my “wandering Jew” or tradescantia.

Many of the plants that I grow in my garden each season do not produce well from seed and, at $5 a pot at the garden centre, taking cuttings this time of year just makes economic sense.

How to do it: Make sure that you take cuttings from healthy specimens and be sure to label them as you go. Be sure to add the date that the cutting was taken, as this information will help you determine if you were early or late in the process. This will be useful for future reference.

Here is my six-step recipe for cutting success:

Take the cutting:  After you have acquired new flats and a bag of “seed and cutting mix” to get you started, it is time to take your cuttings. Each cutting should be three leaf sets long. This will vary from species to species, but the average geranium cutting will be about 10 cm long. The stem should be neither too stiff nor too soft – like Goldilocks, you are looking for the “just right” stem from which to remove your future plants. Cut just below the leaf node, where a leaf meets the main stem of the plant. Use a clean, sharp knife for cutting.

Prepare for take off:  Strip all but the top two or three leaves from the “woody” or dense cuttings like geraniums, rosemary, thyme and many other common kitchen herbs. Cuttings should be cured in a bright room (but not direct sunlight) for a couple of days. This will cause the cutting to callous and harden off.  Otherwise, the stem will likely rot in the new soil. “Soft” or watery stem cuttings can be stuck right into the soil (skip to step No. 3).

Stick it:  After dipping your stem cuttings into a rooting hormone gel or powder, stick the cutting into the new soil. Either use small pots or “cell packs” (available from your hardware store or garden centre) filled with a prepared “seed and cutting mix.” Use a pencil to make holes in the new soil before sticking the cutting into it.  Firm the soil around the cutting using your fingers, making sure the cutting stands tall and as straight as possible. Water from the bottom of the pot using room temperature “tepid” tap water.  Watering from above risks losing much of the rooting hormone through the hole.

Location:  Find a sunny window. A bright, naturally lit window that faces south or southwest is best. If this is not available, consider adding light using fluorescent “grow” lights or one of the new compact fluorescent bulbs that screw into an incandescent fixture. You will find them at a well-stocked garden centre or hardware store. Using a greenhouse top above your tray of cuttings will ensure that humidity is maximized, which is important in the first few weeks. However, be sure not to leave the transparent top on too long or you will risk stem rot. And really, what could be worse?

Eyes open: Inspect your cuttings daily over the next couple of months. If you see white fuzzy stuff growing at the base, where the cutting meets the soil, open up the greenhouse top and turn on a small room fan to get the air circulating around the flat. This is a sign that humidity has stagnated around the cuttings and morphed into fungus, which leads to the aforementioned rot. Caught early, it can be overcome.

Eureka: After seven to 14 days, many cuttings will have developed young roots, others will take two or three weeks. This is when things begin to get pretty exciting. Give your cuttings a gentle tug to test for roots. Resistance means that they are popping out below the soil surface. Once the small growing cell is half filled with roots, it is time to pot them up into clean, four-inch sized pots to prepare them for planting come May or early June. When you get to the potting up stage, the maintenance becomes less burdensome. (As if it ever was…you were loving this, remember!) Check for watering every couple of days, but allow the surface of the soil to dry between watering for the balance of the season until planting time. Adding a transplant fertilizer is a good idea after roots develop. I recommend Plant Prod 5-15-5 with buteric acid, a formula that encourages the development of young feeding roots.

Plants that lend themselves to stem cuttings are: Brugmansia, sage, thyme, rosemary, lemon verbena, French tarragon, oregano, geraniums, flowering maples (abutilon) and even poinsettias (if you have not had enough of them already).

Propagation from cuttings is fascinating. You are taking one plant and making many more from its stems and leaves. This is a miracle worth sharing with kids, if you have any around. And if you don’t, this would be a good time to borrow some.

Visit Mark Cullen’s website at www.markcullen.com.