- 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.
