1stop Organic Gardening

If you want more plants for your organic garden, then propagating from your own plants or other people’s plants can quickly increase how many plants you have.

There are a few different ways to propagate plants. Dividing them is probably the easiest way to create more plants, but not all plants can be divided. For instance, rosemary and lavender are both plants that don’t divide. But you can take cuttings to make exact copies of the parent plant. Below is a picture of cuttings I took a few weeks ago.

From the left I have lavenders, then rosemary, several different sages and on the right is a gorgeous variegated lavender.

I usually fit about 100 cuttings in this small cutting tray. Most of the time the tray has a plastic lid on it (with ventilation holes) to keep the atmosphere moist.

You need to take your cuttings at the right time for the best chance of success. I choose semi-hard wood cuttings. That is new growth that has hardened up a little. This way they won’t wilt in the tray when they’re put in.

Make your cuttings about 10cm (4inches) long, making the cut just below a node. Trim off the lower one third of the foliage. Trim any larger leaves and if the cutting is a bit soft, just nip out the tip too.

Dip the base in rooting hormone powder, make a space in your cutting mix and gently place the cutting into your cutting soil mix.

This description is quite basic, but gives you an idea how to get started. I gently water in my cuttings, place them on a heated pad (not absolutely necessary) and put them under fluro lights. In about four to six weeks – depending on what plants I’m propagating – there are very healthy roots and the cuttings are ready to be potted into small pots.

This is just one way to really increase plants for your organic garden. You could also try your hand at raising seeds.

Good luck,

Happy Organic Gardening, Healthy Living…

Filed under: Uncategorized on September 6th, 2008