by Bambi Watson

Created on: April 09, 2009

Some house plants are easier to grow from making cuttings than others. The pothos plant is probably the easiest, since you can just stick a cutting from just about any area of the plant into a glass of water and roots will magically grow. Unfortunately, not all house plants are that easy to grow from cuttings. Also some house plants like rubber trees and cactus have cutting techniques that are specific to that plant. Making successful cuttings from most house plants is pretty easy once you know what to do.

GETTING STARTED:

First you will need to make sure you have all the proper supplies. You will need: a sharp razor blade, rooting hormone, seed starter or rooting soil-less mix, a plastic plant tray with clear plastic humidity lid, and I highly recommend using peat pots or rooting cubes, rather than plastic pots. Peat pots allow the new baby roots to grow right through them and can be planted "as is" into bigger pots once the roots are showing. This makes it easy to know when it is time to move your new cuttings into a permanent container.

I recommend getting your soil-less mix nice and wet in a large container before putting it into the individual peat pots. Also get each peat pot wet before hand, this way the light-weight planting mix doesn't float right out of the pots when you water them, and wet peat pots won't leach the moisture out of the planting mix. Place the wet pots into a plastic tray, for easy watering and care. Make a hole in the center of each pot, using the eraser end of a pencil makes a perfect size hole for most plants. The hole should be about 1 inch deep for most plants, deeper for larger plants.

MAKING CUTTINGS:

Choose green stems that are newer growth to use for your cuttings. New growth roots better than old or woody growth. Look for a stem with a node on it. A node is where a leaf is or was attached. It looks like a joint on the stem.

Use a razor blade that has been sterilized in alcohol to cut back to just below a node. The cutting doesn't need to be very long. A single node with a couple of leaves is all that is needed.

Place the cutting on a flat, hard surface and make a clean 45 degree angled slice through the middle of the node with the razor blade. Plant stems send our their new roots from the stem nodes. Making the cutting at the node increase your chance of successfully rooting the cutting.

Fill a small cup or container with water and place some rooting hormone into another. You won't need very much rooting hormone. Too much rooting hormone can actually lower your success rate, so tap off the excess. Don't return used hormone to the original container. Once it comes in contact with the cuttings, it cannot be re-used.
Dip the node end of the plant cutting into the water and then into the rooting hormone. Rooting hormone stimulates the plant cutting to begin growing new roots from the stem node. Then carefully place the cutting into the pre-made hole. Do your cuttings one at a time.

TAKING CARE OF YOUR CUTTINGS:

Once all of your cuttings are done place the lid on the tray to help keep your cuttings moist and humid. Keep your new cuttings in a semi-sunny location or under a soft grow light. Strong direct light can hurt new cuttings. Keep your cuttings moist, but not wet, misting them instead of direct watering is usually better for delicate baby plants. Once the new roots are abundantly showing through the peatpot sides and bottom, your new cuttings are ready to be transplanted into their new permanent homes.

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