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Cuttings - Easy Method Cont.

Throughly wet the potting medium. This can be done with a fine mist from a hose or setting the container in tray of water and letting the water be absorbed by the planting medium. Remove the source of water and let the container drain.

Determine how many cutting you want to start and with something slightly bigger in diameter that the cuttings stem, a pencil is usually about the right size, place holes in the planting medium.

Your cutting only needs to be about 2 to 3 inches long. With sharp shears make a 45 degree cut just below a node (the part of the stem of a plant from which a leaf, branch grows) leaving 2 to 3 sets of leaves on the cutting. Then remove all but 2 leaves at the top of the cutting these leaves need to be opposite each other. Every place  leaves are removed (nodes) will leave a wound on the cutting which will allow for new roots to grow.

With just 2 leaves left on the stem, cut the top part of the leaves off. you will be left with a funny looking stem with 2 half leaves. This will leave enough leaf surface to continue photosynthesis to support plant growth, but not too much  for the cutting to support without roots. It also decrease water loss since plants transpire through their leaves.

Now dip the stem in water and shake off the excess. Pour out a small amount of rooting hormone, never dip the cutting directly in the bottle of rooting hormone, it can transmit disease. Dip the stem of the cutting into the rooting hormone, covering the area where leaves were removed. Shake off the excess. With rooting hormone, more is not necessarily better. 



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