Step 1: Gather Your Supplies
Before you begin, make sure you have the following supplies:
- Clean, Sterile Equipment: Use clean, sharp scissors or a cloning scalpel. Sterilize them with rubbing alcohol to prevent disease transmission.
- Rooting Medium: Opt for an appropriate medium. Plug Life trays are a favoured option; they arrive pre-soaked with a well-balanced pH, ready for immediate use. If you're propagating a substantial number of cuttings, the dependable Jiffy peat pellets, available in boxes of 1000, are the top choice and necessitate soaking.
- Bucket with Lid: Useful for mixing feeds/soaking cutting cubes.
- Fertiliser: We recommend adding a plant start fertiliser if you are soaking your own cubes.
- Rooting Hormone: Optional but recommended for faster root development. Our best selling rooting hormone is Clonex 50ml
- Propagator: Helps maintain the required humidity, if you opt for a heated propagator, it can also help maintain the ideal temperature both of which will help with your success rate and time it takes for your cuttings to root.
- Suitable Light Source: A suitable light source is essential to producing healthy cuttings indoors we recommend our Lumii 26w or 42w LED lights.
- Misting Bottle: To maintain humidity around the cuttings.
Step 2: Select a Healthy Source Plant
- Choose a healthy, vigorous source plant with strong growth. Ensure it's free from pests and diseases.
Step 3: Prepare Your Cuttings
- Select a branch or stem for your cuttings that's about 4-6 inches long and contains several sets of leaves.
- Use your sterilised scissors or shears to make a clean, diagonal cut just below a node (the area where leaves or branches attach).
- Remove any lower leaves, leaving only a few sets of leaves at the top.
Step 4: Apply Rooting Hormone (Optional)
- Dip the cut end of the cutting into rooting hormone. This can help stimulate root development.
Step 5: Plant Your Cuttings
- Gently insert the cutting, ensuring that at least one node is buried in the medium. Tip: For certain cube types, consider using a slender tool, such as a skewer, to pre-make holes in the cubes. This can simplify the process when inserting cuttings. Ensure that you don't widen the holes excessively or penetrate all the way through.
Step 6: Maintain Humidity
- Place the cuttings inside your propagator with a plastic dome lid.
- Use a misting bottle to spray the cuttings and the inside of the cover to maintain high humidity.
- Daily Ventilation: it's a good practice to vent the propagator daily. This allows fresh air to circulate, prevents the build-up of excess humidity, and reduces the risk of fungal growth.
- Adjustable Vents: Some propagators come with adjustable vents or lids that can be partially opened to control humidity and airflow. If your propagator has this feature, you can experiment with different venting levels to find the right balance for your plants.
Step 7: Provide Adequate Light and Temperature
- Place your cuttings in a location with bright, indirect light. Avoid direct sunlight, which can stress the cuttings.
- Maintain a temperature range between 70-80°F (21-27°C) for optimal root development.
Step 8: Watering
- Keep the rooting medium consistently moist but not waterlogged. Avoid overwatering, as this can lead to rot.
Step 9: Monitor and Wait
- Check your cuttings regularly for signs of wilting and mist them as needed to maintain humidity.
- After a couple weeks, you should see new roots developing at the base of the cuttings. This rooting process can take anywhere from 9 to 21 days or even longer, so patience is key. A healthy-looking plant is usually an encouraging sign of progress. If it has been more than two weeks, and you still don't see any signs of roots, you can perform a gentle tug test. Carefully attempt to pull one of the cuttings from its cube. If it feels firmly anchored, this is a strong indication that the rooting process has commenced. Please exercise extreme caution during this test to avoid damaging the cutting.
Step 10: Transplant
- Once your cuttings have developed a healthy root system, you can transplant them into larger containers or your desired growing environment.