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How to Take Hardwood Cuttings

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Fall is one of my favorite gardening seasons. For us it means planting bare root trees and garlic while the annual winter crops are slowly growing. Another great and inspiring aspect of fall is the opportunity to propagate plants.

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On our Permaculture homestead we have taken the small and slow approach (sort of…) to plant acquisition.

We have purchased a few plants of many varieties with the goal of multiplying them over time. After a couple of growing seasons, we now have the honor of taking part in the ancient act of propagating plants.

• Red Gem Goumi

We’ve already potted up over 150 black berry plants which we are excited to be selling for SBD here and today we will be taking hardwood cuttings of the Goumi.

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Cuttings are known as a type of cloning, and can be accomplished by rooting a part of an established plant.

Root, leaf, and woody parts of plants can be taken and in this article and video I am focusing on hardwood cuttings.

This is using dormant wood that has already hardened up after this past year’s growth, as opposed to softwood cuttings that are taken during warmer months from actively growing shoots.

• Tools for the job

The goal of this technique is to cut a portion from a dormant plant (it’s wise to make sure the particular plant has reported success) and plant it directly in the ground or in a container.

This can very quickly add up to a lot of plants considering you only need an 8-12 inch section to make a new plant. I like this technique because moisture loss and overheating are less of an issue than in the case of softwood cuttings.

The first step to taking a cutting is to find a suitable plant.

Next, cut unwanted branches from parent plant. You could also choose to designate a mother plant whose main role is creating propagation stock. I’ve read conflicting reports on whether terminal (end) branches or basal (with a base of 2 year old wood) cutting work best. We’ll try both as this Goumi needs some shaping and we need more Goumis!

Cut an 8-12 inch section at the top at a 90 just above a bud (or leave the terminal bud intact) and the lower portion at a 45 just below a bud. Any extra stem above or below buds may increase chances of rotting. The important thing is to include at least 2 buds, one underground and one above ground, but more increase chances of success.

Prepare rooting hormone if desired. There are several options. You can prepare “willow tea” by soaking chopped up willow stems to infuse naturally occurring hormones. This tea is used to soak cutting in before planting. You can also substitute crushed eggshells or aspirin (once made from willow) for willow tea. Old timers used to embed a grain seed into the base of cutting and bury them. Once the grain sprouted, it produced growth hormones that supported the root formation on the cutting. We choose to use a commercial rooting hormone because we have it on hand.

Some plants are harder to root and it may be helpful to scrape a small portion of the base to allow more cambium (inner living bark) exposure. Prepare the rooting hormone by pouring a little hormone powder onto a surface to avoiding dipping plants into container.

Prepare the planting area. If you’re planting directly in the ground, you can simply make a hole and stick the cutting in after applying hormone (see below). What we are attempting to recreate is a light textured and moist (but not soggy) environment for roots to form. We are choosing to plant into pots filled with 50/50 peat and perlite. Plants are overwintered like this and come spring will start to form roots and set out new growth if the cutting is successful.

Once the medium or earth is prepped, it’s time to plant. Cuttings can be buried up to ¾ of their length (eg. 8” deep for a 12” cutting). Poke a hole with a pencil or stick to receive the cutting and to avoid dusting off the rooting hormone. Next, roll the lower inch or so of each cutting in the powder before planting. This powder contains standardized amount of hormones that stimulate root growth and a small amount of fungicide to give the roots a competitive edge. There’s no need to water immediately, but the goal is to keep a moist environment for the roots to form in.

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The keys here are proper cuts, sterility (plant pathogens can be transferred) and moisture.

We are not overly concerned with pathogens, but as we expand production will use alcohol to sterilize tools before cutting. We do choose a sterile medium to avoid any fungal issues. Simply reusing potting soil may introduce unwanted pathogens and lead to failute. 50/50 perlite and peat or coir is a sound option for moisture retentions and aeration.

Lastly the cuttings are best to sheltered from direct sunlight (although many hardwood cutting are routinely field planted) and kept adequately moist.

Have fun and get cutting!

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