Cuttings

How to Grow Cuttings

These notes and photos are written and taken by Jim Purdie, and I hope you can use these notes to be successful in putting down cuttings at your place.

I have found these methods which I am going to show you to be very successful, and I usually get near 100 % results each time that I put down some wood for cuttings. I only use this method for my rootstock, for which I always use Albo Lacinatus [Ruth Wilcox], but you can do the same thing for any hibiscus wood which you want to strike.

I grow a few stands of Albo Lacinatus up at the back of my yard, and I cut some branches about pencil thickness, and then I cut them up into sections around 6 inches in length, and cut off the leaves, making sure that I do not tear the eyes , otherwise they will not shoot again, Then I make a diagonal cut through an eye at the bottom of the 6 inch piece of wood, making sure that you have the eyes facing upward, before you make the cut, otherwise the eyes will shoot facing downwards. Then I strip out the eyes just above the diagonal cut, with my secateurs, otherwise at a later date you will find the cutting sending out shoots from beneath the ground, which is what we do not want if you are using the cuttings for rootstock as the albo lacinatus is very vigorous and will soon take over and kill the scion that you have grafted on to it, but leave some eyes at the top of the cutting for them to shoot and allow the rootstock to grow. The photo below shows the cuttings after being cut and de-eyed ready for planting.

Next I prepare my mixture which I strike my cuttings in, which is a mixture of 4 parts perlite and 1 part peat moss, and after mixing them together I fill my 2 inch tubes with this mixture and water it in with my sprinkler attached to my hose. I leave this drain and then get it ready to plant the cuttings into the pots.
I then put the pots into a plastic tray which holds 24 pots.
The photo below is of the pots filled with the mixture ready to receive the cuttings.

I dip the cuttings into some rooting powder, and then make a hole in the mixture with a pencil about 1 1/2 inches deep, and plant the cuttings into the mixture, and firm the mixture down around the cuttings.
The next photo shows the cuttings all planted in the 2 inch tubes.

I then place the plastic tray with the cuttings into a foam broccoli box, and I have wires poked down in the sides and at each end to hold up the plastic which I am going to put over the box.
Before I place the plastic cover over the box I fill the plastic tray up with water, deep enough to cover the holes in the side of the 2 inch tubes. I then cover the box with the plastic cover, and place the covered box in my bush house up on a shelf
The photo below is of the box with the polyscrim cover which I have made to cover the foam box

I leave this cover on for about 6 weeks, and by then the cuttings should have sent out roots through the bottom of the pots. Make sure during these 6 weeks that you keep the water deep enough to cover the side holes in the pots>
I gradually lift the plastic cover to allow the cuttings become accustomed to the outside temperature.
The next photo shows the cuttings after being in the box for 6 weeks.

I then remove the cutting from the pot and shake off most of the perlite mixture, and repot it into the same pot with some potting mix.
Please find below the photo of the cutting removed from the perlite mix ready to repotted into some potting mix.

I then place the box of cuttings in their potting mix back into the bush house, and after about a week I place them out in full sun and they soon grow into nice rooted cuttings ready for me to graft some scions on to.

The last photo shows the cuttings growing nicely in the potting mix, and I can now graft on to them.

I hope you find these notes interesting and of some use to you, if you decide to put down some cuttings of your own.