Cloning / Cuttings

Cloning, or taking cuttings, is a method that allows convenient propagation of plants within your indoor garden. You can do it at home. Read how to proceed and what will help you take excellent care of the seedlings so you can fully use the potential of your home grow.

How does it work? The process of taking cuttings involves removing a part of the plant and replanting it immediately to create a clone. This clone has identical characteristics to the mother plant. If you grow herbs at home, even better. Herbaceous cuttings root significantly faster than woody plant cuttings. Clones are already small plants. Compared to growing from seed, you gain several weeks.

Cuttings in practice are taken from various parts of plants, from roots, through shoots to leaves. Based on the maturity of the shoot or a certain plant part, we distinguish woody, semi-woody and herbaceous cuttings. Take the latter from your herbs as fresh as possible, as soon as you see that the mother plant is sufficiently vigorous. When growing various culinary and medicinal herbs, mother plants are commonly kept in a vegetative state for gradual cutting off of cuttings, which then grow faster than herbs grown from seed. Experienced growers apply a special cloning spray to the mother plant two to three days before cloning, which significantly increases the success rate of your clones and reduces possible losses in the first days after cloning.

The art of the correct cut

If you cut the cutting gently and diagonally at an angle of approximately 45°, you make rooting and growth easier. For surgical precision, please use a scalpel. Don’t forget the lower leaves — always remove them to prevent rotting. Then we strongly recommend dipping the lower part of the cutting into a quality rooting stimulant and that’s it! The root stimulant can be powder or gel. Plant the cutting about 2 cm deep into a substrate suitable for quick rooting.

Ideal environment for your clones

First of all you need a suitable substrate.

Growing plants from cuttings is also possible with various propagation cubes made of rock wool (Rockwool) or the popular Giffy tablets. If you favour ecological growing and would like 100% natural propagation cubes made of earth wool (Earthwool) for rooting, which do not need to be buffered, then the Agra-Wool range is the most suitable solution for you.

For successful and convenient pre-growing of cuttings, growers have smaller greenhouses and propagators available. The key factor for acquiring these is their ability to maintain the important high humidity for seedlings, which ranges between 70–80%. For most plants, temperatures of 20 to 25 °C inside the propagator are beneficial for cuttings.

Exceptionally practical are the ROOT!T mini greenhouses, which can be purchased in a convenient set containing everything you need, including propagation plugs!

We hope this article helped you get oriented in the basics of cloning and we believe you will easily master this activity. Propagating plants is fun. At the same time, it is necessary to proceed correctly and accommodate different varieties in their specific needs.

We wish you much success caring for your cuttings and mother plants. If you would like to ask anything or get advice on choosing equipment, we are here for you at the usual address info@higarden.cz.

• Cloning spray ROOT!T
• Rooting stimulant ROOT!T Rooting Gel
• ROOT!T mini greenhouses
• Potting substrate
• Agra-Wool propagation cubes