Propagating From Cuttings 101

All right. What's up guys. We are back yet again with Stephen. Nature's Always Right. Nature's Always Right Farms. First of all, go to the description and give him a follow because his farm is blowing up and you want to be on the ground floor. Uh, all right, what are we doing today? So we're going to talk about propagating from cuttings. And I'm in the California Rare Fruit Growers Club in San Diego. And I've been learning a lot this year from all the different experts in that club. So what we're going to do today is to talk about propagation from a cutting. And there's many different types of fruit trees and herbs that you can propagate from a cutting. So these here are grapes. And so I got these from a very awesome expert called Mark Miner and he does a lot of different research on grapes here in San Diego. And he gave me his three top picks for the best grapes for San Diego. These are called Gold Champion. And we can use the same technique for other crops, right? Not just fruits. That's right. I'm going to show you guys where I propagated some herbs too. And it's, it's essentially the same technique. You just need to understand a few fundamentals about how some plants grow. So, so this is a cutting from a grape. So what happens at the end of the grapes life in fall, when the grape loses its leaves, the grape will actually go dormant. And that's what this is. This is a dormant cutting. So once they go dormant, the bark will turn brown. And now what you see here, these are different little nodes where the next season's growth, once spring happens, these will open up and shoot out new growth. So these buds are very important to recognize because where we're going to cut is right beneath the bud. Now, because Mark's an expert, he did this perfectly. He cut it right above a node. So where he cut it was here to give to me so that I could cut it right here. So I'm going to make a slight diagonal cut right below. About 45 degrees or so? Yeah, 45. You can cut it flat. It'll still work. You know, when you cut it at an angle, it gives a little bit more surface area so that can help, you know, the roots get started a little better. So we're cutting it below the bud because this is where the rooting hormone will naturally be produced and it'll send out roots. We're kind of causing a, we're causing this wound to create healing because there's a wound here next to the bud. It's going to stimulate root growth. So at this point it's ready to plant, but let's talk about one more thing, which is rooting hormone. So you can buy synthetic rooting hormone powder and you know, that stuff works great and you know, I have no problem with people using it, but for me, you guys know, like I believe in doing things naturally. So one of the reasons I disagree with using rooting hormone is because if this plant needs the hormone to survive and make roots and thrive, this is actually weaker genetics. I'd rather see this die and not make it and just have the stronger genetics go on. Interesting. Okay. So it's, it's almost like, it's almost like working out, right? You damage the tissue so it grows back stronger. You're, you're creating stress on purpose basically. Yes. And when, if it's overstressed and dies, that's okay. We lost one. This is a strategy that a lot of the natural raise for chickens, when you naturally raise them, when you're trying to create a breed or you're raising chicks. So these large farms that use antibiotics, they're actually stopping like a natural culling process that should happen to the chickens. Yeah. They're basically curtailing natural selection, right? Yes. And we want to encourage natural selection. We want the strongest genetics. So, so now I said, I like to do things naturally. There is some other natural solutions that people like to use to help encourage. So one of those would be honey. So just some raw organic honey. Basically what it does, it just encourages wound healing. You might know that honey is antibacterial and antifungal. So we're just preventing any possible things from entering this and killing the plant. You know, we're getting a little, we're just giving a little bit of protection. Just straight up honey. You don't water it down or anything. Okay. Just make sure the whole bottom piece is covered. That's all you need. Rooting hormone I think is probably more effective, but like I said, I'd rather have this be a very strong cutting. So you want to make sure to bury at least two nodes. Okay. The roots can pour out, they're going to pour out of this bottom cut, but they're also going to pour out of the nodes too. Then the upper nodes, you want to have at least two of the upper nodes. These upper nodes are where the new leaves will come out of when this thing wakes up in the spring. So if this thing's able to root out and wakes up, a few months from now, this will, the buds will open. And that's because at the nodes, you're basically looking at undifferentiated cells, right? So like a stem cell basically, so they can become whatever they want to be, roots or leaves. Is that how that works or? You know, I'm not totally sure, but yeah, that sounds like that's what is happening. I don't understand everything on a tense biological level. I don't, and I don't have to. Cause it works. Cause it's so complex. I, you know, I want to continue to learn more and more about it. Um, but at this point, I just know this works. Sure. Sure. Sure. Okay. So, and then, oh yeah, you always want to label everything. Golden champion. Especially for a crop like this, where a lot of them will look the same even though they're very different. My other cuttings are different varieties and I want to be able to differentiate them so that if I sell them in the future or plant them in a client's house, I know exactly what I'm doing. Yep. So this is one type of cutting. We can also do this type of cutting propagation with pomegranates. You can do it with, there's a, these are mulberries and you can even see, I did these the other day. They're already waking up. Wow. Oh yeah. Wow. And you can tell because there's some new growth going on right there. How long? A couple of days and they started to wake up. Wow. We have really warm temperatures right now and we're at the end of January. Do you think that there's some root growth on the cutting then already? That seems a bit early. That seems a bit early. I don't know. I don't, it's probably just from the stored energy. Okay. So it's basically sucking up the energy within the stem itself. So to produce these roots, it needs to use the stored energy in here. So that's what's going to happen. Interesting. Okay. And uh, so yeah, figs, pomegranates, mulberries, grapes, and herbs. There's many herbs you can propagate from cutting. So these guys, so just look here. This is thyme. So thyme is one that's typically done from a cutting and I'll give you guys an example. Okay. So I could actually take this and make another cutting if I wanted. I wouldn't do that cause this isn't a fresh stick anymore. It's already a bit stressed, right? Yeah. And it's, um, it's still alive. So the way you know that a cutting's alive is you'll see some green and maybe even see some moisture. That green tells you this is still alive and it's still got stored energy so it still has a chance. So what you would do is strip all the leaves off. And now there's multiple nodes here where it can root out. Sure. Then you just place it directly in the soil and thyme is very good at rooting out and it'll just do it. Perfect. I'm also just, you know, I did a few rosemary and oregano here, but typically these are rooted out in water and I have, you know, 50 cuttings in water right now in my house where it's warmer to help encourage rooting out. All right. Well that's almost it about making a propagation from a cutting. But there are two really important things that we did not mention. So we're going to go over them right now. Steven. Okay. So the main thing you want to know is which way is up. Should I put this side into the dirt or this side into the dirt? So when you're looking at your cutting, so many people when they, when they'll take a cutting, they'll make the top cut a 45 and that's just to let you know that this is the top. But you should know which way is up. That, you know, it's really something that you should understand. So if you look at these buds, you'll notice that there's an angle here. And you can see, you know, it's like about a 45 degree angle facing up. So that tells me that the bud, when it opens up, the branch will go out this way. So this is up, this is the top, this is the bottom. And we need to plant the bottom in the bottom. In the bottom. Otherwise it's going to completely fail, right? Yes. It will not work if you do it upside down. Got it. You know, there's things like dragon fruit or other ones that'll kind of, you can kind of get away with it. Yeah. Why make it harder than you have to make it? Or comfrey. Comfrey's famous for doing that. Yeah. All right guys. And then last thing you want to do to settle in your cutting, you know, this is the same thing that you would do if you were transplanting a plant into a pot or when you transplant into your garden bed. One of the reasons you water besides moisture is it helps settle the dirt. It removes any remaining air pockets and then you've got your moisture for your plant to do its thing. Since my soil is already pretty wet, I don't need to add that much. Yep. You want to be kind of light on the watering for your cutting. You don't want, don't over water because it can kind of start to rot the wood. So just, you know, moisture like a wrung out sponge worth of moisture. So even if you have a pretty good draining pot, you still want to be light on the watering? Yeah, I wouldn't overdo it. I wouldn't overdo it. Make sure it does stay moist or it will die. Perfect. Well, there we have it. Propagating from cuttings. We did fruits in this video, but like we said, there's herbs there. Many different plants can be propagated via cutting. That's a really quick primer on it. Thank you so much for watching. Go follow Steven, Nature's Always Right. Subscribe to this channel down below. Hit the little notification bell if you want to get notified when these new videos come out and we'll see you soon. Good luck in the garden. Keep growing, keep propagating, keep propagating baby. All right. Later.