Cutting Techniques

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Cutting Techniques

• Chapter 10

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Cutting techniques

• Types of cuttings
• Stem
• Hardwood
• Deciduous
• Narrow-leaved evergreens
• Semi-hardwood
• Broad-leaved evergreens
• Leafy deciduous plants in summer
• Softwood
• Herbaceous
• Rhizome/Stolon

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Cutting techniques

• Types of cuttings
• Leaf
• Leaf-bud
• Root

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Cutting techniques

• Hardwood (deciduous)
• Mature, firm, dormant (after leaf drop)
• 4 - 30 cuttings
• Basal cut just below a node top cut just above
  a node
• Stick 2 - 3 into rooting mix
• Can wax tops or place in high humidity

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Cutting techniques

• Hardwood cuttings (narrow-leaved evergreens)
• Slow to root (make sure they dont dry out)
• Low-growing species root easiest (some junipers)
• Upright growing often difficult to root (firs,
  hemlock, pines, spruce)
• Take late fall to late winter
• Include 4 - 8 of last years growth
• Require high irradiance
• High humidity
• Prefer sand or peat/perlite
• Bottom heat

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Cutting techniques

• Semi-hardwood (greenwood)
• Broad-leaved evergreens or
• Leafy deciduous plants in summer
• Taken in summer after a growth flush
• 3 - 6 cuttings
• Trim large leaves to reduce transpiration
• Collect cutting in early morning (turgid)

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Cutting techniques

• Softwood
• soft, succulent new Spring growth
• Deciduous or evergreen species
• Taken DURING a growth flush
• Sometimes root easier
• Prone to disease and water stress

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Cutting techniques

• Herbaceous cuttings (different than softwood!)
• From succulent, nonwoody plants
  (Coleus, geraniums, mums)
• 3 - 5 cuttings
• Leaves kept on top (remove any that would go
  below the surface of the rooting mix)
• Auxin usually not required

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Cutting techniques

• Leaf cuttings
• Leaf blade with or without petiole attached
• Adventitious buds/shoots and roots must form
• Limited of species will respond to produce
  shoots
• Begonia
• African violet
• Snake plant
• Offsets plants develop along the leaf margin
• Kalanchoe
• Piggyback plant

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Cutting techniques

• Leaf-bud cuttings (single eye or single node)
• Leaf blade, petiole, stem piece with axillary
  bud
• Only adventitious roots need to form
• Camellia, maples, rhododendron, tropical shrubs
• Insert stem 1/2 - 1 into rooting mix

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Cutting techniques

• Root cuttings
• From young stock plants in late winter/early
  spring
• High in CHOs
• Polarity is important proximal end up
• Or can lay horizontally in the mix
• Cover lightly, 1/2 maximum

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Cutting techniques

• Ways to improve rooting of cuttings
• Proper rooting medium
• Wounding
• Stripping
• Girdling
• Auxins
• IBA best or a combination of IBA NAA
• K-IBA (talc or water solution) for softwood
  semi-hardwood
• IBA in alcohol best with dormant hardwood cuttings

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Cutting techniques

• How to prepare an IBA quick-dip!
• Know which form of IBA you have so you know which
  solvent to use
• Ex You want 1 liter of a 5,000 ppm solution
• FACT 1 ppm 1 mg/L
• Therefore 5,000 ppm 5,000 mg/L or 5 g/L

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Cutting techniques

• Question You want 200 ml of a 5,000 ppm
  solution
• 5,000 mg 5g
• L L
• 5g X g
• 1000 ml 200 ml

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Cutting techniques

• 1000 gml 1000 X gml
• Divide through by 1000
• X 1 g per 200 ml

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Cutting techniques

• Quick-dip
• 500 - 10,000 ppm (0.05 to 1)
• Dip base in about 1/2 - 1 for 5 - 10 sec.
• Easy, consistent, stable
• If in alcohol it will evaporate over time and
  the auxin will become more concentrated

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Cutting techniques

• Talc
• 1,000 - 10,000 ppm (0.1 - 1)
• Easy
• Can be inconsistent (amount of talc adhering to
  the cutting base will vary)
• Generally less effective than a similar
  concentration of IBA applied as a liquid

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Cutting techniques

• Other auxin application methods
• Spray on foliage
• Immerse herbaceous cuttings in 50 - 250 ppm
• Soak cuttings (basal portion) in 20 - 200 ppm

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Cutting techniques

• Disease prevention while taking cuttings
• Start with disease-free stock plants
• Apply fungicides
• In auxin talc or solution
• Drench medium after sticking
• Clean workspace and tools with sterilants
• Bleach (10)
• Physan 20 or Green Shield
• Note Rubbing alcohol is not effective against
  viruses

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Cutting techniques

• Mist system
• Intermittent mist -
• Time clock and solenoid
• Leaf and solenoid (Mist-O-Matic)
• Fog
• High pressure
• Ultrasonic
• Problems
• Algal growth
• Water quality (pH, salts, debris)

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Cutting techniques

• Cutting nutrition
• NO fertigation
• Can use slow-release fertilizers but not
  recommended
• Weed control
• by hand!

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Cutting techniques

• Hardening-off
• The process of gradually acclimating rooted
  cuttings from high humidity to reduced humidity
• First reduce mist frequency
• Finally, remove from mist, pot up and keep in an
  area out of excessive sun and wind