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This is an interesting article about Cloning plants in water and the 10 golden rules for successful Cloning of plant stem cuttings in Water. You will learn the Nitrogen Draining Concept and the Oxygenation Concept for successful rooting, plus you will also learn what nutrients to feed or how to fertilize your fresh stem cuttings.
Introduction To Cloning Plants
The method of cloning plant cuttings in water is an age-old practice. If you want to increase the success rate of growing plants in water or rooting your cuttings in water, you need to follow certain simple tips. The most important advantage of this, whether cuttings are grown in soil or water or even air layering, you get an identical copy of your Parent plant (also called the Stock Plant). But this is not the case with seed grown plant, which differs significantly from its Parent plant.
Please read all these steps and tips till the end to achieve a great result and have fun with your gardening hobby. Also, some scientific concepts, especially Tip #4 and Tip #8, like the nitrogen draining concept and the oxygenation concept, may be completely new and really interesting to most of us. Also, some of these tips are common when you are propagating cuttings in soil. With these simple tips and scientific concepts, you can achieve a success rate of nearly 100 percent.
1. Taking Healthy Cuttings
Yes, this is the first and foremost job which is most important to achieve a good success rate. Take a cutting from a healthy mother plant, which is free of pests and disease and has good active growing branches. Choose semi-woody cuttings, not hard woody or too soft ones which can easily rot.
2. Making a Sharp Cut at a 45-Degree Angle
A sharp cut with a sharp cutting tool or blade is also an important factor for success. Preferably sterilize the cutter with some disinfectant like hydrogen peroxide or any household antiseptic like Dettol. Cut about half an inch below a node – this is the area where rooting starts and which is to be inserted into water or your rooting solution.
3. Length of Cuttings
This is generally 6 to 10 inches or at least 2 or 3 nodes above the rooting node. The length depends on the internode distance of a branch. Remember one rule of thumb: the success rate of cloning plants is inversely proportional to the internode distance. That means the lesser the internode distance, the greater the chances of success.
4. Drain Out Nitrogen for the Branch
As you all know, nitrogen slows down the rooting process. Pouring a lot of water on the plant or the branch which is to be cut, is believed to drain out nitrogen. Do this and then take your cuttings from the plant. I don’t know how this happens, but if you know about the concept, please let us know in the comments box below this video.
5. Do Not Fertilize Your Parent Plant
Applying the same concept of nitrogen drain out, better not to feed the plant at least 15 days prior to taking cuttings.
6. Prepare Rooting Solution
You can use just plain clean soft water. Better avoid salty water or chlorinated water to increase the chances of success. The second option is to add some ingredients into this water which serves two functions. First, prevents contamination and rot and secondly, it helps accelerate the actual rooting process. You have many options for this:
- Rooting Hormone Powder with indole butyric acid or NAA (naphthalene acetic acid) – just add half a teaspoon of this to your glass or the container holding the cutting and mix it well. Add this every time you change the water till the rooting starts.
- Aspirin or willow water: Aspirin, which is chemically Acetyl Salicylic Acid, serves both functions, including rooting. You can watch a detailed video on this from a link at the top right corner of this video.
- Fresh aloe vera gel extracted from aloe leaf also contains salicylic acid and other ingredients which help in preventing rot and accelerate rooting.
7. Use Clean Containers and Change Water or Your Rooting Solution Every 2 to 3 Days
Take clean containers, preferably transparent ones, so that you can actually see through for the root development.
8. Oxygenate the Tissues
Yes, this is another important tip for successful rooting. Lift the cutting out of the water once daily and stir the water at least once to oxygenate it. Scientists have proved that plants need dissolved oxygen to survive and that the cutting will consume all the dissolved oxygen in the immediate vicinity of its rooting zone, so water needs to be stirred in order to maintain healthy root formation. This is in fact the basics of Aeroponics and Hydroponics, which we will try to discuss in detail in some other posts.
9. Submerge the Cutting into Water or Your Rooting Solution
Submerge the cutting at least 2 inches above the lowermost node, that is the rooting area. Keep it undisturbed, preferably on a window sill to receive indirect light, and also optionally suspend the cutting into the container through a plug like a piece of foam or a cloth. It’s a good idea to cover it with a polythene bag intermittently, especially at night if it’s too cool. This is to provide the optimum temperature and humidity levels for rooting.
10. Transplant into Soil
Once you see multiple roots, at least 4 to 5 roots of at least about an inch in length, you can carefully transplant into your potting mix.
Please watch a video demonstration of cloning or rooting plants in water below:
1 comment
Good knowledge