There’s nothing new about this cutting box – it’s not even my design. What amazes me is that people can keep plants without them or something like it.
It has dozens of uses for germinating, propagating, and nursing ailing plants. It is simple to make, pleasant to look at, handy to have around, and costs little or nothing.
My cutting box is made from a cherry crate the grocer gave me. The sides are window glass, cut to measure at the hardware store, and fastened at the corners with masking tape.
On top, I use another piece of glass: a stretch of clear plastic would do as well. The bottom is lined with the kitchen variety of aluminum foil which holds a layer of moist vermiculite. It’s a “poor man’s Wardian case.”
Making Similar Cutting Box Yet Cost–Effective
You can make a similar box with even less cost and construction by fastening wire coat hangers, upside down, at each package end and draping the whole affair with the plastic in which dry cleaning is returned.
You can have a fancier box if you possess a pretty fish tank or aquarium. You can work wonders with a box of any size or shape, finished smooth or rough, as long as it serves one primary purpose – to keep tender plants humid, warm, and protected from drafts.
Where To Keep It?
Where can you keep a cutting box? Anywhere except in the dark or in the full sun.
A north window sill is suitable, or the tin-sunny side of a sun porch. Rooting cuttings, seedlings, and convalescent plants need some light, but not the brightest.
I’ve long suspected that there is one function for which artificial lighting is ideal; that cuttings root faster and more surely tinder fluorescent tubes than they do in daylight. The reason? Fluorescent light produces a constant light intensity that never changes daily.
Natural light varies according to the weather; the time of the year is even limited in its power indoors by when the windows were last washed. The box pictured here works beautifully in a warm corner of the cellar under fluorescent lights.
You could do the same, pretend your box is a terrarium and keep it on a table with lights turned on or near it.
Cutting Boxes For Outdoor Use
A cutting box is not limited to indoor use, as shown in the photograph and described in the cutline.
This device is equally handy for outdoor gardeners. It’s a small-scale greenhouse where early seedlings of annuals and vegetables can be kept growing warm and humid without the danger of drying out.
It’s the perfect place for mail-order plants that might have been delayed along the way and need to be pampered until they recuperate from their travels.
It’s healthy temporary storage for garden plants that arrive when it is inconvenient or impossible to put them directly in the garden.
And it’s insurance against loss when you’re away for days and have no way to water pet plants.
When a friend brings gift cuttings or plants; when shoots are accidentally broken from potted plants; when I prune or pinch out plants so they’ll grow more shapely – I don’t have to hunt for bottles, glasses, pots, vermiculite, peat. I pop everything in the box, and well, I don’t entirely forget them.
I certainly don’t worry about them. Cuttings seldom fail to root; seedlings seldom fail to thrive mightily; miracles seldom fail to happen to a sick plant. For a gardener, this is the handiest thing in the house!
44659 by Elvin Mcdonald