At the end of the growing season, tender plants are often too large to pot and bring inside. To have them for winter windows or to keep a start for next year’s outdoor garden, many of them can be “slipped.”
How To Slip Plants
Here’s what you need to do:
- Plants grown from slips (cuttings) will be like the parent plant.
- Take cuttings when the plant is fresh and crisp, not during the day’s heat when it might be limp and wilted.
- Choose a cutting that breaks when bent. If it merely bends, it is too old.
- If planting is delayed after the cutting has been obtained, place it in a plastic bag until needed.
- Look for short, husky cuttings—ones with the shortest space between the nodes or joints (where the leaf is, or a whorl of leaves).
- To get a “heel” cutting, pull a short branch from the stem of a plant. A bit of the main stem remains attached to the base of the cutting.
- Or cut a stem about one-half inch below a node.
- Let each cutting have at least two nodes, preferably three.
- Remove the leaf or leaves from the lowest node but leave the rest.
- If the remaining leaves are unusually large, shorten them but do not remove the entire leaves—they are needed to help the plant make new roots.
- Shorten any that might touch the damp earth and rot.
- Remove the upper part or tip of the cutting if it is too long.
Some Good Rooting Mediums
If you have a favorite rooting medium, use that. If in doubt, here are three suggestions:
- Two parts vermiculite, two parts perlite, and one part sifted sphagnum
- Equal parts of sand and peat
- Sand alone
You may use equal parts of potting soil, sand, and peat for plants such as wandering jew, sultana, plectranthus, coleus, or any other plant that roots easily.
Unless plant food is added regularly to the other mediums, the plants need to be moved into potting soil after being well rooted.
For individual rooting, use small clay pots, 2 ½” or 3″ inch size. A larger pot will hold several cuttings.
A flat such as a fruit lug will accommodate several dozen. Whatever is used provides perfect drainage.
Make holes in the damp planting medium with a pointed stick or pencil.
Many cuttings root without any trouble, but there are hormone powder root stimulants that induce root formation (Rootone, for example).
Follow the directions on the package.
- Tuck each cutting into a hole.
- The node where the leaves were removed must be well below the soil surface. It is important to firm the soil well before the cutting.
- Water gently but well.
- When properly protected with plastic, it is usually unnecessary to do more watering until the cuttings have been rooted.
Temperature
The temperature and the amount of moisture in the air govern the adjustment of the plastic cover.
A flower pot can be slipped into a plastic bag. If the weather is warm and dry, close the bag at the top with a rubber band, or place a glass jar over each cutting.
Open the bag (or remove the jar) for a few minutes each day.
If the weather is warm and humid, leave the bag entirely open. If it is “betwixt and between,” a few holes may be punched in the bag, or the jar tipped slightly for more air.
Set the plants in strong light but not in direct sunshine.
Plastic Tents Provide Humidity For Flats
Hold the sheet of plastic above the plants by bending the stout wire in a wicket shape-one at each end and one across the center of the flat.
Tie a string around the sides of the box to hold the plastic in Be prepared for some failures.
Not all plants are easy to root, and some that root easily one time may prove stubborn another time even if the same procedure is followed.
Lantana, salvia, petunia, verbena, carnation, Iresine (blood-leaf), and Joseph’s-coat are among the most of 10 successfully rooted.
If a cutting fails to root and more cuttings are available, try again. Persistence pays!
44659 by OR Tiemann