Cloning Plants for Succession and Expansion -Ep. 198

[00:00:00] One of the strategies that I use and encourage other gardeners to use for getting the most out

[00:00:05] of their gardens each year is succession planting. This is the process of planting a new crop of

[00:00:10] something after the first one has a little bit of growth on it so that we can harvest pretty

[00:00:14] continuously or planting a second crop after a first one has just given its all. This might

[00:00:21] make you think that you need to be buying new transplants or starting new seedlings all over

[00:00:26] again to get these succession plantings in the ground on time. No often times for things like

[00:00:31] leafy greens or squashes we can just pop some seeds directly in the garden and call it good.

[00:00:36] But for larger plants or those that grow slowly from seed like tomatoes or basil,

[00:00:41] it's better to transplant them as started seedlings. The fastest and easiest way to do this

[00:00:47] is with cloning. No, we're not talking about the sci-fi version of cloning or even dolly the

[00:00:52] sheep type clones. Propagating your own plants from cuttings of your most productive vegetable herb

[00:00:59] or fruit plants can be very simple and straightforward and it does not require any special equipment.

[00:01:06] Not only can you do this for your garden successions, but it's a good way to get new plants for

[00:01:11] expanding the garden too. Today on Just Grow Something we'll cover the easiest vegetables,

[00:01:17] fruits and herbs to clone for either succession plantings or just for expanding the garden,

[00:01:22] the benefits of cloning and exactly how to clone them. You might be surprised at just how easy it is.

[00:01:29] Let's dig in. Hey, I'm Karen. I started gardening in a small corner of my suburban backyard and now

[00:01:35] 18 years later I've got a degree in horticulture and operate a 40-acre market farm. I believe there

[00:01:40] is power in food and that everyone should know how to grow at least a little bit of their own.

[00:01:45] On this podcast I share evidence-based techniques to help you plant, grow, harvest and store

[00:01:50] all your family's favorites. Consider me your friend in the garden.

[00:01:54] So grab your garden journal and a cup of coffee and get ready to Just Grow Something.

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[00:03:00] The countdown to the 200th episode of this show has begun and I want you to ask me

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[00:03:34] So talking about cloning, it may sound intimidating. It really, really is not. There

[00:03:40] are actually very simple straightforward methods that we can be cloning our plants,

[00:03:44] but what are some of the reasons we might consider doing this? First of all, again,

[00:03:49] we're talking about succession plantings. So if you are trying to plant these plants one after

[00:03:56] another, it might be easier to start some of them from cuttings rather than starting them

[00:04:02] straight from seed or if you have a staggered planting. So for my gardeners who are in really,

[00:04:08] really hot climates where your tomatoes are going to start early on in the early part of the

[00:04:14] season, very, very early spring, but you're growing determinates because by the time you

[00:04:19] get to the middle of the summer it's just too hot and it's killing off those tomatoes.

[00:04:23] You very well can plant a second crop of determinate tomatoes in the late summer or early

[00:04:32] fall for harvesting later on. So an easier way to do this is to take cuttings off of your

[00:04:39] first set of plants and grow those out until it's time to plant them in the garden for the fall.

[00:04:46] Another reason you might want to clone is if you want to overwinter some of your best specimens of

[00:04:51] these annual type plants, peppers and tomatoes being prime example of this. You can take cuttings

[00:04:58] from your best producers at the very, very end of the season and have little baby plants

[00:05:04] that you're basically bringing in and overwintering indoors. And these cuttings are going to be exact

[00:05:12] duplicates. So if you are battling something very specific, if you've had production problems or

[00:05:18] you've had disease issues, you can duplicate the plants that have done the best in these

[00:05:25] situations. The ones that have the best production, the best disease resistance,

[00:05:29] the best drought resistance, whatever it is that you're facing, these are going to be exact duplicates.

[00:05:35] So you get to keep the best of the best. Now cloning vegetables from cuttings is a really great way

[00:05:43] to propagate your favorite plants without relying on seeds. You are going to get genetic

[00:05:50] consistency. So cloning ensures that the new plants are genetically identical to the parent

[00:05:57] plant. So you are preserving all of your favorite traits, the flavor, the size, the color,

[00:06:03] the disease resistance or the drought resistance, whatever it is. You can reproduce your best

[00:06:07] performing plants and get that kind of continued quality and performance that you want in your garden.

[00:06:14] Cloning from cuttings is also often faster than growing plants from seeds, especially for plants

[00:06:20] that take a really long time to germinate from seed or ones that take a really long time

[00:06:25] to reach maturity. Because you are taking cuttings from mature plants, they're going to establish and

[00:06:32] produce a harvestable yield much more quickly than one that you are starting from seed,

[00:06:36] which also means that this is more cost effective too. You don't have to go and purchase

[00:06:40] new seeds or new plants in order to keep these plants going. And if you are growing rare or

[00:06:48] heirloom varieties of things, cloning is also going to help preserve those genetics. Or if you

[00:06:54] have like hard to find plant varieties that aren't readily available as seeds or even as started plants,

[00:07:01] using a cloning is actually going to maintain not just the genetic peculiarity of some rare or

[00:07:07] heirloom plants, but it's also going to ensure all of those unique characteristics are retained.

[00:07:12] I'll give you a very good example of this when it comes to sort of decorative plants.

[00:07:17] When you see plants in the garden center that have this beautiful variegation to them,

[00:07:22] oftentimes the reason that you see that variegation is because those plants have been cloned. Variegation

[00:07:29] in leaves is actually a mutation and it is very difficult to reproduce a mutation consistently.

[00:07:36] So in most instances, those plants are not being reproduced from seed, they are being

[00:07:41] reproduced from cuttings to make sure that they retain that variegation. That is just one

[00:07:47] example. So another reason for doing cloning is it allows you to basically copy your healthiest

[00:07:56] disease free plants. So this is going to reduce the risk of introducing pathogens

[00:08:01] into the seeds. So you can select plants that have shown resistance to certain diseases and

[00:08:07] of course that's just going to enhance the overall health of your garden. It also helps

[00:08:12] you overcome any seed germination challenges that you've had. Some plants are just not easy to germinate

[00:08:19] or they have low germination rates. So cloning passes this issue and it ensures that you actually

[00:08:25] get a viable plant. Plus you also don't have to worry about how long you have stored those

[00:08:29] seeds because that of course is going to reduce the viability. It also minimizes hybridization

[00:08:36] risks. So if you are growing things that cross pollinate really easily, if you're trying to maintain

[00:08:43] a specific type, you can clone and that makes sure that the offspring remain true to the parent plant

[00:08:51] and they haven't had some sort of unwanted hybridization. All right so some vegetables are

[00:08:58] really particularly well suited for cloning. It's because they are just have an ability to root very

[00:09:07] easily from stem cutting. My three favorites are tomatoes, sweet potatoes and peppers. Okay,

[00:09:15] tomatoes are probably the most well known vegetable for cloning from cuttings. It is super easy.

[00:09:22] Peppers also can be cloned. They do take a little bit longer to root and then sweet

[00:09:27] potatoes are slightly different and I'll explain that here in a minute. So let's start with the

[00:09:31] tomatoes. Essentially all you want to do is choose a healthy non-flowering side shoot. Okay,

[00:09:39] these are usually the suckers that we are told to prune off of our tomato plants during the

[00:09:45] season. So every single one of those suckers that you are pruning off of that plant can be

[00:09:50] turned into a brand new tomato plant. So all you want to do is choose one of those side shoots,

[00:09:57] about six to eight inches long is a good length, strip off any lower leaves just leave a few of

[00:10:02] them at the top and then place that cutting into water. I prefer to do water. You can do it directly

[00:10:08] into moist soil and we'll talk about that here in a little bit but my preference specifically for

[00:10:13] tomatoes is water because I can see the roots developing. So I don't constantly have to worry

[00:10:20] about whether or not that stem is sitting in the soil and it's just rotting. I know that it's pulling

[00:10:25] roots so if I stick it into a jar of water and I stick it up in my window sill within a few days

[00:10:31] I will generally start to see roots. Sometimes it'll take about a week or two

[00:10:35] but eventually that whole jar is going to end up full of roots off of that cutting and then

[00:10:40] you just place it into the soil and there you have a brand new plant. Now peppers are about the

[00:10:46] same way. You want to do a six to eight inch cutting off of a healthy pepper plant, remove any lower

[00:10:54] leaves it's okay on the peppers if it's a flowering portion that's fine. You also want to

[00:11:00] remove any flowers though if that's the case and then place the cutting in water or soil.

[00:11:05] I tend with peppers to use a little bit of powdered rooting hormone. You can find that at just about

[00:11:12] any garden center or you can order online it's very inexpensive. You just kind of dip the end

[00:11:18] of the cutting into that rooting hormone and then I like to put it into very moist soil.

[00:11:23] I like that for peppers just because they generally take longer to develop their roots. It could

[00:11:28] be two to four weeks for them to grow their roots out and from what I've seen in putting it in

[00:11:33] water it will tend to just rot a little bit faster if it's just in the water than if I use

[00:11:38] the rooting hormone and pour it into the soil. That's my preference. You can try it both ways

[00:11:43] and see what works for you. I have done this with peppers, really good producing peppers that I wanted

[00:11:48] to keep going. I've taken cuttings off of them and rooted them and just kept them in my seed

[00:11:53] starting area over the winter time. Not putting enough light on them where they really want to

[00:11:58] actively like grow and try to produce. I'm only doing about six hours or so instead of the

[00:12:03] normal 12 to 15 that I would put on them if I really wanted them to actively grow. That means

[00:12:07] they don't get too big for me over the winter time but by the time it comes spring I have this

[00:12:12] beautiful specimen or you can actively have them grow and then when you're ready to start

[00:12:19] creating new plants to go out into the garden for the spring then you take all of the cuttings

[00:12:24] off of your big clone and now you have 12 or 15 peppers that you can put outside that

[00:12:29] you have created from one productive plant. It is a brilliant, brilliant, brilliant way to get a jump

[00:12:35] on the season. Now finally sweet potatoes. They're easy to do. You do this a little bit

[00:12:41] differently though because you have to have an actual sweet potato root in order to create

[00:12:47] the slips that you're going to root if that makes sense. So you want to have an active

[00:12:52] sweet potato and I think that we did an episode on sweet potatoes specifically on propagating them.

[00:12:59] I'll have to link to that in the show notes but essentially you're just going to take

[00:13:03] a sweet potato and put it into a little bit of soil and allow it to grow roots. Now this might

[00:13:09] happen just by you storing them in your pantry or whatever when those start to sprout,

[00:13:18] those little slips are what you can grow new sweet potatoes from. So you break off those

[00:13:24] slips off of the sweet potato once they get to be about six inches or so, remove any lower leaves

[00:13:30] that have kind of popped up and just put those slips into water until those roots develop

[00:13:34] and then take them outside and plant them. This is cloning so that's how we do sweet potatoes.

[00:13:40] It is very simple and straightforward with any of these cuttings. You are just

[00:13:44] taking the cuttings and putting them in water or in soil letting them root and voila you have

[00:13:50] a brand new plant. It really is not that difficult. Roses often have a bad reputation for being fussy

[00:14:00] and hard to grow and I will admit I was one who agreed with that reputation but only because

[00:14:05] most big box store roses are grafted. heirloom roses believes roses should be grown the way

[00:14:11] nature intended on their own roots with as little human intervention as possible. With

[00:14:16] own root roses you can avoid the headache of dealing with rootstock and worrying about your

[00:14:21] rose not surviving the winter because own root roses are naturally stronger, more disease resistant

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[00:15:00] Now it's not just vegetables that we can do this from there are a ton of herbs that are super

[00:15:06] easy to clone from cuttings. Basil is probably one of the easiest and you can do this either by

[00:15:12] taking a four to six inch cutting off of a healthy basil plant that you already have or if you

[00:15:19] have purchased basil either at the farmers market or at the grocery store you can take one of those

[00:15:24] cuttings because essentially that's what it is when you're harvesting the basil you're taking a

[00:15:28] cutting and you can put that into water just put the end of it into the water and the roots

[00:15:34] should appear in about a week. Another one that is just as easy as basil is mint it is

[00:15:40] very vigorous and very easy to clone same thing a four to six inch piece and just

[00:15:46] pop the end of it into a jar of water and the roots are going to form in about a week and then

[00:15:51] you can just transplant it right into the soil. Rosemary is also cloneable it just takes longer

[00:15:59] to root the action of doing it is very straightforward you just want about a four to six inch cutting

[00:16:05] and you want to strip the lower leaves off of the cutting and then I always make sure that

[00:16:11] I am dipping the end of that cutting into some rooting hormone. Rosemary because it's a little bit more

[00:16:19] woody is going to take a little bit longer to grow or to root and so that's why I use the

[00:16:24] rooting hormone we also do this one directly into the soil we don't try to root rosemary

[00:16:30] in the water it doesn't work very well and it will tend to rot because it's going to take

[00:16:35] about four to six sometimes eight weeks for rosemary to start forming its roots. Now if you live in an

[00:16:44] area where rosemary does not overwinter I know for some of you rosemary is a perennial as a matter

[00:16:51] of fact my ex-in-laws when I was growing up they had a huge rosemary bush in the front entry way

[00:16:58] to their house and we lived in northern california at the time and it wasn't until I was a full

[00:17:03] blown adult gardener that I remembered in my head exactly what it was that they had growing just as

[00:17:09] an ornamental by their front door. I didn't know it was an herb I had no they never used it for that

[00:17:14] it was just an ornamental bush that doesn't happen here in in west central Missouri we can't grow

[00:17:20] rosemary like that and generally speaking we're using it as or we're planting it as an annual

[00:17:25] so if you live somewhere like I do where it's hit or miss as to whether or not it's going

[00:17:29] to survive the winter and you have this beautiful rosemary plant going take several cuttings off of

[00:17:35] it and just put them into little containers of soil and bring them inside and by the time they start

[00:17:41] rooting they will grow for you just in a window sill over the winter time and come spring you can

[00:17:46] bring it back outside and there boom you don't have to go buy a new rosemary plant you have

[00:17:51] four or five even six of them that you can work with throughout the rest of the season.

[00:17:56] Oregano also does really well rooting from cuttings so does time same thing about you know a four to six

[00:18:04] inch cutting off of them strip off those lower leaves oregano and rosemary I'm sorry oregano and

[00:18:10] thyme can both be rooted in either water or soil. I typically tend to do soil with these just

[00:18:19] because I can kind of set them and forget them they don't take very long to do it in the

[00:18:23] soil that way oregano usually about a week or so time maybe two to three weeks so I just make

[00:18:28] sure to keep that soil moist and stick them in a you know a warm spot where they get an ample amount

[00:18:35] of light but not like direct light you don't want to cook them in the soil while you're waiting

[00:18:40] for them to root because they're not actively growing so just sort of ambient light and a warm

[00:18:46] spot and just kind of ignore them make sure they stay moist the soil stays moist and they're

[00:18:51] going to root and you don't really have to do a whole lot else. Okay so what about cloning fruit trees

[00:18:58] and fruit bushes or canes that is absolutely something that you can do now we may not necessarily

[00:19:05] be doing this in terms of like a succession planting like we would with you know tomatoes or

[00:19:10] or something else or any of our herbs but it might be something that we want to do in order to

[00:19:15] increase the size of our garden or add more fruit trees or more bushes to our selection.

[00:19:22] We can't really talk about cloning fruit plants or trees without understanding the difference between

[00:19:28] hardwood and softwood cutting so let's tackle that before we talk about cloning our fruits.

[00:19:39] Hardwood cuttings are the mature dormant wood from the previous season's growth so this would

[00:19:47] is firm it's usually a different color from the fresh growth it has no active leaves on it

[00:19:53] it is taken these cuttings are taken during the dormant season typically in the late fall

[00:19:58] sometime through the winter or the very very early spring before all the new growth starts

[00:20:03] coming on. The advantage to using a hardwood cutting is the these cuttings are more resilient

[00:20:09] to being handled they are less prone to wilting compared to a softwood cutting so if you

[00:20:15] picture in your head the cuttings that you would take off of a tomato plant and if you let it sit

[00:20:21] out for even just 15 minutes or so without immediately sticking it into some water it's going to start

[00:20:26] to wilt. Softwood cuttings are very similar to this hardwood cuttings are quite literally like

[00:20:32] a branch that's coming off of a tree and so it's firmer and it's dried and it's dormant so

[00:20:38] it's not going to wilt that also means that they can be stored for a little while before

[00:20:43] planting which makes them very convenient if you are having to do this in stages or you're doing a

[00:20:48] lot of them at one time. The disadvantage to hardwood cuttings is that they typically do take longer

[00:20:54] to root compared to softwood cuttings and there are just some species that are less likely to

[00:21:00] root from hardwood they really do need to be done with the softwood cuttings. Now softwood

[00:21:05] cuttings are the softwood is the new tender growth okay this is that flexible actively

[00:21:11] growing growth on your tree or on your bush so the softwood cuttings are taken during the growing

[00:21:17] season so hardwood is in the off season in the dormant season. Softwood is in the growing season

[00:21:23] typically in the late spring up into the early summer when the wood is still nice and soft and

[00:21:28] green. The advantages to using softwood cuttings is that well you generally get faster rooting

[00:21:34] because those active growth hormones are in the plant tissue when you cut it so you have often

[00:21:41] are going to have a higher success rate for certain species if you use the softwood cuttings.

[00:21:46] The disadvantage is that they are more delicate and they are prone to wilting or damage during

[00:21:51] handling so they need to be planted immediately after cutting just to prevent them from drying

[00:21:56] out and getting wilted. Now when you're taking hardwood cuttings you want healthy disease free

[00:22:02] branches you want them about the size of a pencil a pencil thickness your cuttings are going to be

[00:22:08] about six to twelve inches long and of course you're going to want to remove any leaves or buds from

[00:22:13] the lower half often times with hardwood I will dip the cut end into a rooting hormone just to

[00:22:19] hedge my bets a little bit and then you're going to insert that hardwood cutting into

[00:22:25] well draining soil making sure that there are one or two leaf nodes well where there used to

[00:22:30] be leaves buried into the soil and then you just keep the soil moist and protect those cuttings from

[00:22:35] extreme weather. When you're doing the softwood cuttings you want to choose non flowering shoots

[00:22:41] from these healthy plants and the cuttings should snap when they bend so that means they're not too

[00:22:49] soft like if you can bend it and it and it just kind of you know flops over and it's it's

[00:22:54] totally flexible that means it's a little too soft if you can't bend it at all that means it's too

[00:23:00] woody so your cuttings should be somewhere in between if you bend it too far eventually it would break

[00:23:06] and your cuttings on these are going to be a little bit shorter almost by half or more so

[00:23:11] than your hardwood you just need about four to six inches of the softwood

[00:23:15] and again just like with the hardwood you just remove the leaves from the lower half

[00:23:20] you dip the cut end into rooting hormone if you want I generally don't with the softwoods but it's

[00:23:25] up to you and then again using a moist well draining soil mix with the softwood it's a little bit more

[00:23:33] important to keep it in an indirect light and keep it consistently moist you may need to

[00:23:39] cover it with like plastic wrap or put it someplace where you're going to maintain the

[00:23:43] humidity they will root faster because of this but this is a little bit less important when you're

[00:23:49] using hardwood cuttings kaley quoco for price line ready to go to your happy place for a happy price

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[00:24:23] price line so what can we propagate from or we what can we clone from cuttings figs figs are super

[00:24:35] easy to propagate from cuttings but also apples and pears and pomegranates and just about any

[00:24:41] fruit tree can be propagated or cloned from cuttings so when we're talking about fruit

[00:24:48] trees we want to use dormant hardwood cuttings okay so these are the ones that are about

[00:24:54] eight to 12 inches long from last season's growth so cut it take off any leaves use that rooting

[00:25:02] hormone to your uh to your advantage and then pop the end of it into a well draining soil mix

[00:25:07] water it really well and then just kind of keep it in a warm human place and let it do its thing

[00:25:13] it's gonna take a few weeks it could take several months for these to develop roots so

[00:25:19] remember with the hardwood cuttings is going to be a little bit more slow just be patient

[00:25:23] you can also do this for grapes grapevines root easily from hardwood cuttings you just

[00:25:30] want to make sure you pull off any leaves or any of the tendrils before you go ahead and

[00:25:36] put that into the soil now with blackberries you can either propagate them from softwood

[00:25:42] or hardwood cuttings so either way you want about a six to eight inch cutting so new growth for the

[00:25:48] softwood dormant wood for the hardwood and then it's the same procedure putting it into

[00:25:54] a moist well draining soil mix softwood cuttings are going to root faster these will probably

[00:25:59] only take a couple of weeks the hardwood is going to take a little bit longer raspberries

[00:26:05] gooseberries and elderberries these are all very similar to blackberries in how easy they

[00:26:11] are to propagate again softwood or hardwood either way whatever is easiest for you

[00:26:18] blueberries on the other hand they can be propagated from either softwood or hardwood

[00:26:24] although they can be slightly more challenging than other berries and I think that this is

[00:26:29] because they like that real acidic soil and most sort of potting mixes that you get are going

[00:26:35] to be a little bit more neutral so if you're trying this with blueberries I would recommend about a

[00:26:41] four to six inch cutting from either the new growth on the softwood or if you're going to use dormant

[00:26:47] wood make it about six to eight inches long definitely use the rooting hormone here that's

[00:26:52] going to help get you off to a better start and then see if you can find an acidic soil mix

[00:26:58] something that is used specifically for blueberries or other acid loving plants that's going to give

[00:27:05] you a little bit of an advantage because it's going to be in its more preferred environment

[00:27:09] essentially and then just keep that soil consistently moist and humid it'll probably take

[00:27:14] a few weeks for those roots to develop so again have some patience and and you'll you should

[00:27:19] start to see some progress so in general things that we want to think about when we're cloning

[00:27:26] anything right we want to make sure that we are keeping the cuttings in a warm human environment

[00:27:31] with indirect light to encourage the rooting if we are rooting in water typically you want to use

[00:27:38] clean chlorine free water if you have a filter that you can use that's great if you use your

[00:27:45] regular tap water obviously it's slightly chlorinated to keep it clean so that might delay rooting

[00:27:52] a little bit so just keep that in mind and then you're probably going to want to change that water

[00:27:56] every few days just to prevent any stagnation from setting in if you're using a soil if you're doing

[00:28:02] a soil propagation then just make sure that is a light well draining um soil of some sort potting

[00:28:09] mix is fine if that's what you have if you have like a seed starting mix on hand that is also

[00:28:16] really good because that's going to drain a little bit better and you'll have less chance of it

[00:28:20] rotting but i've never had a problem with just using a regular potting mix to start my cuttings from

[00:28:28] and just be patient make sure that you're checking the cuttings regularly for root development and

[00:28:33] also check for any signs of decay so any sort of rotting that you're seeing going on in the stems

[00:28:40] and also make sure that you're not seeing any signs of disease because that's definitely not

[00:28:44] something that we want to clone so we always want to make sure that we're picking you know

[00:28:48] disease free very vigorous plants for cuttings you want to duplicate the best of what you have

[00:28:55] in your garden you don't want to take cuttings from any sickly plants or anything that

[00:28:59] is more prone to disease or actively has a disease and again while it is optional rooting

[00:29:05] hormone act absolutely can improve your success rates especially when you have things that tend

[00:29:10] to be a little bit more challenging it's perfectly fine to try it without it i propagate most things

[00:29:16] immediately as far as the herbs are concerned are easy to do without a rooting hormone but

[00:29:21] i have learned over time that there are certain things that just do better with it rosemary

[00:29:24] being one of them or anything that is a hardwood cutting everything that we talked about was

[00:29:33] cloning from cuttings but there actually is an alternative method for cloning your fruit trees

[00:29:40] and that is by a process called air layering now this can be more successful if you don't have

[00:29:46] a lot of time to monitor your cuttings because the tree or the shrub that you're cloning is actually

[00:29:51] going to be actively feeding the new clone while it roots so you can actually sort of i don't know

[00:29:58] set it and forget it you set this up and you walk away and you come back later on and you check

[00:30:03] to see if you have the roots right so this is what you do to air layer a fruit tree you are

[00:30:08] going to find a small branch of the tree that you're looking to use to create a new tree

[00:30:14] you want it to be about an eighth of an inch in diameter about one and a half to two centimeters

[00:30:19] or so remove a complete ring of bark from a section of that branch and then you want to sort of

[00:30:28] lightly scrape the branch down about a third of the way through the branch this is to break through

[00:30:35] the cambium layer and disrupt the flow in this is where the tree sap is we want it to form

[00:30:41] new roots in this spot but we don't want it to heal over the area that we've cut so cutting into

[00:30:46] the branch sort of disrupts this now if you have some rooting hormone you can absolutely put this

[00:30:51] on the exposed wood at this point and this will help speed up the process it's not necessary

[00:30:57] you know at all if you've tried this method before and you failed then give it a shot with

[00:31:01] the rooting hormone the next time and see if you have better success now here is the sort

[00:31:07] of tricky part with this air layering you are going to want to apply a moist potting soil mix

[00:31:16] to the exposed area and keep it in place somehow so the easiest way to do this is to use

[00:31:24] a plastic container like an old yogurt container or a butter tub or something but you can even use

[00:31:30] aluminum foil wrapped around the branch we're essentially creating a wrap around the exposed

[00:31:37] area of the branch that will keep it in contact with the moist soil that we want to put on top

[00:31:43] of it so if you picture a small yogurt container with its lid off and you cut a slit in the top

[00:31:53] at opposite sides of the rim down about an inch or so and then you create a hole

[00:31:59] at the bottom of each one of those slits for a little branch to rest in so then picture the

[00:32:04] branch slides into the slits at the top it rests in the holes that you created and then you fill

[00:32:09] the container with wet potting soil so it completely encloses around that area that you have cut

[00:32:16] into on the branch and then you just put the lid of the container on right so it's sort of

[00:32:21] now you have the exposed section of the branch sitting in this soil inside this container

[00:32:28] still on the tree preparing to root that's it so you can also do this with like aluminum foil but

[00:32:35] you place the soil in the foil and then wrap it tightly around the branch this takes some practice

[00:32:40] but it is doable you can also purchase rooting balls for this purpose they're relatively inexpensive

[00:32:47] they're designed to just clamp on to the tree branch while holding the soil in place

[00:32:52] they are reusable and you can get like a six or eight pack of them for like ten bucks or something

[00:32:56] like that I just always prefer to use what I have on hand so I've used yogurt containers and it

[00:33:01] worked well for me in fact I used it to clone a shiflora plant which absolutely is not a fruit

[00:33:07] tree but it was one of my house plants that I wanted to duplicate and that's what I used

[00:33:10] was a yogurt container so once the container is filled you just close the lid you use taper

[00:33:18] rubber band or something just to kind of keep everything closed and tight the key here is to

[00:33:22] make sure that that potting soil that you're using is really really damp when you close it up

[00:33:29] because you don't want to have to try to open this thing back up again to keep it moist so if

[00:33:34] you're using a yogurt container or aluminum foil you may also want to wrap that container in

[00:33:40] plastic wrap to keep the moisture locked in until the roots have developed so you don't have to add

[00:33:45] any additional water this won't be necessary with those rooting balls because they sort of snap

[00:33:49] shut and they become sort of self-contained now the amount of time that is needed to develop

[00:33:56] roots is going to vary according to the species of fruit tree that you are trying to clone

[00:34:02] and the time of year it could take as little as six weeks if we're doing this in the early

[00:34:07] spring when everything is sort of actively growing and you've got those growth hormones going on

[00:34:12] or if you're doing it during the dormant months of winter it could take several months so

[00:34:17] if you go back out there after about six weeks and you look inside the container and you see that

[00:34:21] the roots haven't really gotten big enough for you to transplant just add a little bit of water

[00:34:26] reseal the container and give it some more time and that is the beauty of

[00:34:30] doing this type of a process of cloning you don't have to really pay attention to it

[00:34:36] until you decide to pay attention to it those roots are just going to start doing their thing

[00:34:39] within there now you don't want to let it go too long because then it gets root bound around

[00:34:43] itself and that's not a good thing but you don't have to actively keep checking it you don't have

[00:34:47] to make sure that the soil is moist all the time you don't have to change the water all that

[00:34:50] kinds of things you're just doing you're letting the plant do it on its own on the tree so

[00:34:56] it's a really great sort of hands-off way to clone your fruits now once the root system is big

[00:35:02] and strong enough the next step is to cut that branch away from the main tree so just cut it

[00:35:08] right below the container and then remove that container and now you have this ball of roots

[00:35:16] with the rest of the branch sticking up out of it and now you just place that cutting into a pot

[00:35:23] or you put it directly into the ground where you plan for it to grow

[00:35:26] ta-da you have a new tree now if the root ball seems dry you can you should

[00:35:31] presoak this root ball to rehydrate it before you pot it up or transplant it into the ground but if

[00:35:35] it's still nice and moist then it can be planted right away but that's it you have now cloned a new tree

[00:35:42] using the air layering method so did it surprise you to learn how easy it could be to clone our

[00:35:49] plants i mean obviously we talked about vegetables fruits and herbs today but these methods

[00:35:53] can absolutely be used for our house plants like i mentioned my shiflora or our favorite

[00:35:59] shrubs outside just one tiny word of caution if you are growing a patent protected variety of something

[00:36:09] usually these are like annual flowers or landscape plants that have come from a plant breeder that

[00:36:15] has a patent protection on the varieties like singenta often does it is actually illegal

[00:36:21] for you to propagate those plants so plant patents are a type of intellectual property that

[00:36:27] protects newly cultivated plant varieties from being propagated from existing plants and then resold

[00:36:35] rather than having to purchase nursery stock from like an authorized breeder now cloning or

[00:36:40] propagating patent protected plants for personal use within your own home is technically illegal

[00:36:48] without the permission of the patent holder although i don't think the plant police are

[00:36:53] going to come after you just don't go making clones and giving them away to your friends and

[00:36:58] your family because then you are in violation of the law and here in the us those patents last for

[00:37:04] 20 years from the date of filing so perform your cloning wisely until next time my gardening

[00:37:12] friends keep on cultivating that dream garden and we'll talk again soon thanks for listening

[00:37:16] to another episode of just grow something podcast for more information about today's topic and

[00:37:21] to find all the ways you can get in touch with me or support the show go to justgrowsomethingpodcast.com

[00:37:29] cloning or propagating patent protected plants for personal use wow say that five times fast

[00:37:35] cloning or propagating planted patent patent nope not happening

[00:37:42] until next time my gardening friends keep learning and keep growing