Gardening is one of the most involved hobbies a person can have. There are tons of different plants, vegetables, and things that you have to know. You can do it for fun and still have a load to learn before you become pretty good. One thing you will learn about is propagating houseplants.
There are two main ways for propagating houseplants. If you are going to be doing it asexually, and using the separation and division method, you will need to learn the proper way to cut your plants. There are lots of different ways and each one is important to learn. Let’s look at some of the different cutting methods for propagating house plants.
Leaf bud cuttings is the first way we will talk about. This method is great for ivy. You cut one leaf and one bud. You can also cut two leaves and two buds. It all depends on you. It is a very simple way to asexually propagate ivy and many other types of vine plants.
Tip cuttings are when you cut a plant, usually about six inches long. Sometimes a little shorter and sometimes a little longer. You take the top part of a branch and cut it. You keep the leaves and the stem. After you have made the cut, trim off the lower one third of leaves.
For stem cuttings you do the same thing as the tip cuttings but you leave on the lower part of the branch. You make the cut larger and not just six inches. You also cut off the top part, so that both ends are chopped off. You will want to make the cuts above a node for the top cut and below a node for the bottom cut.
Leaf vein cuttings are good for plants with large leaves. You will cut through the vein of a leaf. You can cut the leaf many times. A new branch will emerge from the vein that you cut.
Leaf section cuttings are where a leaf is almost like a snake. You cut a single leaf into pieces, usually about three inches each and plant it. It will only work for certain plants, like snake plant.
Leaf petiole cutting is when you cut a leaf blade and a petiole. Roots will appear at the end of the petiole. You can only use this method for some very specific types of plants.
Leaf blade cutting is when you cut only the leaf blade. Again the roots will appear at the end of the leaf.
Cane cuttings is another method for cutting your plants and propagating them. Cut stems that don’t have any leaves on them. Cut them about three inches. You should usually use older stems, and use a stem that has at least one node on it and use the node in the section you are cutting.
There are lots of ways to cut your plants to asexually propagate them. You need to check to see which method is best for you plant as most plants can only be cut once in order to propagate them.