how to take cuttings – Xtremehorticulture

What to Do with Huge Sansevieria in the House

2 Comments / Dividing houseplants, how to take cuttings, mother-in-law tongue, snake plant / xtremehorticulture

Q. We have a monster Sansevieria plant we have kept for many years. It’s in excellent health, but threatening to take over the entire room. It has become so big and heavy that we don’t know what to do with it now. We believe it should probably be re-potted, but an even bigger pot is going to be impossible to move. As it is, we are going to have a rough time getting it out of the house to re-pot. What suggestions might you have as to how to handle, or what to do, with this guy? It now sits on a table in front of a west-facing window with solar screens. Sansevieria, Snake plant or Mother in law tongue. This is a huge indoor specimen. A. You do have a monster plant. It looks like a variety that gets fairly big but if this plant had more direct sunlight it would probably be slightly smaller. However, it’s a beautiful specimen. You might have to find a place for it on the floor rather than on a table. It has nice verticality. The choices you have are to divide it and repot it or to take leaf cuttings and start the plant all over again. As you know you can’t really cut it back and still have it look good. I searched online for a video that you could watch on how to divide this plant. Dividing the plant will result in a much smaller plant in diameter but will not do much about the height unless you focus on parts of the plant that you repot that are smaller. I would suggest that you try to get it into a place with more light which should help keep it smaller. This video should help you in figuring out how to divide it. I am sorry it is in the Czech language but the video is easy to follow without the words. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqIAr3dBBe8 Notice how he breaks it apart with his hands. You can do that or you can take a sterilized knife and cut it apart into smaller clumps. This plant spreads underground by rhizomes or underground stems. Cutting or severing the rhizome results in separate clumps that you can repot. I would just the cut ends with a fungicide such as Thiram or just let them heal over in a safe place inside the house for about 24 hours. Then you can safely replant them without a lot of fear of disease entering the cut wounds. You can replant as many of the clumps as you want to to fill in the container. You can select the clumps that fit your need and dispose of the others or give them to a friend. You can propagate this plant very easily with cuttings from the leaves. This video will show you how to take leaf cuttings. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9FZbKQWLVc

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Root Fig Cuttings in February and March

Leave a Comment / cuttings, how to take cuttings, propagation, stem cuttings. when to take cuttings / xtremehorticulture

Q. I just came across one of your oldest articles about growing fig trees in Las Vegas and I would like toask you when is a good time to cut off some of the bottom branches to make a new tree. I got this tree about 2 years ago from California and has been growing fast and big in my backyard. A. Figs are pretty easy to root provided you take the cuttings at the right time. The next months of February and March is the best time. You can root them in small pots or directly into the ground. You can use rooting hormone if you want or not. They don’t need rooting hormone but usually get more roots if you use it. You can get Rooting Hormone at Plant World Nursery on Charleston. In fact, I just bought some because I can usually get better luck using it. Hormex is a rooting hormone that contains IBA, NAA and hormones such as B1. I call it the “shotgun” approach. Contains IBA as the rooting compound. Not labeled for food crops. There are many ways to do it. The easiest is to stick it into the soil where you want it to root and then you don’t have to replant it. If your limbs are low enough you can just bend them into a trench in the ground, peg them so they stay put, water the trench and mulch the soil heavy. They will root directly in the soil as well still attached to the tree. As soon as you see roots forming, cut the rooted limb from the tree and transplant it. This is a grape cutting but you can see the new growth from buds on the cutting Use amended garden soil (with compost) or potting soil. Make sure the soil drains easily. Cut last year’s growth, around pencil sized diameter, into pieces about 8-12 inches long. Stick them vertically into the soil so at least two buds are in contact with soil. Roots can come from any place on the cutting that has a bud in contact with the soil. So make sure that there are at least three buds on the cutting. Stick it vertically in the soil. You should have two buds in the soil, the rest above the soil. One bud above ground is all you will need. It will root faster if the soil is warm so find a warm location for the potted cutting like on top of the refrigerator if indoors. If the soil is warm you could expect roots in about three to four weeks. I would stick several in the same container a few inches apart in case some don’t take. As soon as you see leaves, put them outside in the sun.

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