I have watched several youtube videos about doing this, and some of them use a plastic water bottle (or similar), and some use other methods. I found that Amazon has little plastic “cloning balls” that you can put around the plant that you want to clone, and then it will root. I ordered the set that comes with 3 sizes, and then if I need more, I should have an idea which size I am most likely to need, once I have tried this out. They come in black, colored, and clear, and I ordered the clear ones since I can see if the roots are growing. I am going to try these and see if I can get some starts from the roses, and maybe the blueberries and the fig tree. This fall, if I need to prune the grape vines, I will try for some starts from there, too.
I do not think that this works on all plants, but it is for woody kind of plants, from trees and shrubs, to things like roses, and even some berries. Many plants, you can just cut and put in water and they will root, like a basil, tomato, or coleus, but I have tried doing that with roses and didn’t have much luck. By using the cloning ball, it puts dirt around the stem and allows it to grow a good set of roots, and then you just cut the branch off below the rooted part and plant it and you have a whole new plant. I took one of the larger ones and put it on a large branch of the fig tree, and a small one and put it on a rose branch, and will try some more by this weekend, and then see how well it works and how long it takes. The grape vines that I cut and stuck in dirt actually are rooting and growing leaves, without me doing anything else except using a foot long chunk of grape vine. I am excited about learning how to do this, and maybe getting more rose bushes from it.
Here is a picture from amazon, showing how it works. I had trouble keeping the dirt in on an upright limb, so it would work better with some kind of peat moss or something that holds together and not falls out like potting soil does. When I used one on the rose bush, I made sure to find a branch that i could bend down far enough to attach the rooting ball without losing the dirt.
Fascinating. I can see how season timing might come into play...gotta start the process when the plant is hardy enough for it, and gotta end the process when you can safely transplant.
When I do it, I just use a zip-lock bag cut to slip over small plants or plastic wrap that is just wrapped around, secured with a twisty tie or cable tie at the bottom, then filled with peat moss and watered. The top is then secured like the bottom. Rooting hormone may help sometimes and may require for some plants, but I have never used it. The process is usually called "air layering" in the nursery trade. I usually score the stem gently with a knife to encourage root formation.
I have grown plants most of my life, but today will start on a few patio veggie growing's' Mark has gone to bring in some soil. I have red kidney beans, and a yellow onion, and potato.Not sure what else we will try but will start off with these. Oh and cherry tomatoes.
I think cloning onions with an "air-layering technique" would be difficult or impossible with onions and hard to do with beans. Potatoes, tomatoes and other nightshades should work fine. Onions can be naturally closed if you leave them in the soil to form "cloves" similar to garlic.
I am just learning how to do this, and have been watching youtube videos that explain the different methods. Last year, I got some of those plastic ball-shaped containers that go around the plant stem, and are supposed to start roots growing inside the rooting ball; but we did not have much luck with that. This year, I am learning to make cuttings and then root them in the little greenhouse containers. I have been using milk cartons and the gallon water containers for the top of the mini-greenhouses, and so far, I have cuttings from roses, azaleas, oregano, and just started some petunia cuttings. I tried blackberry cuttings, but we got all of the rain, and they drowned, so I have to do that over again, but I am burying the tips of the canes in pots and those seem to be making new sprouts, and once we get through all of this rain we have had this week, I will get more of the blackberries started that way. Once I get the hang of doing it, then I want to propagate some of the blueberries and Jostaberries also, but I am practicing on plants that I have lots of first, so if I lose some, it is not a huge loss. I ordered some little mini-greenhouse starters from Amazon, and they should work for shorter starts, like the petunias, or even the oregano and thyme.
For as long as I've had houseplants, I've never done this. My mother had tons of African Violets and propagated them by planting leaves, and I've done it accidentally by having the stems of plants root themselves, but although I've read of the various methods, I have never intentionally propagated plants.
I have seen that done in some of the videos, but thought it was because the temperature was not warm. Until all of this cold and rain arrived this week, it has been in the high 80’s and into the 90’s here which I thought would be even too warm , and some of the videos said to put the propagating container in the shade, so that is what I did.
Todays experiment is trying to propagate rose cuttings from a store-bought rose. I have been watching you tube videos, and some people claim that you can’t, some say that you are not supposed to do that in case the rose is patented, but a lot of people are saying that they have tried this and it works just the same as a rose cutting from your own plant. So, I added a small bouquet of roses to my Walmart grocery order today. I cut off the blossoms, and made cuttings from the stems, and now I will see if I can get them to root. If they do, then I can plant them eventually and have some pretty roses in my front yard.
Like the warnings say, it may be technically illegal, but if you don't sell the plants cloned, I doubt anyone will say a word.