Why Use Tip Cutting to Propagate Houseplants?

Series Summary

Watching a plant grow from a seed can be a fascinating process. But this takes such a very long time, and can involve many frustrations along the way. Yet if you can cheat this process by starting new plants from cuttings instead of seeds, you can drastically cut down on the time it takes the plant to mature. However, this can be a tricky proposition without the proper guidance. Which is why you have come to Expert Village for help.

In this series of free gardening videos, our expert on plant propagation tells you how to grow new house plants from tip cuttings of existing ones. She demonstrates how to take your trimming in order to get the best results, then explains in detail how to prepare the soil for maximum growth with nutrients and hormones. Learn what tools you need and what type of plants will react best to this type of propagation. And you will have a full and healthy house full of plants in no time at all!

Video Transcript

"Okay first of all, why we this method to cutting is because the plant will always stay true to its parent. I can cut this plant one time, a thousand times, it should always stay true and this color will always come. C- types, they can be a little more variable if you have parent-A, parent-B, there might be all the different varieties that might come from those two types of plant, not always some things stay true to C but this plant will always stay the same. And another reason I like to use this method is because you can get a plant in 3 to 5 weeks, I did this plant 3 weeks ago and I have a full plant that's rooted. Where as typically in Massachusetts, we don't grow too many bananas but I found this seed- banana and the instructions are sow the seeds for 24 hours in warm water, germination can be slow and erratic taking 1 to 6 months. I don't want wait 6 months to get a banana plant. I want to think if can find a better way to get a banana plant but we'll come back to that later."