How to propagate shrubs is as easy as planting herbs only if you know the process and got the right tools for it. The shrubs are the middle ground between trees and small plants therefore, their needs also vary among the two extremes.
However, many important plants come as shrubs; therefore, it may be important that the shrubs are propagated. Therefore, in this article, we will talk about how you can propagate shrubs the right way and also the most successful way for your home garden, so read on.
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How To Propagate Shrubs For a Home Garden?
You can propagate shrubs for a home garden you must pick the rick choice of shrub and the right time. Then, choose a healthy one, and harvest the cutting; after that, you should use the rooting hormone and transfer it to the final position aiming to maintain health.
Shrub plants are fairly easy to grow if you know how to grow them, and together with this, you must also note that they take lesser time than a tree and surely more time than a small plant or seedling. The other thing about their growth is that they can cover a good amount of space from the start, so make sure you have allocated a good amount of space around the plant.
Another key characteristic of shrubby plants are that they grow very well through propagation. Growing shrubs through propagation will save you a lot of time compared to growing them from seeds. Shrubby plants also work best for small gardens because a single shrubby plant can be enough for landscaping the place and positioning everything around it.
1. Pick The Right Type
The best shrubs to propagate from cuttings are the shrubs of hydrangea, summer lilac, magnolias, spireas, willows, honeysuckles, mock orange, winter hazels, and rugosa rose, smoke tree, and burning bush. The shrub plants are best propagated from soft stem cuttings, and this is why when you pick of these given types, you will have a successful result.
As mentioned earlier, plants grow roots very quickly and do not take ages to grow to their full form. If you are just starting out with the propagation of shrubby plants, you can select one of the mentioned types for the best results, and they will develop roots where you wish to set them. The individual processes of each of the plants may vary, but surely some of the steps will be similar to one another.
2. Do it at the Right Time
The best time to collect cuttings from the shrub plants is late spring and early summer. In these times, the stem wood is soft and pliable, which is exactly needed for propagation purposes when it comes to shrubs. This is the right time when the weather is warming up, and the sun is not hiding, so the plant will not go through stress as much as it would in winter; in short, the chances of developing roots are higher during spring or summer.
If you take a cutting at any other time than late spring or early summer, the stem may have become much harder, and these cuttings may take longer to be propagated and grow into a plant. This is why keep an eye out for the end of spring and the start of summer if you plan on propagating your shrubby plants, and you will have great progress.
3. Choose a Healthy Shrub Plant
The first step is to find a healthy and viable plant that will help you in the propagation process. The best way to find the perfect plant is by looking over the entire plant with great precision and care.
You can look over as many different shrub plants as you want before you decide on the one you want to take the cutting from. There are some things that you need to keep in mind while inspecting the shrubs for cutting purposes. The number one notion that you should remember is that these plants should not have any insect or bug infestation whatsoever.
This can be the start of some disease or infection that you do not want to carry on to your new plants. The following aspect that you need to look out for is the roots, and for this, it is best that you ensure that there is no root rot down under the plant and that the roots are healthy looking and strong.
The next thing that you need to look out for are the leaves and if the plant grows any fruits or flowers. Fresh-looking fruits and flowers are an indication of a good and healthy shrub that will be great for propagation purposes, and that it doesn’t suffer from issues. If a certain shrub ticks all the boxes of your requirements, then it is best that you pick that one as the mother plant of your propagation process.
4. Go Ahead With the Cutting Task
Now, what you should do is go ahead with the process and harvest the cuttings from the mother plant that you chose carefully. The best cutting for the propagation of shrubs is a stem, but if you want, you can also use other parts like roots or leaves.
For this, be mindful and consider how the shrubs have two types of stems depending upon their growth. They have soft and pliable stems called softwood, and then they have hard and sturdy stems called hardwood, and to multiply the shrub, you must be careful which one you have to pick.
Knowing this, it is best that you collect the cuttings of the softwood part of the plant. Softwood cuttings have great growing powers, so when propagated; they take less time to grow than hardwood cuttings. Take a sharp blade and cut the stems from the plant. Each cutting should be about five inches in height with a few leaves.
Store the cutting in a damp cloth until you are ready to plant it at its position. Doing this will decrease the amount of water loss from the blunt tip of the stem. It will also prevent the stem from going into shock of any sort. Now all there is left to do is to plant the stem at its new position.
5. Use Rooting Hormones
This step can easily be skipped if you want to, but it will surely add to the growth if you pick to do it. Rooting hormones or growth hormones is a great way to ensure that your propagated plant will grow and reach its maximum growing potential.
These hormones come in powder form and can be bought from any gardening shop, although you may also try to use natural ones. So for this, all you need to do is that dip the blunt end of the stem into the powder and plant the stem. These hormones are the artificial versions of the real and natural growth hormones that the plant body uses to grow and develop.
They should be used in moderation and according to their usage instructions because overuse of these products can be dangerous to them and your health. Be careful with the powder and do not ingest it in any case. Keep it away from the reach of children.
6. Transfer to Its Final Position
After the cutting is ready to be planted, find the most appropriate place for its propagation. It can be any place in the garden as long as it has some free space in its surrounding.
This is because the shrub plants grow in girth more than they grow in their height, so make sure it has good space to spread. You can empty out the space by shoveling the weeds and small plants away.
Also, make sure that the place has ample sunlight for the new plant to grow. Sunlight is very important for the first two to three weeks of growth for the shrubby plants this is why you should make sure it is getting an adequate amount, and this way, they will develop and grow.
Keep the soil moist because the shrubs like their soil to be moist. So if you feel the soil does not seem moist, water the patch again and keep repeating the process until the soil appears to be moist, even days after you have watered the soil and the plants.
7. Maintain the Plant
The last step in this process is to maintain the conditions for your shrubs that will allow them to grow to their maximum potential. All you need to take care of is the shrub’s watering time, ensure there are no bugs or insects near the plant, ensure that it is getting adequate sunlight every day, and try not to overwater the roots, which can cause root rot in no time.
This should be sufficient for your shrub to form a relationship with the soil and grow toward its victory. Another significant thing you need to realize is that it is just a plant, which will grow at its own pace.
So be patient and let your hard work speak through development now. It takes almost a year for a shrub plant to grow eight to 14 inches which is quite a good pace for them. After a while, the plant will stop growing in length and will put more effort and energy into thickening its stems and widening its girth.
On the other hand, you should also note how shrubs are the types of greens that cannot be grown without water and soil. The plant will not receive nutrients if you try to grow them away from water or soil.
These two are very important for the optimal growth of the shrubs and cannot be omitted. You can omit other things like fertilizers, hormones, or gravel under the soil but not soil and water, so make sure that you maintain the right needs. Shrubs can only be grown in the soil and garden because of their height and growth factors.
You need to water them regularly because they grow best in moist soil and will dry out and die if enough water is not given. So make sure that you water the shrubs regularly. If you overwater the shrubs, there is a high chance that the roots will catch fungal or algal infections, ultimately resulting in root rot.
Conclusion
In this article, we talked about how you can propagate shrubs in the best way possible, but in case you missed out on anything, here is a short and concise conclusion for you:
- You can propagate shrubs for a home garden by using the softwood stems of a mature shrub plant.
- The shrubby plants vary greatly in their characteristics from one another, which is why there is so much variety in them.
- If you are just starting on your outdoor gardening journey, growing shrubs might be the best way for you to go, as they are much easier to grow than trees and are bigger than plants.
- Growing shrubs through propagation will save you a lot of time compared to growing them from seeds.
- In two weeks, the propagation will start for the shrubby plants, so you should ensure that you provide the right health needs for them to thrive.
Here we come to the end of the article about propagating new shrubs from existing shrubs, as they are woody plants that are smaller than trees and larger than herb-like plants, and these types of plants may or may not grow flowers, fruits, and leaves, so you will enjoy their new growth.
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