Propagating Plant Cuttings with Honey

You can pay an arm and a leg for a plant these days and it turns out you can grow your own for almost nothing. You don’t need seeds because you can grow most plants from a fresh cutting. Make sure you get permission to take a cutting of course.

When choosing your cutting look for healthy new growth in a mature plant or tree. The more cuttings you get the more likely one of them will “take”.

Obviously a cutting doesn’t have roots and is vulnerable to disease. Honey is a natural antiseptic but additionally the sugar and proteins in honey will feed the cutting long enough to encourage it to put down roots.

Potting mix.

• You can buy special rooting mix from the garden centre or alternatively make your own by mixing equal parts of a standard indoor/outdoor (peat) potting mix with coarse sand. Avoid anything with strong fertilizers.
• You can use a large pot and place multiple cuttings in it at one time, or dedicate a small pot to each cutting.

Propagating the Cutting.

• Collect your cuttings. Select new leafy growth that is at least 10cm long. Use scissors or secateurs so the stem you are cutting isn't too badly damaged.
• Remove the bottom leaves to expose about 3cm of stem.
• Cut the end of the stem at the bottom to a 45 degree angle.
• Use a knife to scrape the bark/skin off the bottom 2cm of stem.
• Dip the scraped part of the cutting into raw honey (we use organic honey because we want to be sure it contains no herbicides or pesticides that might compromise the cutting).
• With a small stick, make a hole in the soil about 3cm deep.
• Place the scraped end of the cutting in the hole being careful not to wipe away the honey.
• Press in the soil around the stem so the cutting stands up well on its own.
• Moisten the soil well so it does not pool by using a mister or pressure spray. Avoid pouring water from a tap or can as this may wash the soil and honey away.
• Cover the whole pot with a transparent plastic bag or use a commercial seedling terrarium. The idea of this is to maintain humidity so the cutting doesn’t dry out. The soil around the cutting should be moist.
• The terrarium should be fairly airtight in order to stop the soil from drying out. If its steams up then it is working.
• After a few weeks the cuttings will start developing new shoots. Once it looks like the new shoots are growing well you can re-pot the cutting or plant out in the garden.