Striking cuttings....

Hi there,
 
I have a 7pod yellow that i have successfully overwintered. It produced well in its first year & I would like to take some cuttings from it to start new plants. I have a few questions to throw out their;
 
  • What is the best time of year to take the cuttings
  • What is the best product to "dip" the cut into
  • What is the best medium to start the cuttings life in.
 
I will be grateful for any info provided.
 
Cheers,
 
Personally, I plan on taking my cuttings right before the first frost if I can time it right. I'll either make a cloning thing like coheed196 or just use regular water to root them. If you plan to use just water, change it every week or so and be prepared for it to take a good while for roots to sprout. The two scorpion clones that I cloned took well over a month for the first roots and closer to two months before I put them in soil. 
 
If you don't want to spend the money to make a cloner you could also try air layering. Basically wrap a section of stem with damp sphagnum moss and plastic wrap to promote root growth in that area. Just cut it off and plant after you have a bunch of roots in that area.

The cloner machines are pretty cool if you plan on doing a bunch of them though and really aren't that expensive to make.
 
Oasis cubes are one of the better rooting media available. But other media can work as well. At the grower that I work for, we use a polymerized soil plug as well as a soilless mix to start plants and cuttings in.

The biggest factor is controlling the moisture loss from the cutting until the roots start to form. Until then, the cutting can not uptake any water.

Two node cuttings are the most popular, like this...

IMG_20130908_120156_674.jpg


Within each node of the plant are auxins that can produce roots. Actually, each cell within a plant has the ability to grow roots or shoots.

If you're going to dip a cutting into a rooting hormone, first find out if it's needed. Some plants need the extra help, others dont. Also determine what kind to use, either alcohol based or water based. I dont think peppers need the hormones.

The best time of day for cuttings is when the plant has been well fed and towards the end of the day. During the day, the plant is storing carbohydrates. It was once thought that the morning is the best time. New research now shows that afternoon is better because the plant uses a lot of the energy saved throughout the day at night.

New growth is typically better used for cuttings. In the picture above, you'll see two nodes or branches above the plug and a stem below. That stem went all the way down to the next branch and cut just above it. By doing it that way, it does not leave a dead stem above the node that will only just rot anyway.

Hope this helps.
Oh, when I get home after work today, I'll go through my books. I believe one has a section on pepper cuttings.
 
Capsicum Select said:
If you don't want to spend the money to make a cloner you could also try air layering. Basically wrap a section of stem with damp sphagnum moss and plastic wrap to promote root growth in that area. Just cut it off and plant after you have a bunch of roots in that area.

The cloner machines are pretty cool if you plan on doing a bunch of them though and really aren't that expensive to make.
For air layering, you need to cut about 1/2 way through the stem and use a toothpick to hold it open before wrapping and such
 
coheed196 said:
For air layering, you need to cut about 1/2 way through the stem and use a toothpick to hold it open before wrapping and such
I find this more true for more barky plants. But it will definitely help. I had a tomatillo plant that started growing roots out of the bottom of two of its main branches because it was raining so much for a about a week this season. Pretty crazy stuff. At first I didn't know what the hell it was then I was amazed. Should of took some pics as it looked like it had a beard haha
 
SweatSauwce said:
do any of you guys keep your cutting in something to keep the humidity high
A technique that I learned, but have not used it in my personal experience, is using tupperware containers with a bit of moist sand in it. Use play sand if you do this. The conatainer creates a micro-climate. Some people may have grandparents or parents that have used an upturned mason jar in the sandbox to root cuttings.
 
The cloners that are being built in 5 gallon buckets and rubbermaid totes seem to do really well and are fairly cheap.
 
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