How To: Grow plants from cuttings

Growing plants from cuttings is an inexpensive way to expand your garden. With patience and the right technique, it can be done fairly easily.
You Will Need
* Pruning shears
* Sand
* Peat moss
* Plant containers
* Plastic zipper bags
* Potting soil
* Clean container to hold your cuttings
* Water bottle with clean water to spray cut ends
* Rooting hormone powder (for woody cuttings) (optional)

Step 1
With pruning shears, make cuttings from your chosen plants. Cut diagonally about six inches of leafy stem from the original plant. Cut just below the second to last group of leaves.

Early morning is the best time to take plant cuttings. It also helps to water the plants the day before.

Step 2
Create a solid rooting medium for your plants to take root by mixing a blend of half sand and half peat moss in the potting container. Although optional, dipping the ends of the cuttings in rooting hormone (such as RHIZOPON) can help greatly increase the chances of the cutting's (especially woody cuttings) ability to form roots.

Another rooting medium is half perlite and half vermiculite, or half perlite and half peat moss.

Step 3
Plant the cuttings into the rooting medium. Loosely cover the containers with plastic zipper bags.

Step 4
Place the covered containers in an area that is shaded and about 70 degrees Fahrenheit.

Step 5
When you can tug the cutting without it starting to come out of the soil, the roots have developed and it is ready to be potted.

Step 6
When transplanting the cuttings, discard the rooting medium and use potting soil. Continue to keep the newly potted cutting in a shady location for at least 48 hours to gently acclimate it to its new soil and conditions. Afterward move it to a location where it will thrive and grow (based on the type of plant it is).

Fact: The world's most widely cultivated plant is wheat, which is grown on every continent except Antarctica.