take cuttings audio ep 53
[00:00:00] Step one, wait till it loses its leaves. Two, just take note of where those leaf nodes are. Three, prune as you would normally. four, you can pot, up the sticks, or you can plant them directly into the soil.
[00:00:30] on Instagram and Facebook, I just did a post where I wanted to get rid of some of my fig branches. I have three figs that have been handed down to me by my nana, and they were handed down to her. And all that she did was she took some of the branches, she popped them in soil, and then she gifted them to me once they had taken root.
And so I have these three abundant [00:01:00] fig trees. one is a small little purple fig, one's a slightly bigger purple fig, and one which was amazing last year was as big. It has a green skin and, like, this vibrant pink purple on the inside. And you can check out some of the reels about that.
But what I did on those platforms is I gave them away so that people could plant their own fig trees, people had to pay for postage. but I just wanted to share this abundance. And part of why I do White Strawberries is I wanna [00:01:30] demystify gardening.
I can hear stories from my nana about how people would just dig over the back of their garden, the back of their lawn, the back of their, you know, backyard, behind their house, and it would just be full of whaud.
I was talking to someone that was from Fiji just last week, and they said, "Yeah, that happened over COVID, " they went home, they went back to their villages, and they dug up their space, and they started planting again. If you're listening to this in real time, you may still be able to DM me fig, and I can send those out to you. But, I was surprised by how many [00:02:00] people said to me, "Oh, how do I take care of them? How do I take a cutting?
What do I do with them once they arrive in the mail?" And so what I've done is I've created a PDF. If you wanna DM me cuttings, I will send you a link to that. I'll also put a link to it in the show notes. I wanted to run through that today.
So the first thing when we're taking cuttings to know is that what we're doing is we're taking a clone of the plant that we're taking a cutting of. Now, many plants do this themselves anyway. So if you think of a fig tree, often a fig tree has some really [00:02:30] low-lying, branches, and when those branches hit the soil, they take root.
This kinda can happen with hydrangeas too. Also, it can happen to some of our annuals, crazy enough. So you'll notice that it can happen with tomato plants.
and this is a surefire way of knowing, if we can see this happening on a plant already, then we know that that plant is going to be very easy to take cuttings from. And what this can be called, how easy a plant is to take. and so hydrangeas, for example, and figs, grapes, have a extremely [00:03:00] high take rate.
Maybe 95-plus percent of the sticks that you put in the ground are gonna grow into a new plant . When we talk about whaud forests, now I've just got this in my mind, with last week's episode with Levi, that diversity's really important. if you go back and listen to Kath Irvine, she's also talking about diversity in the annual garden bed, but also in our orchards and our spaces in general. Now, I'm not worried about this for my garden because if I have six of the same dogwood or six of the same, I don't know, New Zealand cranberries, I'm not [00:03:30] worried.
But you do kinda just have to remember that if one of those plants dies, they're probably all going down because they're identical plants. And so if you have a storm and one is blown over, it's likely that all of them will be blown over. if we have a flood, when one dies, it's likely that all of them will die.
best case scenario or best practice would be to, have multiple different varieties of grapes. But what's cool is every time you prune back your deciduous plants, grapes, figs, elderberry, whatever, you can basically pot up these sticks and it makes cuttings, but it makes a clone. The [00:04:00] very easiest way to take a cutting is to choose a deciduous wood, and the first thing that we wanna do is wait until all the leaves drop off This is when all the energy and nutrients and all that good stuff actually draw back through the leaves and back into the stick.
So that stick is ready, that twig, stick, cutting, I'm gonna use those words They are ready to grow. Once it warms up, they're ready to come out, and what they'll do is they will pump roots out the bottom, leaf nodes that are underneath the soil and so [00:04:30] you will have roots growing on this deciduous plant.
So what we wanna do is wait until the deciduous leaves are lost. The second thing we wanna do is we wanna take note of where those leaf nodes are. A leaf node is where there's a small bump or a joint on the plant stem where leaves and buds and branches start to come out of, once that plant wakes up.
The third thing we wanna do is we wanna just, prune the tree as we normally would. So pruning is separate to what this podcast is about, but , most deciduous plants we are pruning back, every year. And so this is a beautiful [00:05:00] time to take those cuttings. Just some friendly reminders on pruning.
We wanna have clean secateurs, you can transport disease between plants. You wanna, make sure that you're removing extra wood. So if you're taking a cutting, why not give a plant a prune at the same time and remove all the extra wood that you don't want? So in the case of what I'm doing with my apple trees, pear trees, et cetera, I am pruning them so that they have the shape that I want them to have.
Figs, honestly, my figs can grow two meters a year, and so I'm just [00:05:30] keeping them low enough that I can have first dibs on the figs before the birds come and help me with that. you wanna remove damaged wood when you prune, and you wanna prune on an angle, so cut on an angle on that branch so the water runs off the branch.
So that's pruning, and that's a nice time to take a cutting. But if you are just at a friend's house and wanna take a cutting, just chop off one of the branches they let you chop off, typically between pencil and thumb sized. some trees you don't, there might not be pencil options, in which case go thumb size.
You wanna make [00:06:00] sure that when you put this branch into soil that there's at least one or two leaf nodes beneath the soil and one or two leaf nodes above the soil, because the leaf nodes underneath that's where the roots are gonna form, and above, that's where your leaves are gonna form.
And so, you wanna make sure that you've got both those options for the plants. Step one, wait till it loses its leaves. Two, just take note of where those leaf nodes are. Three, prune as you would normally. four, you can pot, up the sticks, or [00:06:30] you can plant them directly into the soil.
Extra notes for geeks. The main extra note here is that you're creating a clone. So if you have five dogwood trees, instead of taking cuttings from one tree, you might wanna take one cutting per tree, just to have diversity. If the roots don't grow first time, it might be that your soil's not damp or airy enough.
like if you put it into thick clay, it might be quite hard for that little stick to push the roots through. Like, we kinda wanna baby it. In which case, [00:07:00] you need to change the soil up and make sure it's airy and damp. But if you have had it like that, then it might be that it needs some help, with its hormones.
In which case, you can buy like a rooting hormone liquid. I have some that I have not opened in the last year because I haven't needed it. But, if, if I found that there was a really bougie plant a friend had and I wanted it and my, my cuttings weren't taking, I would definitely dip. So you just dip the fresh cut, that's going in the soil into this liquid or, or this powder, and that just [00:07:30] gives it a little bit more hormone and encourages roots to come out.
something else you should know is that you are cloning the branch. obviously you're not cloning necessarily the root stock. Some fruit trees, if you have bought them from a plant shop, will have a different root than they do branches, and that is called grafting. Many of you will know this, but I just wanna make sure that this podcast is really accessible for everyone.
So the root stock is, a different plant, but same [00:08:00] family, as the grafted branch. So for example, my grandad had, a plum root stock, and on it he had two different kinds of plums and he also had an almond stick on there that he'd grafted on.
And so this tree actually had several different types of fruits, and so that's what grafting can do. Also, sometimes, like if we've got really wet enviro- environments, for example, and we wanna grow an apricot, we might, wanna eat apricots, but our soil's a bit boggy, so we put it , on a plum root stock.
That's just an example. I don't mean to [00:08:30] complicate things, but just know that what you are
Cloning are the branches, not the roots, and this only matters for those trees that have got a different root stock, and typically those are fruit trees that you have bought from the store. and you will only be able to find that out, by either looking at it, so you can see sometimes that the root stock is quite wide, and then all of a sudden it kind of, looks like two branches have been cut and glued together.
You can kind of see that connection happening, or by looking at the tag for the [00:09:00] tree. I'll also say that you can take cuttings from evergreen plants. You don't have to only do it with deciduous. in which case, take your cutting as you normally would, and then take the leaves off the stem, so the bits that's going in the soil, and just leave one or two leaves on the top.
Now, for something like a hebe, which has tiny, tiny little leaves, you might leave 10 tiny little leaves. For something like a whau or, another tree that has very beautiful big leaves, you could even cut that leaf in half and just have one half of a leaf. [00:09:30] The idea behind this is that you don't want that little stick to have to try and keep moisture in a really big leaf, 'cause it's just doing the best it can.
you want it to form roots first. So, I'll definitely say that hardwood deciduous trees have a really high, take rate. but play with everything, like dahlias. Okay, you can even take, uh, cuttings from dahlias, so even plants that we would never think to. So enjoy, have fun with taking cuttings.
They're free. And also, you know, if something's growing [00:10:00] in your backyard, or it's growing next door, or it's growing up the road, it's typically gonna grow on your land, if you've got similar conditions. And so, so cool to be able to do, so cool to be able to trade. Like, you know, jump onto some sort of online marketplace or something and say like, "Hey, I've got 10 fig cuttings that I wanna give away for various different plants."
some people did recommend that to me as well, and that's not something I could do this time, but it's certainly something I do in my own community a lot. Take cuttings, and just enjoy it. the other thing that I was getting, a couple more questions [00:10:30] that I just wanna answer or reflect on here is, do we wanna put our cuttings into pots?
some of you would've seen like plastic snails. bear with me if you haven't seen reels for them. But it's like a plastic that they have, like a long strip of plastic that they've put the cuttings in, and then they've put some soil in, and then they've folded the plastic back over the top of the cuttings and then they've wrapped it around, and they've called it like a snail.
You can do that if you want. I haven't tried doing it. I haven't found a need to. But I guess the benefit of that [00:11:00] is that when you undo all that plastic, the cuttings are, root systems are already separated from, out from each other. I don't do that. I just chuck maybe five into a pot.
and the ones that take, then I would plant out or I'd put into a bigger pot, depending on how precious I was about that plant. And so that's what I recommend you do. But I have laid down fig branches before on the ground, and they have grown into fig trees. I have accidentally chopped [00:11:30] sugarcane down, and it has grown into more sugarcane.
I have cut red dogwood before and used those sticks 'cause I prune, hard prune it back. I, I grow dogwood just for the prunings so that the ramial wood chip can fall on the ground and feed other plants. and they will often take and grow new little plants. One year I actually used it to remind me where I planted my dahlias and then I was like, "Those dogwoods are flowering.
They're in full leaf." And when I pulled them up, sure enough they had these amazing root systems, so I replanted them in the orchard or I just let some of [00:12:00] them die, and that was okay too. You know, just pulled them up and left them there. if you receive them in the mail, so if you've received some figs from me, and I'm sorry to my non-New Zealand listeners, and I know there's a whole bunch of you, like a third of you are not from Aotearoa, New Zealand.
for those of you that are in New Zealand and I sent those figs to you, just some notes on that. I would give it a fresh cut at the bottom, especially if it looks like that cut has closed up, like gotten scabby or sort of dry looking or kind of, not looking like the rest of the branch, give it a fresh cut just like you would with flowers, fresh cut flowers [00:12:30] if you were bringing them inside.
And it just allows that moisture to be drawn up easier. And I would pot them up if I were you. especially since I've sent you these figs and you don't want them to die, right? Like, you don't have those fig trees next door that you could just try a second or third time. but equally so, if you want to, chuck them in the ground.
best practice would be to, get, kind of dig a bit of a hole already so that you're not, pushing the stick through soil and damaging the bottom of that stick. but [00:13:00] I don't do that, and I have a very high take rate. So that, I guess, is just, like, if you think that you're gonna be putting it in soil that is quite hard or quite compacted or whatever, then I'd totally recommend, making a hole first.
Some people will put cuttings into a half sand, half soil kind of situation as well. You could do that as well. Have fun. Enjoy. Play around. Like, just go for a walk up your road. If anything's on council side, take cuttings and see what you could take.
we can all do these things. We [00:13:30] can all grow some of our own food, and we can all grow nutrient-dense, produce to, like, gift and have an abundance and just live our best lives on our land. And so good for kids, so good for us, makes me so happy. clearly that's why I'm here.
please, can you let me know how you go? Like, if you take a cutting, either if I've sent you the figs or if you just decide to take a cutting, after this podcast or any of the reels that I've put out, please can I hear from you? Like, it just really, encourages me to keep going when I hear from you, which I do.
for those [00:14:00] that do reach out. I just really appreciate you. if you've gotten anything out of this episode, please can you leave a comment either letting me know how you go with the figs or just something you got out of this episode that helps other people to find me. if you do wanna follow along, jump onto Instagram, @whitestrawberriespodcast, or Facebook, I'm on there too.
Join my journey. You can look at my face there as well. See who you're talking to. All right. Take care. May your strawberries be white and your cuttings thrive.
