Shoot's Blog

Propagating fuchsia from cuttings

In a previous post, I bragged that propagating fuchsia from cuttings is easy.  The response to that post has been impressive.  I suspect that lots of people have beautiful fuchsias and would like to have more of them.

Here's how to do it, in detail.  There's absolutely nothing to it, unless you've never taken a cutting in your life...sadly, though, there are lots of people like that!

First, take as many cuttings as you want plants.  95% should root, so you don't need more than 1-2 extra cuttings.  The cuttings should be about four inches long and include 4-5 "nodes".  These are the points on a stem where a leaf is attached.  Make your cut a few millimeters below a node.

Strip the leaves from the bottom two nodes, leaving the upper 2-3 nodes with leaves intact.  Just grasp the leaves firmly and pull sharply downward along the stem.  This injury exposes critical cells, usually found near the nodes, that can proliferate and become roots.

If any remaining leaves are particularly large or ungainly, remove half of the leaf surface by cutting across the leaf with a pair of scissors.  Removing this extra surface area reduces the surface area available for water loss by transpiration.  However, the reamining leaf surface is critical to allow photosynthesis, which will provide the growing roots with energy.

Prepare a light, sterile medium in cel-packs or small pots.  For fuchsias, I often use potting soil, since they root so easily.  Soak the soil well so that it is damp throughout; however, be sure that the cel-paks or pots are draining adequately.  The soil should be wet, not boggy.  Make holes in the soil to accomodate your cuttings, using a pencil or chopstick.  Poke the cutting into the soil so that all the injured (denuded) nodes are buried, while the nodes with leaves are above the soil.  Very lightly tamp down the soil.

Place the cuttings inside a greenhouse of some sort.  This structure can be as simple as a chicken-wire cage covered in a transparent plastic bag, which I often use.  For individual cuttings in pots, you can place a transparent plastic cup over the cutting.  Note that your greenhouse must allow transmission of light, which the plant needs in order to grow new roots.  Place the greenhouse in a well-lighted space but out of direct light.  Since the cuttings have no roots, they won't survive the heat stress caused by direct light shining into a greenhouse.

Keep the cuttings in their humid environment, in bright but indirect light, for 1-2 weeks.  Use a spray bottle to mist as often as necessary to keep the plants moist, usually daily or every other day.

You will know that the cuttings have rooted when they begin to grow, which should happen within two weeks.  At this point, you can take the cuttings out of the greenhouse and begin gradually exposing them to direct light, starting with a short period each day.  If you rooted the cuttings in a seed starter mix, you should start to feed them with a liquid fertilizer such as Miracle Grow.  After another 2-3 weeks, the cuttings should be ready for transplant to their  final home.  However, fuchsias root so readily that you can usually avoid the need for transplant: start a window-box or hanging basket by just filling with soil, sticking in a few cuttings, covering with plastic cups, and waiting.

Let me know how this works!

Transplanted my giant sequoia seedlings

I transplanted four giant sequoia seedlings from cell-packs into 8" pots today.  Last year I did the same thing and they all died.  I'm not sure what happened, but they turned brown from the top down, one after another, during a time that it was very hot in San Jose but I was frequently misting and watering them.  My list of possibilities includes over-watering, too much sun, or botrytis.

This year I transplanted them to soil amended with both sand and gravel, for improved drainage.  I'm doing this earlier in the year, in San Francisco rather than San Jose, so they shouldn't get burned.  But I can't do anything about the botrytis, if that was the cause of death last year.

Greyneedle says that I should expect only 25% survival.  I'm not sure if this is true all over the country, or only on the east coast.  Why should 75% die here in CA, under optimum conditions?

Fuchsia cuttings...

...are amazing.  I got a fuchsia for my wife last Mother's Day, and it has been growing on a hook in our backyard ever since.  I recently pruned it slightly, as it came through our so-called "winter" with some unsightly tendrils, and placed the cuttings in soil one week ago.  Enclosed everything in a plastic bag, and kept moist.  I noticed yesterday that one of the cuttings has roots already!  (You can see a couple of them above the soil.)  That is just ridiculous.  Maybe I should fill up the back yard with fuchsia.

This stands in STARK contrast to my problems with cuttings of Sierra Juniper.  I've tried dozens of cuttings, with bottom heat, mist, you name it, for months and months and months...with zero success.  Let's hope that the seeds work out better.

Update: I've added a new post describing how to propagate fuchsia.

Intermittent Mist System

The Plant Propagation Forum at GardenWeb has a nice thread today on do-it-yourself misting systems. A mist system is absolutely critical for a high success rate, but very expensive to buy.