This winter/spring I have started multiplying plants from cuttings. Starting entire plants from plant parts. And if this is a race, the figs win hands down. They are the hares of the plant world.

This Desert King fig sent buds up quickly and is rooting almost immediately. After six weeks it started forming new branches from the buds so it wins the race of fast rooting among all my cuttings.

I am making new plants from grapes, thorn-less blackberries and figs. I am not really a farmer, just a gal with a really big garden. And  I don’t  want to buy too many plants all at once and bust the budget. Instead I usually start from seed, or if it is a special variety and I want to grow an exact replica, I clone it by starting from a piece of the plant.

In late February when I was pruning outside I kept some of the grape branches and brought them into the greenhouse where I stuck the small pieces with only two buds into soil in a 1-gallon fabric container (a root pouch)

This spring we are expanding into the “back 40” as my dad used to call the back pasture on the farm. This is an area we recently fenced because we joined the lot behind us with our main house lot. But first we had to clear out the branches and brambles and big stumps that were in the way. And so we were left with a field. And a new planting opportunity.

The plan is to plant the area with shrubs. Preferably edible shrubs. So we are collecting plants for this area. Rebecca showed up with three big stems of thorn-less blackberry so of course I cut them into tiny pieces and put them over heat in my greenhouse.

Last August as our Red Flame grapes ripened, people started asking for cuttings and in February I decided to grow some for sharing

The grape cuttings placed over a heat mat and kept moist.  They started rooting and sending up leaves quickly.

The roots on the grape cuttings grew fast but the figs were faster. Here you can see how the top bud became leaves and the bottom bud became roots.

The blackberries arrived randomly and I took them up to the greenhouse and cut them into pieces so that I could make as many plants as possible out of the three slips. I heard rooted cuttings of thornless blackberries were selling in one-gallon pots for twenty bucks each at seedy Saturday so I took 50 cuttings from the three long stems.

I met a gal on the dog trail who had a one-eyed dog. The owner explained the dog lost an eye in a blackberry patch. So I was delighted when Rebecca showed up with thornless Blackberries for me to try in my garden. I don’t want my sweet Corle with her naturally curly hair getting into any tangles with thorns.

The figs, grapes and blackberries were all cut into small pieces with two buds each and stuck into rooting medium (promix soil), watered and placed over a heating mat which I keep turned on all the time because it is cool in my greenhouse.They have all rooted in less than two months and I have already moved some up to their own one-gallon pots. In spring I will plant them outside, give them away or sell them at my annual plant sale to pay for my other projects. (This year I am selling extra plants on May 5th right out of my back yard in Qualicum Beach, BC)

If you are a farmer or just a gardener on a budget you can make more new plants from old plants. But some plants aren’t as easy as these three shown here and you need special rooting hormone and patience. We’ll look at cuttings of ornamentals both easy and hard. Next time.

DONNA BALZER IS THE BRAND AMBASSADOR FOR BC GREENHOUSE BUILDERS AND SHE LOVES GROWING IN THEM TOO!