Well, here's how I propagate mine, step by step.
- 1. Select your Cordyline. I've chosen to propagate my Cordyline Pink Tip. I have choses this specific plant, as it is a branching plant. A branching Cordyline is a plant with multiple branches, or stems. Selecting a branching plant will make it easier to strike your cuttings, at least until you're fully confident & succesful. Eventually, you can take cutting by chopping the whole plant in half, it's as easy as that... but for starters, choose a branch so you can't go wrong.
See the little black arrow in the picture? That's the cutting I'm going to take. I'm going to leave the biggest part of the plant alone, so that, if anything goes wrong with my cutting, I still have my beautiful mother plant.
- 2. Sterilise your cutting tool. Whether it be scissors, secateurs or a knife, cleanliness is the key. We don't want diseases, rot or any other nasties getting into the freshly cut end of your cutting, OR your mother plant! Always take all precaution to look after your mother plant. You'll always have cuttings to give a go that way!
3. Prepare to cut! Take your cutting as close to the main stem as possible, without touching the main stem. A sharp, clean cut is what we're aiming for here! 
4. Clean your cutting. Remove the bulk of the foliage, but leave 1 or 2 nice, healthy leaves. The amount of leaves you leave depends on the size of the cutting. You always want to select a cutting with at least a little bit of 'hardwood' on the bottom. The hardwood is the brown barky part of the cutting, at the end where I cut it. The longer the barky part, the easier it will be to root. 
5. To wound or not to wound. Some people like 'wounding' the cutting, as I've shown in the picture here. All it involves is to remove a slice of the bark, at the base of the cutting. This can increase the amount of surface the cutting can grow roots from. Roots are only grown from a very small part of the stem, which is the outer ring just under the bark. Cutting the cutting on an angle is also beneficial, for the same reasons. I tend to use the 'angle' method more so than the 'slicing' method. It takes less time, and is easier to do!
7. Planting time! Plant your cutting into a small pot, in well draining soil. I use 50mm tube pots for anything that will fit into it, even Frangipani cuttings. Small pots dry out nice and quick, avoiding rot. Rot is one of the main causes of rooting failure. For the same reason, ensure you are using potting mix which drains freely. Add vermiculite, perlite or sand to your mix if it is not well draining. If you aren't sure, buy some cacti & succulent mix from a nursery, garden centre or hardware. Plant the cutting halfway into the pot. You don't want it moving or wobbling, so fill the pot up with soil, and compress it firmly. Now water it in well to get rid of air bubbles & leave it to be. 
8. The mission continues... After a few weeks (anywhere between 2 and 4, sometimes longer) your cutting will start forming roots, which will eventually show through the bottom of the pot. When this happens, it's time to repot. Repot into 4" pots (don't go much bigger than that, you want to increase the size of the pot slowly to establish good root systems, and avoid problems due to waterlogged soil), but take care to CUT the tube pot away from the roots. Don't just pull them out, as they may still be a little bit fragile. Well, there you have it. Time to go do some cuttings now! Good luck....
Thats fanatstic advise, i'm going to try it now. How often do you water them?
ReplyDeleteIt would depend on weather conditions, pot size and many other things. I start most of my cuttings in 50mm pots to root them up, after which I repot them into 125mm pots. In 50mm pots they need watering pretty well every day.
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