Taking salvia cuttings

[∂an]

Hello plant friends!

 

I have a salvia plant that a member was kind enough to gift me a few years back.  I have been meaning to take cuttings for some time now, as the plant appeared to not be doing as good as it could, and I don't want to miss my chance to propagate this relatively difficult to come by plant.  So now in spring with a bit of humidity and cloud cover seems like a reasonable time (correct me if wrong please!).  Here is the plant with some labels:

 

 

And a photo taken at ~ point 1 looking back towards the pot:

 

 

There is a coleus growing next to it so I labelled its branch to avoid confusion.  Over the past few summers the salvia has grown one big branch that can be seen growing outwards to left of the pot in the photo.  This branch is a bit woody now, so not really ideal for cuttings I guess?  I have put numbered lines where I was thinking I could take cuttings on this main branch.  My goal is take make the cuttings a few inches long and cut just below a node.  Is this a good idea to try and make cuttings from an older branch?  Or should I wait until some fresh growth comes out a few inches and use that for cuttings? I feel this plant would do better if I cut off that big branch so it could focus its energy on new grown down near the base, but it would be good to use this cut branch for propagation too.

 

All comments, help and ridicule welcome! 

 

Cheers,

Dan

 

 

 

Edited October 28, 2017 by ∂an

[Sallubrious]

I got to the stage where I was having 100% success with Salvia cuttings when I was growing them.

 

I found the old growth will root but not as well as new season growth. I used to take cuttings about 130-150mm long shorter cuttings are fine too, trim almost all the foliage off (except for the top few leaves) if the top leaves are large then I'd trim about 1/2 of them down to reduce transpiration. Small shoots are fine but try to get rid of most of the larger leaves.

 

Then using cheap powdered rooting hormone I'd pot them in a mix of perlite and coir and then put them in 100% humidity under fluorescent lights. They root well in straight perlite but they tend to move around and fall over, so the coir was mostly to bind the perrlite together and keep them stabilised while they root. Mist them heavily after putting them in growing medium and once or twice every day, more if you can.

 

Hardening them off needs to be done fairly slowly or they will wilt before your eyes(almost).

 

All that said one, time my mum took a older woody cutting, left it in a caravan for 2 days in late December and didn't plant it until she got back to Queensland the next week. Then she shoved it into pot in the open air and the fucken thing grew like mad until the roos smashed it.

 

 

Edited October 28, 2017 by Sallubrious

[Strontium Dawg]

My tips: cut the stems on a sharp angle so the vascular tissue is exposed over a large surface area, and leave a tag or heel of outer tissue hanging. This will encourage strong root formation. This is pretty standard for all swp's.

And do everything else Sally said. Oh yeah, take cuttings in early summer for best results. Cuttings taken in cold weather will survive, but need a LOT more tlc, and will take ages to do anything.

[Strontium Dawg]

Failing fluoro lights, you can keep them in plastic storage tubs with lids on out of strong sun, and mist with water. Again this advice is for most soft wooded perennials.

Edited October 28, 2017 by Glaukus
Spelling error

[mysubtleascention]

A viable option is fresh growth cuttings of at least 2-3 nodes length, in a glass of fresh water, under a humidity dome of some sort / transparent plastic bottle could do/

At least one node should be under water and the top node with the leaves shuld be above water at any given time during this process.

Change the water every 2 days and mist 1-2 times a day.

Warm spot and no direct sunshine.

Roots appear in 14 days.

 

 

Edited October 28, 2017 by mysubtleascention

[waterboy 2.0]

Sage advice guys

[Strontium Dawg]

I see what you did there!

[☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ]

can use an aeroponic cuttings prop too ..

didn't even need to remove leaves like necc' with potting method .. and will root from any part of stem.

 

They don't like to stay in there too long unlike say for example .. like psychtria does.

I lost most sallys from leaving them in too long. (several months on end)

 

That was a really old pic of first try at it pre 2015 and worked a treat.

your cutting plan looks ace!

I was just reunited with it armed with more experience now and I'm told it likes outdoors in uk shaded areas if overwintered indoor..

currently got it really happy on a uk north facing windowsill , dnno if that's the opposite in Aus if you're in Aus.

 

Good luck propagating it

[∂an]

Thanks for the very helpful comments!

 

Looks like my first step should be to get the propagation environment setup.  I'd like to try and make do with what materials I currently have available, so I will probably go with the plastic tub option Glaukus mentioned.  I used a plastic tub filled with a bit of water and bottom heated to successfully get some mail ordered aya and chacruna plants established at the end of winter.  Now that it is warmer probably won't need any heating, but I will monitor humidity and temp to make sure.  

 

I might take just a few cuttings to start with to ensure my method is working.  Will post pics as I progress... cheers!

[Slocombe]

In my experience, I find Salvia tends to form roots at every point the stem touches water and not just along the cut (and sometimes not where it has been cut at all). Rooting hormones help even though they aren't always needed. Cuttings seem to prefer cfls to natural light.

[LIBERTYNY]

 Since the plant is laying down over other pots,  the simplest thing to do is just pin the stem down to the dirt in the other pots and keep watered.  2-3 weeks later they will be rooted, and you can separate the plants with almost no risk.

 

  although she is simple to root with little effort,  I just cut off a section of plant and stick in the dirt,  and usally get about 3/4 to root.

[DualWieldRake]

2 hours ago, Slocombe said:

In my experience, I find Salvia tends to form roots at every point the stem touches water and not just along the cut (and sometimes not where it has been cut at all). Rooting hormones help even though they aren't always needed. Cuttings seem to prefer cfls to natural light.

 

Don't all plants really