Tropicals & Tender Perennials: Will this break off??, 1 by Clare_CA

Clare_CA wrote:
Nautical, I didn't know you had a greenhouse. I thought you had said that you would be letting it go dormant in your garage. You should be able to root a cutting fairly easily in a warm greenhouse, especially if you have it on a heating pad. You can still wait for warm weather, if you like, as that is the ideal time.

You always want to leave two or three nodes on the piece that you want to leave so that it can grow new branches. The branches will come in below the cut that you make from a node. I would cut at the red lines that I made if it were mine, and I would root the cuttings for new trees. If you cut at the red lines, you will have two cuttings to root, but you could cut the long one to make it three cuttings (red lines and blue line) -- two tip cuttings and one center cut. The center cut, however, should be at least six inches long, or I wouldn't bother cutting it. You can straighten a bent cutting easily using a bamboo stake and green stretchy plastic ties. You can straighten it as it is rooting or after it has rooted.

This message was edited Oct 10, 2007 10:16 PM