A last Resort

T4 Hard Wood Cuttings, originally uploaded by pennyeast.

Number 4 in the series on different types of cuttings. Scroll down for the earlier posts.

If you are really desperate to find cuttings of a particular cultivar and there is no new growth available, a piece of last year's growth, or "hard wood", can be pressed into service.

Try to cut it so that there is a node to bury in the rooting medium on each piece. In old wood the growth hormones needed for the development of new roots and shoots will be concentrated around the leaf nodes, so I try to have one in the rooting medium from which the new roots can grow, and one above ground to generate the new shoots.

If this is not possible, as in c on picture 3, then the use of a number 2 growth hormone powder might help. Just dip the end of the cutting into the powder, shake off any excess, and place in the rooting medium as usual. This is the only time I would recommend the use of hormone powder on fuchsias. All the other types of cuttings are rich enough in natural growth hormones to root easily and quickly, and sometimes produce distorted plants when the artificial hormones are added

Hard wood cuttings will do best in cooler weather (13 - 21 degrees C) . They will take quite a lot longer to root (up to 6 - 8 weeks) than the soft new wood that is rich in nutrients and hormones, and the success rate will not be as high, but if there is nothing else available they are worth a try! They might only yield some new growth that can be used to make softwood cuttings for easy rooting of good new plants.

For me, they are the last resort!