Softwood cuttings are generally taken from plants in spring or early summer, during a growth flush when tissue is relatively soft and succulent. Stems of softwood cuttings will usually "snap" like green beans when broken.
Techniques
•Remove stem cuttings using a clean, sharp knife or pruner. Cuttings 4 to 6 inches long are appropriate for most plants.
•Remove leaves from the bottom 1 to 2 inches of the cuttings. The base of the cutting may be lightly or heavily wounded (crushed). Wounding exposes more internal tissue for contact with the rooting compound, thereby increasing rooting.
•Dust cuttings with rooting hormone and stick them upright in a propagation medium. •Open the medium with a knife slit or use a pencil as a dibble to help insert the cuttings without rubbing off most of the rooting powder.
•Insert them just deep enough into the propagation medium to hold them upright (usually 1-2 inches). Insert at least one node into the medium. Roots develop faster at nodal areas where active cells division takes place. If cuttings are stuck too deeply into a shallow medium, the base may rot.
•After you insert cuttings, water them to firm the medium around them. •Stem cuttings have rooted when they cannot be dislodged from the rooting medium. The rooting period varies from 2 to 16 weeks, depending upon plant species and environment. Once well-rooted, cuttings can be potted singly into containers and grown to larger size or put directly into the landscape after a period of hardening.
