Raising Plants From Root Cuttings ...

Press, Volume C, Issue 29523, 26 May 1961, Page 8

Raising Plants From Root Cuttings ...

Everyone has cut the top off a dandelion at some time or other and everyone knows quite well that the roots left in the ground sprout again with freedom. Plants are propagating themselves from the segments of roots left in the ground. In the case of the dandelion or horseradish these segments of roots will form new tops at any season of the year. Quite a number of other plants, though, are not quite so easy. The. raspberry is an example of a plant that varies in its “rootability” with the season, and raspberry will only grow from root cuttings when these are taken in the winter months. So the general rule in raising plants this way—and it’s quite a useful method for the nurseryman—is to take root cuttings from now onwards, until about late July or early August at the latest. Here's just a few examples of plants which can be raised from root cuttings —herbaceous phlox, oriental poppy, Anchusa italics—a worthy but neglected plant which is commonly mistaken for another, a weedy individual, Echinops ritro, catananche, Rhus typhina the stag’s horn sumach, paulownia, cherry and plum rootstocks for budding, romneya —the tree poppy, Daphne ntezereum, and many others. It’s worth trying on any of the plants which have fleshy roots, and on trees and shrubs which produce suckers.

The method is quite simple. Lift the plants and wash the roots to clear off the soil and see what you’re doing. Then cut off as many roots as you feel the plant can spare, removing the thickest, for preference. The thickness will vary quite a good deal, depending on the sort of plant you are actually handling. The roots of the herbaceous phlox will be no larger than a No. 12 knitting needle, whilst the Oriental poppy could easily be thicker than a pencil. They are then cut into segments, the length

being greatest where the roots are thinnest, so that a phlox root cutting would rarely be less that) two inches long. It is a usual convention to trim the top of the root cutting flat, and the base—that which was furthest from the crown of the plant—trimmed sloping. This is merely to be able to distinguish quickly the top and bottom ends—cuttings should not be inserted upside down or they won’t grow, or else do so under protest. Long thin root cuttings are usually scattered on the surface of a box of sandy soil, and then covered with a thin layer of sand. Thick root cuttings are usually inserted in the box vertically, with their top ends just under the surface of the soil. The box of root cuttings is given a water, and then put under cover, in a cold greenhouse or frame, to avoid the win’er rains keeping the soil wet and soggy. Shoots will be produced from the roots from October onwards, and in some cases plants will make sufficient growth to be planted out the same summer. I have known phlox to flower in the first season from a root cutting. It is a slightly unusual method of plant raising, but quite an interesting one.