Bonsai Hardwood Cuttings

Before we start propagating trees from cuttings let s look at the stages of development of young trees first.

Bonsai hardwood cuttings.

One of the easiest ways to reproduce a bonsai for free is to grow it from cuttings. Fortunately several species of trees can be propagated by winter cuttings or hardwood cuttings. There are a wide range of cuttings in general horticultural use that can be used to propagate garden plants from leaf cuttings to root cuttings. There are 3 types of stem cuttings commonly used softwood cuttings semi ripe and hardwood cuttings.

Many bonsai enthusiasts however successfully take cuttings at what is supposed to be the wrong time of year recycling prunings from their existing bonsai rather than throwing them on the compost heap. Take these during autumn and winter. Some hardwood cuttings can be prepared and planted after their growth season late summer. Hardwood cuttings come from wood that is fully ripened and sometimes even several years old.

So if you are trimming your bonsai and you would like to propagate some of your trees here is how you go about it. Read the bonsai tree species guide for timing. 1 a clean well drained rooting medium 2 a rooting hormone provided either naturally or by applying one 3 a constant supply of moisture to make up for the lack of roots 4 sufficient light to allow the manufacture of food softwood and semi hardwood 5 bottom heat in some cases although almost all do better with it. For bonsai however it is stem cuttings that are normally used.

This is very common in plant nurseries because you can mass produce plants for very little cost.