Will-ow it Grow

Propagation can be done in a few different ways, earlier in the year I made some softwood cuttings from Salvias, today I made some hardwood cuttings from a Salix alba. The Salix had one years growth before we all took a turn in coppicing the tree, this gave us lots of material to process.

Willow shoots cut ready for processing

Ideally we would us a shoot that is roughly the thickness of a pencil, but we decided to us several different widths and lengths, just to assess which ones produced the best outcomes.

Each cutting was started with a 45 degree cut at the bottom just below a node, the first cut is made here because this is where there is lots of energy, and the angle cutting exposes lots of cells which can potentially grow into roots. The second cut it a straight cut 150x200mm from the first cut.

Cuttings organised by width

Next we mixed the growing media which consisted of 50% Perlite and 50% John Innes No1 compost. The compost is a fine compost, this will allow the roots to grow more freely, and the Perlite will aid drainage & aeration creating a perfect environment for roots to grow.

The compost

Compost and Perlite pre mixing

Compost and Perlite post mixing

We filled a few pots of the potting mix, we also decided to fill one pot with 100% Perlite and another with 100% Compost, these will be interesting to see if there is any noticeable difference in growth rate.

We then put approximately 5 or 6 cuttings in each pot before taking them to the green house and watering them.

Potted cuttings in the greenhouse

We now wait to see the progress of these cuttings, hoping that the warmth that the greenhouse provides will be adequate for growth.