Thuja is an evergreen tree from the cypress family, which is very often used to decorate parks and gardens.
Breeding Tui is not an easy task, requiring a lot of time and diligence.
It is possible to grow thuja from a seed, but at home it is best to grow thuja vegetatively, that is, cuttings from a sprig.
Seed propagation is used much less frequently, since only 10% of 100 succeed in retaining the characteristics of the variety in young plants. In addition, shrubs derived from seed, develop more slowly than plants obtained by grafting.
Processing cutting
For breeding thuja cuttings will need the following materials:
- twig branches;
- pots or boxes;
- jars of water;
- priming;
- pebbles;
- sand;
- fertilizers;
- sackcloth;
- polyethylene;
- wire.
Cut thuya cuttings should be in the spring, in March or April, after the winter cold. Also important is the location of the escape, which will be cut.
The lateral branches of the thuja (which grow horizontally) under the age of 7 years take root much better than the branches from the top, which practically do not survive.
Cut branches should be at least 12 centimeters in length, and their diameter should be up to one centimeter. Next, you need to make a cut at an angle of 45 degrees, a few cuts - to accelerate the formation of the roots - and scrape the bark at the base of each slice.
Needles should be left only at the end of the branch, and the rest removed. The resulting cuttings should be put in a jar of water or a mixture of stimulants of root formation so that they do not dry out. Cuttings thus need to withstand 12 hours before planting in the ground.
Expert Council: young lateral shoots often do not exceed 15 centimeters in length, so they can be used for cuttings, not divided into several parts.
Primary landing
Thuja is a very whimsical plant, and ordinary soil does not suit it.
In order to plant the cuttings successfully and the plants have taken root, the soil must be high in coarse sand, peat and sod land.
At the bottom of the pot, which will be planted cuttings, put small pebbles, which is sprinkled with a thin layer of river sand.
The earth needs to be slightly compacted, but not hard, in order not to get solid, not breathing soil. For young roots, it is the soft land that is favorable.
Expert Note: thuja loves humidity, so before you start cutting, the humidity in the room where the seedlings will be located must be increased to 75%.
You also need to take care of enough light. In addition, the pot does not need to fall asleep completely, or leave it, leave 5 centimeters empty.
Wooden chopsticks make hollows in the ground. Try to position the hole at a distance of at least 3 centimeters from each other and at least 10 centimeters left between the rows and indents from the edges of the pot.
Before planting the cutting, taking it out of the water, you need to shake the branch to get rid of excess moisture. Lower the cutting gently into the hole at an angle of 40–45 degrees, immerse it in the ground for two to three centimeters and sprinkle it on top of it with soil, tamping it around the leg, and then pour it properly.
Next, you will need wire and polyethylene. The wire is necessary to maintain plastic bags that need to cover the pot, to create a greenhouse atmosphere.
She is bent in the form of an elongated horseshoe and is stuck into the ground with sharp antennae. Instead of wire, you can also use old hangers that are no longer needed in the household.
It is better to choose transparent bags and polyethylene so that the young shoots have enough light. The resulting greenhouse should be covered with burlap.
Water the seedlings need daily so that the earth does not dry up and the cuttings can take root. But at the same time try not to pour the plants. And in order not to begin the process of decay in a warm and humid room, it must also be ventilated every day.
Transplantation in open ground
In the autumn, when cuttings were not only successfully taken root, but were also tall, greenhouses need to be opened, plants covered with spruce branches, sawdust or leaves, and so left young to melt for the winter.
With the arrival of spring, shelters are removed and standard spring care is taken: all weeds are removed, and tui are fertilized.
You can also hold potassium permanganate - pour it with a rich raspberry-colored manganese solution to get rid of pests. Then you can begin to transplant - by this time a year has passed since the beginning of breeding.
Loamy fertile soil is perfect for permanent residence Tui. During the first wintering of the thuja, it is necessary to wrap it with fir branches or leaves. In this simple way, you can grow a thuja from a cutting, and it doesn’t matter what you choose: or the most common - the western.
Watch a video in which a specialist explains in detail how to reproduce thuja correctly with cuttings:
Thuja is home to East Asia. This tree quickly gained popularity in our latitudes for its appearance and unpretentiousness. With the help of Tui, you can refine any garden, it is an excellent solution for many architectural compositions. Therefore, novice gardeners have increasingly become interested in the question of how to multiply thuja at home, so as not to buy ready-made seedlings.
Advantages and disadvantages of the vegetative propagation method
If you propagate with thugs, you can get a completely normal tree, although less hardy than that grown from seeds.
With the help of rooting cuttings after 2 years you can get a young plant.
But vegetative propagation has its advantages:
- When breeding cuttings maternal qualities (appearance).
- Seed propagation is a long process. From preparation of planting material to the appearance of seedlings, it takes about 6 years.
- It is possible to get young thuja with the help of cuttings in 2 years.
Among the disadvantages of this method, the following can be noted - not all cuttings become trees. About 30% of harvested cuttings disappear, despite the full observance of all rules of cultivation. If this process is treated without special care, the percentage of dead branches increases significantly.
Selection of planting material
Twigs from the thuja can be taken only in the midst of the leaf fall of the remaining deciduous trees, this period runs approximately in mid-October.
Planting material must be chosen carefully, following a number of rules:
- The twig must be woody. Otherwise, it will not take root.
- It is best to give preference to the twigs on the top of the tree. This ensures the development of the correct crown of the future of the tree.
- The cutting length should be no more than 50 cm.
- The twig should be taken on a plant of middle age, preferably from an instance that is at least 4 years old.
- At the end of each branch should be "heel". So called the area lignified bark, formed in the previous year.
Rooting cuttings are taken from trees that already have 4 years.
Preparation of cuttings
Selected branches need to prepare for rooting. For this purpose, unnecessary foliage is torn from the lower part, cutting off the places where the bark is moving away (in the heel area).
Features of reproduction in the fall
To reduce the number of dead cuttings, gardeners recommend breeding thuja in the fall. It is at this time that the juice in the plant slows down, and the harvested material suffers less from water shortages. There is also a small lack of autumn reproduction - time for rooting takes much more.
Rooting methods
Root thuyu can be in several ways:
- in the substrate;
- in water;
- in a diaper.
Rooting thuja in the substrate
In the first method, rooting is carried out in the substrate, and the seedlings are more durable.
To do this, you need to do the following:
Rooting thuja in water
The easiest way to root a thaw from a sprig is to apply the method with water. To do this, you need to choose a container in which the foliage of the cutting will not touch the water. Pour into it plain water, put no more than 3 cuttings. Containers should be stored in a cool, but lighted place.
The main disadvantage of this method is that the water does not have the necessary nutrients. Therefore, seedlings are obtained weak, poorly take root. But with this method, the cuttings quickly take root.
Rooting thuja in a diaper
Another way to root thuja is to use a diaper.
To do this, prepare the following:
- Disposable baby diaper.
- Plastic bag.
- Kornevin or other growth promoter.
- Sphagnum.
Before proceeding to the next procedure, you need to put the cuttings in the solution with Kornevin for 12 hours.
After that, you can do rooting:
This method is one of the most effective and at the same time simple. The branches are constantly in a humid environment, the moss completely protects the plant from fungal diseases. Seedlings are hardy, well tolerate planting in the ground.
Care for cuttings in the period of autumn rooting
When rooting cuttings in the substrate need to moisten the soil. Use for this spray, because such watering will not thrombate the soil and expose the heels. The earth should be moderately wet. Any deviation from the norm detrimental effect on the plant.
When rooting cuttings in water, it is only necessary to periodically change the water so that the plant does not rot. The process of changing water is simple. Remove the cuttings from the jar, wrap them in a damp cloth. Rinse the can with water with potassium permanganate. Pour the water and put the cuttings back.
When rooting thuja in the diaper, you only need to monitor the presence or absence of condensate on the package. If there is, then the cuttings are in order. In his absence, you only need to moisten the diaper.
Features thuya breeding in spring
Rooting thuja in the spring has its own characteristics. Spring - a time of rapid development of plants. Therefore, rooting is usually faster. However, this method has its drawbacks - the need for constant hydration. If the cutting remains for at least one day without moisture, which is required at this moment in large quantities, then it simply may not give roots.
In spring, thuja cuttings root faster, but they need more moisture.
Preparation of cuttings in the spring
In this case, there are no special differences in the preparation of planting material from the above described. The plant should be healthy, it should be about 3 years. The only thing is the time when it is time to tear off the stalk with the heel - mid-April. If you missed this period, you can tear off a sprig in July, at the moment when the second phase of growth begins at the plant.
Important. Rooted seedlings you will have only next spring.
Rooting methods
In order to root the cutting correctly in the spring, it is best to use a method using a substrate. Only this method can completely provide the plant with nutrients, and this is the key to the success of the rooting procedure.
Technology rooting in the substrate of spring cuttings is no different from rooting autumn twigs. Therefore, you should follow the above instructions. The only thing worth remembering is that the plant in the container must be in a room with a comfortable temperature. This may be a greenhouse, a greenhouse or a cool room. Leaving a container with cuttings on the street is impossible, the plant requires a temperature of around 20 degrees Celsius.
Care for cuttings in the spring
Many gardeners have a negative attitude to the rooting of thuja in the spring period only because cuttings must be taken care of daily.
Thuja cuttings that were rooted in spring require a little more maintenance.
Saplings watered with a spray every day. If the weather is hot, the amount of watering doubles. At the same time, water should be avoided on the foliage, as this may lead to plant rotting.
Roots on seedlings appear within 2 months. At this time, the plant is already less sensitive to the lack of moisture, so the work on the care becomes less.
Thuya growing in school
Thuja seedlings grown by any method and at different times will need to be transplanted into special schools. They will be home to young trees for the next 3 years. Spring branches, which were torn off in April, are planted in the ground in September of the same year. Autumn cuttings are transplanted the next year.
The schools must be properly prepared:
- The plot should be in the penumbra.
- The land should be loose and fertilized with peat - a bucket per square meter.
To transplant the thuja out of the container, you need to moisten the plant and gently pull it out of the pot, without touching the root system. Planting of seedlings is carried out at a distance of 25 cm from each other, with the obligatory watering of the land.
When transplanting thuja can not damage the root system.
After tui will be put in schools, they will no longer be such "sissies." It will be enough for you to just water your trees and rid them of weeds. To destroy such a plant will be almost impossible. After 3 years, the trees can take their permanent place. The main thing is that during the next transplant not to damage the root of the plant.
Grown from cuttings of thuja will be a wonderful decoration of any site. These plants do not need special care, but year after year they delight their owners with evergreen foliage and the ability to shape the crown, according to their needs.
In the video, the specialist tells and shows how to properly grow her and take care of her.
You do not know how to cut and root the cuttings of conifers? We will tell you how to turn a sprig of thuja into a strong, healthy seedling.
Cutting is the most effective way to get new thuja plants. Unlike seed, vegetative reproduction does not take much time and allows you to save varietal characteristics.
The timing of tui cutting
Perhaps the most difficult thing in coniferous cuttings is to correctly determine the timing of this procedure. In this matter, experts have several opinions. Some advocate for the winter cuttings of conifers in February. Others believe that this is best to graft in April. Still others argue that the best time to stock cuttings is summer.
The main criterion that should be guided in this matter is whether the plant has completed shoot growth. If the answer to this question is positive, then we can safely proceed to cutting.
Summer cutting of Tui is preferable because it allows the cuttings to gain strength and root well for the next season.
How to cut cuttings?
For grafting choose a strong, healthy plant. In its upper part, a well-developed skeletal branch is found, and with a sharp movement of the hand, 2-3-year-old lignified growths located at the ends of the shoot are torn off from it. To make the cuttings rooted faster, they must be torn off with a small piece of bark ("heel").
Thuja grown from cutting taken from the side of the shoot can grow irregularly shaped. The cutting of the diseased plant will naturally turn into a diseased sapling.
If the "heel" turned out to be too long, it is desirable to shorten it a little so that the cutting does not rot. If tearing off a twig, you slightly peeled the bark from the wood, the situation can be corrected with a knife - a little clean up the cut.
The ideal length of a thuja cutting is 10-15 cm.
If the twigs are very woody, and gently tear them off, use a secateur.
Can I store cuttings?
Thuja rooting roots immediately after cutting. You can not keep them, otherwise they will quickly become worthless and will not take good roots.
If you did not have time to prepare everything necessary for rooting, you can wrap the cuttings for a while with a damp cloth and put them in a dark, cool place.
Preparation of thuja cuttings for rooting
The first thing twigs thuya rid of excess needles. First of all, it is cut at the bottom of the branch. If the cutting is too "lush", you can also partially shorten the needles on the rest of the twigs. Bottom cutting also slightly cleaned of bark.
Substrate preparation for rooting
Pure river sand or light, well-drained soil can also be used as a substrate.
Soil mixture for rooting thuja cuttings prepared from peat, leaf earth and sand, mixed in equal parts.
The soil or sand must be decomposed into shallow containers. For example, suitable containers for seedlings or special cassettes.
The tanks should have openings for drainage and aeration. On one surely lay claydite, gravel or other small pebbles.
If you have such an opportunity, use sphagnum as a substrate. This moss perfectly retains moisture and has powerful antiseptic properties. Thus, the cuttings and fungus will not be afraid of cuttings.
Rooting thuya cuttings
When everything is ready for the procedure, remove the cuttings from the growth regulator solution and dip their tips in Kornevin. Immediately after this, insert the cuttings into the substrate at a 45-degree angle to a depth of 1.5-2 cm.
Then place the cuttings in a glass or plastic greenhouse, or cover them with a film or plastic bag.
If you use sphagnum for rooting cuttings, wrap the cuttings in it, wrap them with gauze and put them in a plastic bag.
Care for cuttings
Cuttings stored in a warm and bright place. However, it is important to bear in mind that they need diffused light. Direct sunlight will quickly destroy the thuja cuttings, and they will wither faster than they take root.
Water the substrate only after its top layer dries. Remember, an overabundance of moisture is equally pernicious for cuttings, as is its disadvantage.
Water carefully so that water does not fall on the needles. It is advisable to use a spray gun so that a strong jet of water does not expose the ground around the "heel" of the cutting.
The emergence of new shoots on the branches of the thuja suggests that the cuttings are rooted.
If you have rooted cuttings in sphagnum or common container, two weeks after rooting, you must plant them for growing into separate containers or shkalku (special bed on which plants will grow before planting in a permanent place). Prepare the soil mixture by the same principle: mix garden soil with high-moor peat or forest litter.
The subsequent care of the plants consists in regular watering, feeding and weeding. In November, young seedlings are covered with spruce branches, leaves or sawdust and left to spend the winter under cover.
In the spring, when the frost subsides, the shelter is removed and taken care of the plants, as before. After a year or two, the grown thuja seedlings are transplanted to a permanent place.
We hope, with our advice, you will be able to grow healthy and beautiful saplings of thuja. And what to do with them further, read our article: Thuja saplings: how to choose and plant correctly
Representatives of the cypress family became welcome guests in private homesteads of a large number of people. Therefore, gardeners are interested in reproduction of thuja cuttings in the autumn at home. This procedure is simple and entertaining, accessible to any purposeful and inquisitive host. True, it should be understood that it is only half the battle to dissolve thuja, we must also put her competently and provide her with proper care.
Benefits of breeding cuttings
Although the method of propagation of thuja cuttings gives less hardy plants than the seed method, this technique has several significant advantages:
- When breeding a varietal thuja by cutting, there is a guarantee that the resulting young plants will retain all the maternal characteristics, including the appearance, and this is not always available for seed reproduction.
- Cutting allows you to get full-fledged healthy seedlings, suitable for planting on a permanent place in three years.
When the thuja is propagated by seeds, taking into account the natural stratification, it will take 5-6 years to get full-fledged ready-made seedlings.
Vegetative method has a significant drawback. Even with all the rules of grafting, the survival rate of seedlings, as a rule, is no more than 75%, and in case of violation of the technology of growing coniferous plants, the number of healthy planting material is sharply reduced.
It is preferable to engage in cuttings conifers in the autumn. In this case, there will be more chances for the rooting of the maximum number of branches, because in the fall the sap flow slows down, which means fewer cuttings will die from lack of moisture. True, time for rooting will take more than when harvesting in the spring, when there is intense plant growth.
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Grafting process
Experienced gardeners successfully propagate Tui, like other conifers, on their own. To increase the number of these representatives of the cypress family, there are such methods of plant cultivation as seed and grafting. In the second case, the harvesting processes can be carried out in spring or autumn. For registration, for example, a hedge will require a lot of thuja seedlings. Reproduction by cuttings in the autumn is the most popular way to increase the number of conifers.
Harvesting shoots
Do not engage in the preparation of planting material for breeding evergreen thuja immediately with the onset of autumn. It is better to choose an overcast October day for this event, during the period when active leaf fall begins. First of all, you should take a responsible approach to the selection of processes. The cuttings should be sprigs 3-4 years old. It is better to choose the top shoots of an adult tree, then the future seedlings will form a beautiful, fluffy crown of the correct form.
Absolutely healthy shoots should be selected, making sure that they do not have bark detachments from the wood. It is important to ensure that the cuttings have a woody bark, otherwise the rooting process is unlikely to be effective. The optimum length of the prepared shoot should be 25–40 cm. It is better not to cut the twig, but to break it off so that the wood and woody bark, the so-called heel, remain at its end. A piece of 3 cm from the heel should be freed from scaly foliage.
Rooting methods
At the end of the procedure for harvesting cuttings for propagation of plants, you can proceed to the choice of the method of their rooting. It can be rooted in water as well as in the substrate or diaper.
Rose cutting and propagation at home
The easiest method of rooting woody twigs - in the water. Pour water into the prepared container. Place only the heel into it, preventing the leaves from touching the surface of the liquid. In each jar should be placed up to three cuttings. It remains to place the tank in a cool place with natural light.
The disadvantage of the method lies in the fact that simple water contains almost no nutrients necessary for the normal development of plants, the cuttings poorly root and then take root poorly.
The way of thuja breeding in a substrate is deprived of this disadvantage, although it is more labor intensive. The procedure in this case will be as follows:
Rooting cuttings can be another simple way. This will require: peat moss, plastic bag, baby diaper and root growth stimulator. The sequence of actions will be as follows:
Ficus breeding at home
This method is good because the peat moss and the absorbing diaper layer do not allow the moisture to evaporate and the heels of the cuttings are constantly in a wetted state. In addition, sphagnum has a bactericidal property, not allowing rot to appear on the branches. This method is a highly effective and easy way to rooting a thuja that does not require special care.
Root Care
In the first case, when only water is used to root the cuttings of the thuja, care is only to replace the fluid in time. To do this, remove the cuttings, wrapping their heels with a damp cloth. Wash the tank, again pour water into it at the same level. You can add some potassium permanganate to the liquid. Return the twigs in place.
The second method, using the substrate, requires ensuring timely and regular watering, and this should be done with a spray gun so as not to wash the soil from the plants and not to expose the heels. It is important to prevent the soil from drying out with the formation of lumps, but excessive moisture can lead to rotting of the formed roots.
The simplest, in terms of care, is the third method of breeding thuja - using sphagnum. Peat moss and diaper retention layer retain moisture very well, so that additional hydration is rarely required. It is enough to periodically check the package with the cuttings visually and, by the presence or absence of condensate inside the package, make a decision on additional wetting of the sphagnum and diaper.
Reproduction of thuja cuttings in the fall or spring is considered the most convenient and effective way. The main advantage of this method is the ability to preserve the varietal quality of the plant and get small full-fledged trees in just 2 or 3 years. Of course, growing thuja from cuttings also has its drawbacks. This plant can not be called hardy, so the percentage of survival among seedlings is not too high. But other ways to breed thuja have their drawbacks.
How to choose branches for grafting?
To grow thuja from a sprig, you need to select the material. It should be remembered that it is best to use cuttings from actively growing young thujs at the age of 4-9 years, since over the years, the ability to form the root system of the cut branches decreases. It is interesting that at home the branches from cultivated specimens take root better.
You can cut a plant at different times of the year. If this is done in spring, then you should start immediately after the snow melts, but even before the kidneys wake up, that is, if you take the climatic conditions of the Middle zone, then this is approximately the end of March-mid-April. Summer cutting is also possible, but it is rarely done in June, usually experts recommend postponing the procedure until August, when you can already germinate stiff shoots. When grafting in spring, the roots are formed rather quickly, within three months. But during the autumn works until the end of the year, only characteristic growths can appear, and rooting will occur only next year.
It is considered that it is better to collect the sprigs of tui in the fall, because at this time of year the movement of juices slows down and therefore the number of seedlings dying from moisture deficit will be less. But rooting will be slower.
October is usually chosen for gathering branches. This is best done when the foliage has already fallen from the deciduous trees. In addition, experts say that it is desirable to harvest branches not on a sunny, but on an overcast day. Shoots are recommended to gently pinch off the top. It is best to take those twigs that are already 3-4 years old, but a non-specialist can hardly be distinguished by their appearance. So in this case it is better to select those that seem to be strong enough and healthy.
Experts believe that even for room thujas the weather for the selection of cuttings is of fundamental importance. It is best to cut the twigs in cloudy weather. In this case, side shoots are usually chosen if it is a pyramidal thuja, but if it is a spherical tree, it does not matter.
For breeding in the future, you should use only lignified branches, their length should be no more than 50 cm. But too small branches should not be taken, since their rooting will take quite a long time. When choosing you need to pay attention to the top of the future cutting. It should be green, under it may be yellowish areas.
You need to carefully examine this escape. At its end, the so-called “woody heel” should remain - this is a piece of bark that becomes the basis for the development of new roots. The larger and longer it looks, the better for rooted plants. Before proceeding to the next stage, you need to remove the leaf plates at a height of about 3-4 cm from the end of the shoot.
Is it possible to grow cuttings in water?
Some gardeners believe that the easiest answer to the question of how to propagate a thuja is to grow them in a jar of water. They claim that this is the fastest way to activate the roots of a plant.
Before you grow thuyu method of cutting, you need to prepare planting material. To do this, you need to cut a long tail of the woody “heel” with a sharp knife, on which the bark is still preserved. The pruner cleans only the relatively small lower parts of the shoot — up to 3.5–5 cm, so that no random needles remain on it, then lower the end of the branch into the water and into the root forcing powder.
Growing thuya cuttings in water and using a wick design
To do this, take a small container, fill it with water, then install the shoots so that the water covers their ends by about 2 cm. There should be no more than 3-5 cuttings in a jar or other container so that they are not too crowded.
With such cultivation, in no case should the rooted cuttings begin to rot. Therefore, you need to control that their green parts are not in contact with water. This is exactly what causes the rotting of planting material. To make the plant feel comfortable, the container needs to be rearranged to a bright place where it will be cool, but not cold.
The most important thing in the care of such saplings is to change their water in a timely manner, without waiting until it becomes cloudy. At this time, the cuttings from the tank must be removed, and the roots wound with a clean, damp cloth. Water is pre-disinfected, for this you need only a couple of manganese crystals.
At the same time, a peg must be made a vertical hole in the ground. Its depth should be about 30-40 mm. Holes do as many as there are cuttings. The distance between them should be at least 60-80 mm. As soon as the cuttings have roots, they can be transplanted into a prepared container.
Growing cuttings in the substrate
It is possible to grow thugs by different methods. One of the easiest options is to use substrates. The fact is that the above-described method with the use of water has one significant drawback - in its pure form, the liquid does not contain any nutrient elements, unlike the substrate.
Before rooting thuja, you need to prepare boxes for seedlings and make sure that they have holes for soil aeration. At the bottom there must be a drainage hole and a layer of fine gravel. As the soil, either ready-made store structures are used, or a mixture of hardwood humus and peat prepared at home, and all components are taken in equal shares. The resulting primer must be disinfected, and for this it is necessary to ignite it in the oven. If the house has potassium permanganate, you can make a fairly strong dark solution (the color indicates a high content of the active substance in the water).
Pre-cuttings should be placed in water for 10-12 hours. Before the liquid, add the biostimulating drug "Kornevin". If a person is interested in how to grow it in this way, he must prepare in advance all the necessary, including quite spacious, but not too large containers that fill the substrate. Grooves for cuttings are made according to the above scheme. Seedlings deepen 1.5-2 cm and sprinkled with sand on top. He, too, must first be ignited.
Then the containers with seedlings are covered with plastic wrap and left where they will be light enough, but without direct sunlight. Air temperature should be within + 18 ... + 22ºС. When condensation appears on the film, it can be opened for ventilation. It is very important not to overdo it with irrigation, but it should not be allowed to dry out the soil. Moistening is carried out exclusively from the sprayer, since a more powerful jet of water can pin down the soil and expose the “heel” necessary for the development of a full-fledged seedling.
Growing cuttings in sphagnum
Cuttings can also be grown in sphagnum medium, i.e., peat moss. The procedure involves the formation of a kind of cocoon from a clean cloth and wet moss, therefore, sometimes this method is called breeding in diapers.
At the initial stage, the cultivation of cuttings in sphagnum resembles breeding in ordinary soil. Similarly, the twigs must be properly prepared and held in water with a root formation stimulator for about 10-12 hours. But sphagnum needs additional processing. For about 3 hours it is necessary to fill it with boiled water so that it should be saturated with moisture. A sufficiently wide piece of fabric is laid out on the table, mentally dividing this width in half, and wet moss is placed along one of the halves along the entire length. The second band remains free so that later it can cover moss and cuttings.
Sphagnum on a certain distance from each other spread sprigs of thuja so that their "heels" were surrounded by moss. Then the cuttings are covered with the lower part of the strip so that the green tops are free. After that, the fabric is rolled up. A bundle comes out to be placed inside a plastic bag. Then it is suspended in a well-lit place, but so that it does not fall on direct sunlight.
It is even easier to grow thugs with sphagnum than in the ground, because moss allows you to maintain the desired level of moisture for a long time. If, nevertheless, moisture becomes insufficient, it can be easily determined by the fact that condensate will not collect on the inner walls of the bag and they will become dry. In this case, humidification from a spray bottle is necessary.
Benefits of the vegetative mode
Despite the fact that seed multiplication allows obtaining more hardy specimens, growing from cuttings has many advantages. First, it is the only way to preserve the specific appearance of the plant. When propagated by seeds, this is not always possible.
Secondly, the seeds of the thuja, as well as the seeds of other conifers, need stratification, that is, a procedure in which natural conditions are imitated for them to ensure germination. In this case, it is a procedure in which both cold and humidity are created. As a result, you can get quite hardy trees. But this process takes a lot of time. To get seedlings suitable for planting, you will need to wait an average of 6 years. Propagation by grafting can significantly reduce this time. With this method of cultivation to get a plant suitable for planting in open ground, you can literally 2-3 years.
