How to Grow Edible and Medicinal Plants From Cuttings

If your friend or neighbor has a garden full of plants that you wished you could have in yours, before you head out to the nursery to spend a bunch of money, check to see if some of those plants can be easily propagated via cuttings.

Most plants with stems and branching leaves can be clipped in a specific place and rooted in water or in the earth to produce another plant. Certain plants have a much higher success rate than others for propagation this way.

There are lots of medicinal and edible plants that you can reproduce for yourself with just a cutting. All you need is a friend with the plant that you want.

How Do I Take a Plant Cutting?

Source: Gardening at 58 North/YouTube

It would be advised to research each plant individually for any specific guidelines that might need to be followed for rooting success. However, here is a general guide for taking a good cutting that you can then root to make a new plant.

First of all, choose a healthy plant. Locate a healthy stem on the plant and, with clean and sharp scissors or secateurs, snip the stem just above a leaf node. A leaf node is the part of the plant where new shoots grow from. The remaining stem should grow new shoots from this point.

With your cut stem, you should snip off the lower portion of the stem to just below a leaf node. This is because you want new growth to come from this part in the form of roots.

Remove any lower leaves, as you do not want them to be sitting in water or soil as they will rot and spoil.

Take your cutting and either put it in a jar of water or soil for two to three weeks for roots to start to grow. Not all cutting will grow roots well in water. Plants that can grow roots in water are much easier to grow than those that require soil for root growth.

How Do I Root My Plant Cutting?

Cuttings Rooted in Water

This is probably the easiest way to multiply plants. Cuttings from tender herbs such as basil, mint, oregano, stevia, catnip, pineapple sage, and lemon balm can be rooted in a cup of water and should produce roots in as little as a week to two weeks. Keep the water in your cup clean by changing it out every 2-3 days. Once your cutting has a healthy crop of roots, you may plant it in the soil just as you would any seedling. You must be extra careful with roots that have been grown in water as they are particularly delicate. Tend to your new plant as normal.

Cuttings Rooted in Soil

Source: Expedition Homestead/YouTube

Certain woody perennial herbs such as rosemary, thyme, lavender, and sage can be rooted by cuttings, but the method is a little more involved, and the success rate is not as high as with tender herb cuttings. These types of plants can be rooted in water as long as you choose new shoots early on in the growing season. However, these such cutting tends to prefer to be rooted in soil.

Rooting lavender, however, has a good success rate. It is advised to take lavender clipping during the summer as this is when it is said to root more easily. Choose a stem on your plant that has new growth on it. You want to avoid any woody stems and look for the new tender, green shoots. Choose a shoot that is about 3-4 inches long. Cut the stem just above where the stem starts to change color and become woody.

Just as you would with basil or mint cuttings, remove all the lower leaves from the stem. The stems may then be pushed directly into a good seed starting soil and watered. You can use a rooting hormone if you wish, but lavender is said to grow quite well without it. Keep the soil in your pot moist but not saturated until the plants are established. Rosemary and sage may be rooted in the same way.

Another fun plant that you can grow from a cutting rooted in soil is a tomato plant. If you, or a friend, has a healthy tomato plant, you can easily replicate this plant from a cutting or ‘sucker.’ Anyone who is used to growing tomatoes will know all about having to pinch off the suckers! Suckers are little shoots that grow in the plant’s elbows between the main stem and established branches and ‘suck’ energy from the branches trying to produce tomatoes. For strong, healthy plants, these suckers are usually pinched off and discarded.

However, these little suckers make viable, tomato-producing plants themselves. Instead of tossing these suckers aside, simply shove them into the soil in your garden bed. You will be surprised at the success rate, and you will have even more tomatoes to share all around.

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