A beautiful crimson Cockscomb Celosia, plant propagation results on Blackberry Blossom Farm.

We like propagating the endless variety of plants to add color to the garden, pest control by companion planting, and add taste and texture to our diet. We try to use only organically grown seeds and are becoming more concerned with the hybrids, Genetically Modified varieties creeping into the marketplace under seemingly innocent labels and companies. Heirloom varieties are a good bet, and we always plant plenty of these each year, and save the seeds from the best of the best.

Making baby plants for the nursery...

We do most of our plant propagation with softwood cuttings during May and early June. By that time most plants have new growth which has not hardened. I use cuttings 5" to 6" long, and put them in a bucket of water as I cut. Multiple cuttings can be taken from the same plant stem as long as there are several leaf buds on each cutting.

My plant propagation trays are nothing more than 6" x 10" plastic containers 3" deep which I bought at a local discount store. I drill drainage holes in the bottom and fill them with construction sand. Saturate the sand with water before sticking the cuttings.

I make planting slots in the sand with a knife and place the cuttings in the slots. Remove the lower leaves but try to leave at least two layers of leaves in tack. Coat the bottom of each cutting with a rooting compound powder before sticking them. The number of slots per tray and the number of plants per slot depends on the size of the cuttings. You can really pack the cutting into the trays. It is not unusual to have 50 to 60 plants in a tray.

I don't try to mark much information on the trays. I tried that at first but it never stayed legible. Now I just mark the tray in several places with a number which correspond to information in my plant propagation log book in which I enter the plant name, date, number stuck and where the cuttings were taken.

By providing water and sunlight on the leaves the cutting will begin to develop roots. This usually take 6-8 weeks for most plants. My first few attempts at this were unsuccessful. It was very time consuming to keep the cuttings wet. I would get busy and forget, or have to leave the farm, or for whatever reason, it kept a regular misting schedule from actually happening. The cuttings really need to stay wet or they dry up quickly.

This hoop house is the ideal place to stick our seed trays, propagation cuttings and other small pots to get the right water, light, heat combo. Eventually we plan on building a greenhouse, in the meantime, with about $200 we got the space and environment we needed to get things going. It also keeps the German Shepherds out of the nursery operation. Scroll on down this page for pictures and step-by-step instructions for how we made this simple plant propagation miracle.

The propagation house. Small, simple, it does the trick...

Watering Solution

I finally solved the watering problem by installing an "Intermittent Mist System" in a small hoop house with a plastic cover. At one end I screened in an air entry opening and at the other end I mounted a small electric fan blowing out to continuously draw air over the cuttings. Above the cuttings I hung a manifold of 1/2” PVC pipe with mist nozzles spaced along the pipe. This manifold was connected to a water supply through a solenoid value.

The fan end of the house, just a cheap $10.00 fan, simple and easy. The other side is this piece of screen hardware cloth over the same size hole, approximately 8 inches in diameter.

Metal Leaves, handy little jewels...

To control the value, I purchased what is know as an "Electronic Leaf" . This little gizmo is a finely balance frame covered with a wire mesh. It is placed among the propagation trays. As water is misted onto the cuttings, it also collects on this leaf mesh. Just the weight of the collected water lowers the arm which opens an electronic switch which in turn closes the solenoid value and shuts off the water. With no mist, the cutting leaves and the control mesh dry out. When the weight of the water is removed from the mesh, it moves up, which turns on the water and whole process repeats.

The great thing about this setup is that it compensates for the weather and makes plant propagation much less labor intensive. If the day is cloudy the cuttings won't dry out as quickly but neither does the "electric leaf". The watering schedule is self regulating. You really can just turn it on and forget it. Plant propagation at it's simplest!

Black Snakes and such...

I must warn you that certain reptiles seem to have an affection for mist systems, at least for mine. I once found a huge Black Snake inside the plant propagation hoop house with his head up in the air right behind the fan. With the cool mist and the gentle breeze, he must have thought I'd made it just for him, because he moved in until I persuaded him to move elsewhere.

Here is a good place to read about all of the different methods of Plant Propagation

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Building a Plant Propagation House

Here's how we built a simple Plant Propagation hoop house to get our plants and seeds growing.

The photo above shows the completed house with seedlings in it.

Step 1

Lay out the size you want with some string and a piece of wood or a stick to mark each corner post. We made the sides out of 2x8' hemlock we had cut at the local sawmill. Naturally rot resistant and no yucky preservatives to leach into the ground. Lay out black plastic, 6 mil thick for strength. The black color helps absorb the heat.

We didn't cut out the sod or remove anything underneath before starting. The sod will die and help enrich the soil underneath, and it would've been a lot of work for no real reason. We'll probably cut a weed trench around the edge as the season gets on so the weed eater doesn't cut the plastic along the edges and make a mess.

Step 2

After laying out your plastic and getting your sides built, bring the bottom plastic up over the outside sides and staple them to the top of the side boards. This will help retain the moisture inside your plant propagation hoop house.

Step 3

Ed bent electrical conduit over an old chicken hoop house we had, but you can get the same bend by making a form.

Making a hoop form to bend conduit

Take a piece of scrap plywood at least 6" longer than the hoop house width will be, and about 4" wider than 1/2 of the hoop house width.

Mark the center bottom of the plywood, drive a nail at this point near the edge. Tie a string on the nail, tie a pencil on the other end so it is one half the width of the hoop house away from the nail. Draw a half circle on the plywood using the string and pencil as a compass. On one end nail a 2x2" block with the outer end of the block touching the circle and it's edge against the bottom of the plywood.

Lay a piece of conduit against the end of the block, perpendicular to the bottom edge of the plywood. Slide another block against the conduit, opposite the 1st block and nail it to the plywood. These blocks will hold the fixed end of the conduit as they are being bent. Put 6 more blocks on the inside of the circle, touching the line about every 30 degrees. Bend your conduit around these blocks and there you go! It will spring back a little when you take it out of the form, but don't worry about that, it springs back when you put it in the plant propagation hoop house.

"How long does my conduit need to be?"

The length of the conduit needed is approximately 1.57 x the width of the propagation house. For example, a standard 10' length of conduit could be used for a house up to 6 feet wide.

Step 4

Fasten the hoops inside the plant propagation house frame using pipe clamps to fit the conduit size. Two clamps per side for each hoop. We placed the hoops every two feet. Take straight sections of conduit, connect them end to end with conduit connectors to make a section the length of the house. Place that under the top section of each hoop and use duct tape to fasten it.

Step 5

Lay 6 mil clear plastic out on one side of the propagation house. Fasten this edge to the outside top of the frame. I just used an electric staple gun to make short work of this. Then put a 2x2 or any size larger scrap lumber along the inside of the plastic and nail it to the frame. You want to fold the plastic up over this board and then drape plastic over the hoop house. Nail the plastic on the opening side between two more 2x2's for weight but don't fasten it to the frame so you can open it from this side.

We finished it up by stapling clear plastic on the ends and fastened the top to the hoop conduits with plastic poly pipe, about 2" pieces, split down the side so that they snap onto the metal conduit.

Please see the photos at the top which show Ed's plywood and 2x4 ends with a fan and a screened opening. These are very simple and easy to make. This is an important step as the air circulation keeps mold and mildew from growing in this moist propagation house.

We finished this off with gravel in the bottom of the hoop house to drain the water away from the containers and protect the bottom plastic.