If you have a bougainvillea in the garden, you must have pruned it more than once so that its growth does not get out of control. But, Did you know you can get a new plant from there? What if we explained to you how to make bougainvillea cuttings?
Then we will help you get a new plant by cuttings. Not only will you learn what you need to do to make the cut successful, but we’ll also tell you how to choose them for greater opportunities. Go for it?
What should you consider when taking bougainvillea cuttings?
We will start by giving you all the information you need to be able to make bougainvillea cuttings. And you have to keep in mind that these cannot be obtained all year round. It is best to wait for a specific time. Exactly in spring and summer. Until the end of summer, you have time to get some.
Can’t this be done in the rest of the seasons? In fact, it’s not that it can’t be done, but we don’t recommend it if you’re a beginner because they are a little more complicated to make and can discourage you when doing them.
The next thing you need is a mother plant. Try to choose a bougainvillea that you know is healthy, free from disease, pests and fungus. By taking a cutting of it you will have a clone of that plant so if it is in poor condition, aside from the fact that the cutting may not be successful, if so it might be too weak to become an adult specimen and it will see healthy.
How to make bougainvillea cuttings
With all of the above in mind, shall we get down to business? You must keep in mind that you will have to follow a few steps to achieve the goal, which is none other than to have these cuttings (and that they take and form new plants). And, for that, you need to follow the following:
get the cuttings
If it’s spring or summer, it’s time to take cuttings. As you will see, the bougainvillea has several types of trunks:
- The young or green, which are the ones that were cast that same year and for which you see it beginning to develop and grow.
- Semi-woody, which are those that are more than a year old. They also have a green stem, but they are beginning to create a woody bark around them that will cover them.
- The woody ones, which are the oldest branches of the bougainvillea and will be completely covered with this bark.
Now you will wonder which of these three is the best cut. Well, the best are the semi-woody stems. Also, not just anyone will work for you. You need the ones you choose to have multiple nodes (since that’s where it will root). And, also, you need to make sure that they are about 20 centimeters tall.
If it meets all the conditions, you only have to get the sharpest scissors possible, and also disinfected) and make the top cut diagonally, but the bottom one should be straight (and below the knot).
Then you need to remove the flowers, lower branches and leaves it has. You should only have one or two leaves at the top. This is done to prevent the cutting from losing its strength by keeping those leaves, branches and flowers and focusing on what is important at that time: producing roots.
Two ways to plant the cutting
Now that you have the cutting, do you plant it in the ground? Do you put it in water? This is one of the questions that may arise, especially if you are already a bit of an expert in cuttings and you know that there are two ways to do it (not in all plants, but in almost all).
And here the truth is that you have two ways:
put it in water
What is done is to put the cutting in water covering the nodes of the branch. Rooting hormones should be added to this water as they will help it to take root. (If you don’t throw it at him, it’s much harder for him to do it himself).
The time you need to have it there is unpredictable. There will be bougainvillea cuttings that will take a few weeks or months to root, and others that will take much longer. So arm yourself with patience.
Of course, it is recommended to change the water often, as well as the hormones, to renew the water and that it does not lose the nutrients that it can bring to the plant. It goes without saying that it must be water free of chlorine, lime… The ideal would be rainwater or, failing that, distilled water.
plant it in the ground
At this stage, many experts recommend leaving the cuttings for at least 12 hours in vitamin water. (with group B vitamins) to activate and also receive a good dose of energy. They even advise spraying them several times to keep them moist.
Once this type has passed, it will be time to plant them. Of course, you have to choose land that retains a lot of moisture but at the same time is not very fertile and has no nutrients or fertilizers.
The best? Well, peat, coconut fiber… Mix it with a little perlite or sand to make it lighter and not clump. Additionally, you can add rooting hormones (to soil or irrigation water).
To plant the bougainvillea cuttings, you must bear in mind that you must bury at least 5 centimeters of them so that at least one of the nodes remains underground and can take root. If there are two, even better.
But what you need to make sure is that at least there are some knots left on the outside, because just as roots will come out of some, new shoots will come out of others.
And now you’ll be wondering, how do I plant it? With the diagonal cut down or with the right? Well, you have to plant in the same orientation as the cutting, always with the cutting down.
From there, all you have to do is take care of it so that it can move forward. Leave it in an area where it receives plenty of light and keep the substrate always moist, even the cutting itself. In 15 days, or a month, it should take root, although it will take longer to germinate. If you do, it will mean that you will get ahead. Now you know how to take bougainvillea cuttings. Do you dare to try?