Starting Vegetables from Cuttings by Byron Chitwood
I recently wrote an article for the newspaper describing how to start tomato plants from cuttings. Some other vegetable plants can also be started from cuttings but the method might differ slightly from one vegetable to the other. This article will elaborate on how to start all kinds of pepper plants from cuttings.
If you have kept your pepper plants alive that were planted in the spring and there was one of these that was really productive, use this plant for the cuttings that you are going to use for rooting. For the container, I like a clear plastic one that is at least four inches deep. Drill or cut at least one hole in the bottom for drainage. Fill the container with a good potting soil or one that you have mixed using equal amounts of peat moss, Vermiculite or pearlite and well composted organic material. Make sure the potting mixture is moist. Punch a hole with a Dipple stick or some other sharp object about three inches deep in the soil mixture. Now, you have a pot that is ready to receive a cutting. If you are in doubt about the chances of success of one cutting, make several holes in the soil for more than a single cutting.
Use a sterile cutting tool or knife for taking cuttings from the healthy plant that has been selected for the propagation process. As you are aware, the tomato plants have hair like growth on the stems which form into roots. However, the pepper plant forms roots at the bulblike growth or node where the leaves are attached to the stem. Snip the specimens so that there are at least two of the nodes making sure to cut below the bottom node. Snip the leaves off the bottom node and dip the bottom end of the cutting into a rooting stimulator. Then, place the stem of the cuttings into the hole in the potting soil mixture to a depth that the remaining leaves are above the soil level. Lightly tamp the soil around the stem in order to close large voids.
You can build a small greenhouse over the top of the pot with a small sandwich bag that is secured to the container with a rubber band. Make sure that the top of the greenhouse does not touch the cutting. This will help maintain a relatively high humidity which the pepper plant will like. The cutting will start roots if the top is kept at about 70 degrees F and the soil is about 10 degrees warmer. Just place the container on a window sill or lighted area a dark mat under the container. Keep the soil slightly moistened and periodically mist the top of the plant in order to maintain a high humidity level.
After the cutting has formed roots and they are about one inch long, transplant it to a larger container if you are planning on keeping it to full maturity in a container. Otherwise, plant the pepper plant in the garden at a depth that will not exceed that of the soil level in the propagation pot.
Starting plants from cuttings is easy and will give you the satisfaction of thinking and saying “look what I did”.