I learned to propagate plants ahead of time .
My main teachers were older ladies with flowers and ornamentals .
They taught me to divide Easter lily bulb , take off cutting from impatiens , disseminate ivy and more . I was interested in flora even as a little boy , and eagerly rob up info .
I even set out cutting and sold them by the side of the road – along with the help of my buddy and younger sisters :
Many years later on I act at a very well - run nursery and get word more in advance propagation techniques and trick . I got to visit big surgical process and cloning facility and see climate - controlled greenhouses and huge misting expanse with thousands of cuttings in trays .
Far beyond my pay tier !
When I begin my own nursery I used the childlike techniques on a shoestring budget . This eventually led to writing my popular bookFree Plants for Everyone : The Good Guide to Plant Propagation .
When you propagate your own trees and plants , it costs almost nothing . Imagine : you could buy a single Ficus carica Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree for $ 24.99 from a baby’s room … plant it , then in a twelvemonth or two , start 70 more from cuttings ! Or you could beg cuttings from a neighbor ’s tree and do the same .
You could start pomegranate and carob trees from cum . Graft rare varieties of pears onto skinny furious Bradford pear seedlings . Turn one chunk of lemongrass into dozens of clumps …
You get the idea . When you are n’t spending hundreds on tree , the stress is off . you’re able to plant your nutrient wood for liberal – or almost free – and experiment to your inwardness ’s message .
desire to try nigher spacing ? Do it ! The trees did n’t be you anything !
Why not plant a hedgerow of mulberries , instead of one , expensive potted Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree you occupy about ? Overplant , and then cut through the centre with a chain saw when it draw too shady !
When you ’ve spent little or nothing , you are free to play without worry .
Learning bare industrial plant extension really freed up my own horticulture , and it ’ll release you up as well . Once I had a good solidifying of baby’s room trick at my command , I could really propagate like a boss .
Take the fourth dimension to learn the techniques that lease you short-circuit high nursery costs . Skip the jobber , and you ’ll be amazed at abode much you could grow without pass a dime .
-David
P.S. If you want to go deeper into this topic and see some of these generation proficiency on video , we recently posted an in - depth presentment title “ protrude Your Food Forest for ( almost ) Free ” over inthe active Survival Gardener Community . It ’s part 6 in our ongoing food forest course of study , where I share how you may turn any grounds into a garden of Eden . Not only that , there are many , many hours of training video over there and lots of effective gardeners .
