it makes me so mad that people aren’t taught that you can just... clone plants.
W h at
yeah!! it takes like, five minutes and costs nothing/next to nothing (depending on what plant it is). which is why im especially mad that literally no one talks about it except for like, exclusive gardening circles :/
each plant has different cloning techniques but here are the ones i remember;
basil/peppermint/tomato/most leafy greens with a stem; cut a piece off your main plant about the size of your hand. trim all the bottom leaves, cut stem diagonally, put in jar of water. when roots are about the size of the stem, plant in garden.
onion/garlic; the easiest. just leave whole onion or a garlic clove in a nice sunny area. eventually it will sprout. plant in garden.
pineapple; takes a long time. take spiky leafy part, trim off the bottom leaves, put in water about as deep as the leafless part. wait. a. long. time. (mine took two weeks to root.) when roots are big, plant in garden.
flowers, bushes, trees; get your hands on some rooting hormone (or willow tree branches). cut stems the same way as the leafy greens above, make sure to cut stems diagonally (greater chance of rooting.) dip in water, dip in rooting hormone, shake off excess, and place in water/dirt. these are pretty hard to get to root, especially if you don’t have rooting hormone.
some plants won’t ever root because of gmos (some companies create sterile plants and when they’re cloned they just die off) but generally any plant you get at a garden store you can clone.
celery: leave the base of the celery face-up on a pot of soil, but protect it from slugs! succulents: break off a leaf at the stem and leave the wound to scab over on a piece of tissue. when roots begin to appear, place leaf on the surface of a pot of soil and leave until the new plant has established, after which you can break away the original leaf Aloe: it will clone itself! a healthy aloe will eventually start sprouting mini aloes from the base
