How to Clone Plants at Home Successfully Using Cuttings

Pre-moisten your rooting media before taking cuttings. If cuttings will be stored, leave this step until ready to pot the cuttings. Put the potting media into containers so they are ready for cuttings to be inserted.

Take stem cuttings from a healthy parent with vigorous growth with pruners. Avoid cuttings from plants with disease or stress. The best cuttings will be 3 to 6 inches long with four nodes on the plant piece. Take cuttings in the morning, when they are turgid, still full of water, before daily transpiration dries them out. Keep the orientation of the cutting as it was growing on parent plant -- don't turn them upside down.

Remove bottom leaves and cut large, top leaves remaining on the cutting back by half. Treat the bottom of cuttings lightly with powdered or liquid rooting hormone. Plant the cuttings into small pots or a takeout tray with drain holes punched in the bottom, One or two nodes should go into potting medium. This is where roots develop.

Move pots or an entire tray of cuttings to a warm area away from direct sunlight. This will be home for the cuttings until a root system develops and the cuttings can be repotted. Place where they can easily be misted. Retain humidity by covering cuttings with a dome, or place containers into a plastic bag.

Check cuttings for root development after a couple of weeks. Resistance from a slight tug on the cutting indicates root development. If cutting easily comes out of potting medium, allow more time for rooting to occur. When cuttings have developed a healthy root system -- meaning the roots are thick and at least an inch long -- repot into larger containers.