The Cheap Vegetable Gardener

Start cheap herb garden this thanksgiving using cuttings

8 years ago clone, cuttings, rosemary, sage

Each thanksgiving I always end up buying rosemary and sage for our turkey dinner always having thoughts that I should plant some next spring…winter happens then of course I forget until next thanksgiving…

This year I got a bit more proactive and decided to just start the plants now using cuttings from fresh herbs I purchased from the grocery store.  I have done this before with mint and actually have done again if you look carefully in the same picture above since I remembered bringing some mint with me when I moved…though no where to be seen…maybe it is possible to kill mint who knew…

So process to clone take a cutting from an herb usually goes something like this:

Step #1: Get some herbs from your grocery store…or if you notice a nice neighbor with some growing in their yard you can ask nicely if you can take a cutting

Step #2: Cut the stem just under the node (place where new leaves are coming out…I typically cut at around a 45 degree angle with theory there is more surface area for root growth but probably doesn’t matter all that much.

Step #3: Remove all leaves except last couple and those cut about half of them off.  This ensures that energy is going towards root growth and should help with moisture loss.

Step #4: Couple ways you can go at this point…you can just drop them in water and check on them every few days and make sure they still have water…or you can plant them directly in soil and possible water a couple times a day to keep soil from drying out…prone to being easily distracted I pretty much 100% go with option 1 but if you were creating dozens of these then soil may be a better option.

Step #5: (Optional) To preserves moisture you can place a plastic bag over the glass or even better get one of those shower caps you took from the motel and really had no good use for and place that on top.  I normally skip this step since I live in Western Washington high humidity has some advantages…

Step #6: Wait a 2-3 weeks until the plant develops some pretty solid roots then transplant into some soil and be sure to keep well watered until it gets established.

Hopefully if I did all this correctly I will not be buying Sage and Rosemary next year…oh and for Rosemary you might be able to tell, I cheated and just paid the extra dollar and got a live plant with its own roots already…though probably will still take a couple cuttings for “fun” and backup just in case…and not a bad edible ornamental plant for the yard if I end up with a couple extra…