I found lots of videos suggesting that you can use cinnamon in a damp paper towel as a rooting hormone replacement by just rolling the cutting end in it before placing it in soil? Is this true? I also saw some say you need to cut off most of the leaves off leaving only a bit at the top of the stem and to cut some leaves in half while still being attached, is this true as well? Thanks in advance!

Cinnamon does make a great anti-fungal but I have never heard of it being used as rooting hormone. Rooting hormone is actually a hormone - that's why you have to be careful with it (don't breath it, don't get it on your hands...). Maybe the cinnamon works for rooting cuttings simply because it helps prevent fungal infections that would kill or slow down the rooting process.

I personally do not use rooting hormone but I do treat all my cuttings with a fungicide before I plant them.

Usually, cuttings are small: 3 to 6 inches or so. The key is to have growth points both in the soil and above the soil. Those are located at the leaf nodes and tip of the cutting. The perfect cutting would have 2 leaf nodes with leaves attached above the soil and 3 below the soil. Interestingly, if you take several cuttings from one branch, the tip cutting will grow without branching and the center cuttings will branch. I always cut the tip off the tip cutting, forcing it to branch. If the leaves are large, cutting them in half will limit loss of moisture through the leaves while waiting for roots to grow.

Its all a balancing act. The cutting is living on stored energy until it grows roots and leaves. So growing roots and leaves needs to happen before the stored energy reserve runs out. Usually, a plant grows roots before new leaves. If the leaves grow first, chances are the cuttings will die. Don't let your cuttings grow flowers until they are well established as the flowers are robbing the cutting of the energy it needs to grow a healthy plant.

Hope this helps.

Great, thanks for the useful information! I will buy rooting hormone then when I get to the store next week and get more cuttings then. In the mean time I can experiment with this cutting to see if it'll take off or not.

What kind of plants are you trying to root?

An olive tree and a cherry tree. The other trees I plan to grow I plan on buying in dwarf versions and growing them from seedlings. I can't seem to find much information about these types of trees though. Most videos seem only to be explaining how rooting works and how they grow, but doesn't show the full process they use to root their cuttings. And, you said you cut both the ends and tips, right?

I take that back. I didn't know we were talking about trees. With fruit trees you will want a leader to grow tall (3 or 4 ft) before you whack it off. The tree will branch at whatever point you cut the growing tip off.

Cherries: Softwood cuttings in late spring/early summer.

Olives: Softwood to semi-hardwood in early summer.

I would plant several cuttings in one pot (for some reason, some plants like company) - use 1 to 2 gallon pots that are deeper than wide. Bottom heat (heat mats) often help the rooting process along. Rooting hormone won't help.

Also, a lot of tree cuttings will only grow if taken from mature trees (cherry trees are one of them). Use side shoots but use the end of the shoot. Don't worry about taking cuttings lower down the branch as you don't want them branching early.

I hope you don't want fruit real soon. These trees will have to be several years old before they bear fruit.

I hadn't planned on them baring fruit anytime soon since these aren't dwarf trees and I expect them to still be little while we lived at our current location this way I could transfer them to our new home. I will add more cuttings when the seasons change a bit more then. Thanks again, daisyl!

Hi Renaec
Most fruit trees need to be grafted to a wild root stock. There are several reasons why.
Cherries- yes.
Olives- no.
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Hello, I don't have a wild root stock for it..it's currently in a table GH till i can plant it in a big pot. I only have one cutting from the cherry tree, so right now it's a make it or break it kind of deal. If it doesn't make it, it'll be ok and I can try again another time. The olive tree in soil is still alive though, so i hope it takes roots soon!

Renae, olive trees get very large, and very messy. Most people end up spraying them yearly so they won't produce the olives. I did use my olives one year, It was a very long process of brining them in salt water with added things like iron and vinegar. Some add bay leaves or lemon. It took about 2 months to finish them. They were excellent, but not worth the time and effort. I'd rather buy the big pack at Costco!

Renae: im in Fresno city. Maybe next door to you ???
Now is good time to start olive branch. I learned to take branch.the size of your finger.three feet long.and put two thirds underground. And ! Bang ! It grows.
No rooting hormone.
Im gonna guess it would work with a smaller branch ? Let me know ?
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Yes, Philip, it works very well. I've given cuttings of my olive trees to friends who want them. They all seem to grow easily.

When we moved into our home it was 1974. We still have it all these years later, and the olive trees have gotten much larger. They were about 3 feet high when we got the house, and now they are huge. I think mine are probably 20 ft tall right now and almost 20 feet wide at the top.

Renae : i half to say ! Sorry to @plantmanager. Butt # There is nothing like home cured olives #!!!
There easy to make. The old fashion way. Like my daddy use to make them. All you need is.... Pure Lye , plain salt , and of course water.
If either one of is interested. Let me know ! I'll write down recipe and send it , to anyone interested 😁!!!
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Yes ! karen ! They will grow big ! , if you don't prune them to size every year.
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Plantmanager, I saw John with Okraw on youtube cure olives with only two ingridients. I still cant post links since i'm still a new member so i will pm you that link

I know it'll be a messy tree, but I still want it and isnt most if not all gardening messy in some way or another? I dont mind it. I just know I won't let it get out of control like what ive seen. I do wish someone would clean up the spilled olives where the olive tree I visted is located, but no one has. And my family actually eats a lot of olives too, especially my nieces. So If im unable to can them or if i've already canned enough to last me a while then i can cure the rest and give them to a lot of people i know that like olives especially my vegan friends :)

Philipwonel, not next door to me, but I do have family in Fresno. Though honestly, I hate driving to Fresno. So much traffic like that is an uneasy feeling for me. Im not comfortable just openly putting my city or county on sites after a bad experience, but i do SASE with some people. And I am actually doing 3 little experiments at the moment. With one olive branch i am doing the table GH method before it gets transferred to a bigger pot in which then i will do half of the stems in cinnamon mixed with soil and the other half in a seperate pot of just soil. The cherry stem is currently in the table GH and i will place that in soil when it is ready which with some saying it needs to be grafted im not sure it will work with what im currently doing. So idk. I also have one olive branch maybe about a ft long that i cleaned up and left some top leaves on and then applied cinnamon to it and placed it in soil. I will let you all know how it turns out.

I can keep you updated how the branch already in soil does, but the others will take about 2-3 weeks before i can report back on it. I probably should be taking pictures of its process too.

You reminded me of what I left out....lye! I did use water, salt, lye and an iron nail that my recipe called for. They were good, but just not worth it to me.

I started out pruning them regularly but then we went out of the country and the place was rented foralmost 30 years. That is when the trees got huge and out of control. We haven't been able to reach it to prune, and haven't yet had the tree specialists come.

I suggest checking craigslist or what is that site called angieslist? Annieslist? Im sure theres lots of gardener specialists with affordable prices on there you can call to get the job done

Cinnamon useful as an anti fungal - not as a rooting hormone. I use it for that purpose.
Powdered rooting hormone is good in general. But if you are doing hard cuttings like trees or shrubs, use a liquid like Dip 'n Grow - works much better.

Ok thanks for the info! So really it's best to just mix cinnamon in all the plants to prevent fungi from growing then? I will see what walmart has when i go next week and if its in my budget then i can get it if not itll have to wait till next time

@RenaeC - You said, "So really it's best to just mix cinnamon in all the plants". I'm not exactly sure what you mean by that. Are you thinking to mix it in with your potting soil (or whatever you use)? If so, I don't think that would help.

What I've been taught about cinnamon is to dab a little on the cut end of something. Well, I actually have a teeny tiny little paint brush or else use a q-tip. Anyway, it's the same principle as putting a bandaid on a cut. I doubt if this would work for trees unless your cuttings are tiny.

And I could be totally wrong about everything I've just said. Ya never know.

Welcome to NGA!