Cuttings or Layering - Which is best?

[Calder]

I have 3 different Hop plants I wanted to get a second plant of (Cascade, Chinook, Centennial). I took cuttings, and also tried layering each one.

I have one healthy cutting of each plant doing fine, currently in pots. Cuttings were started between 4 and 10 weeks ago.

I also layered a branch/shoot of each plant. These too are also in pots as I couldn't get the branch low enough to the ground. So they are in pots about 18 inches off the ground. For these, I placed the branch in a circle in the pot, stripping and burying 2 leaf nodes, and also scraped and cut the stem between these two nodes. All 3 are still attached to the parent, healthy, and growing fine. I obviously do not know if they have rooted or not as they are still connected to the parent plant. These were stared between 4 and 8 weeks ago.

A couple of questions?

- When should I separate the layered plants from the parent plants?

- Before the plants shut-down for the year (probably in about 3 weeks with the first chance of frost), I would like to place the plant in it's proper location ready for next year. Should I plant the layered plant or the cutting?

I will be planting the one I don't select in another location in the yard, just in case the selected one doesn't take, so I can transplant it. I don't need or want the second one, so I'll end up digging it up in spring if I don't need to use it.

 

[B-Hoppy]

I would get them all in the ground soon. The earth will act as a big buffer against temperature swings and keep the moisture a lot more constant than pots. As for the layered ones, you'll know if they're rooted by giving the stem a tug.

ps: it's a whole lot easier to layer in the spring by using some of the excess shoots you normally get rid of. They can be cut from the crown and replanted usually after two or three weeks and will be allowed to grow and form a solid crown over the growing season.

 

[TeeJo]

I would not bother with either, at this point in the season.

In spring, I would look to taking a handful of cuttings off each plant, if I felt keen on seeing them take root on the windowsill, otherwise I would like as not layer in a side shoot off the crown and let it root. Move it off the parent plant when it has roots of it's own.

Try not to overthink this. It takes a bunch to kill a hop!

It can be done, sure, it just takes a lot.

TeeJo

 

[Calder]

I would not bother with either, at this point in the season.

In spring, I would look to taking a handful of cuttings off each plant, if I felt keen on seeing them take root on the windowsill, otherwise I would like as not layer in a side shoot off the crown and let it root. Move it off the parent plant when it has roots of it's own.

I already have both cuttings and layered plants growing in pots. Plan is to get a head start on next years growth. Question was more, which is probably going to produce the healthiest plant; the cutting or the layered plant. I need to get one or the other in the ground in the next couple of weeks before frost comes.

That way I have a couple of months of root growth this year, and it starts off early next year. Thinking is this will start earlier than anything I can start/plant next year and hopefully be more productive in its first full year.

 

[TeeJo]

Honestly, I doubt either method is going to produce a healthier plant than the other.

I suppose, if you layered in a larger section of bine, making a larger started plant to put in a pot, that 'might' give that one an advantage, but for the most part, I figure it amounts to equals being equal. The plant that has the better root system is going to be the better plant. Both with good root systems? Ayup! Same same.

YMMV, but I expect nothing out of a first year plant, and count myself lucky at anything. I take a pretty low maintenance view on mine, though.

If a fella really wanted to give the plants a pre-season boost, leave them potted, heel them in, and bring them indoors early in the spring and get them wells started before they go in the ground again. May need a grow light and a bigger pot, or may look at greenhouses, no?

With space, heat, and grow lights, they could be essentially a second year plant by spring, eh.

TeeJo

 

[Calder]

Well, I moved one of the layered plants today. I think it is only 6 weeks since I layered it, but could be 8;; certainly no more. It was in a 6 inch pot and the root system was pot bound already. When I pulled it out of the pot, there was nothing but roots circling all the way around the dirt.

The same time with a cutting, and you would be lucky to have a half inch of root.

If you want to reproduce a plant, layering is the easiest and fastest way to go.