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Make More Plants with Cuttings From Your Own House and Garden Plants

By , About.com Guide

6 of 10

Prepare Your Plant Cuttings for Potting

Making a Clean Cut through the Node

Making a Clean Cut through the Plant Stem Node

Marie Iannotti
Place the cutting on a flat, hard surface and make a clean slice through the middle of the node with a sterilized razor blade. Plant stems send our their new roots from the stem nodes. Making the cutting at the node increase your chance of successfully rooting the cutting.

Remove all but 1 or 2 leaves. The cutting needs some leaf growth to continue photosynthesis, since it can’t take in any food from roots it doesn’t yet have. But too many leaves will just sap energy from its efforts to create new roots. If the leaves are very large in proportion to the stem, cut the leaves in half.

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