How To: Cut Cuttings
If you want to be safe and get 100% of a plant's genetic makeup, then there is no way to get past cuttings.
If a young shoot of a chilli root is formed, the plant has been cultivated varietally. This is particularly useful in crossbreeding, if you have no time / place to stabilize.
In my case this is the famous superchinens of Jens from the Erzgebirge. The random crossing from (presumably) Capsicum Baccatum and Capsicum Chinense is a true mass carrier and produces fruits with very extreme chine's aroma. To stabilize the crossroads, I lack the time and space, so every year cuttings are taken again.
Cutting:
Make the best before it gets really cold, so the temperatures drop below 5 ° C. Otherwise, the plants are already strongly weakened, possibly get diseases and throw leaves, because they pull the juice already from the shoots. So if possible cut before the end of September.
One selects some fresh shoots, which are cut off with a sharp scissors or a knife to a length of about 10-15cm. Otherwise you can squeeze the channels too much and the plant can no longer absorb water.
The preparation:
Then remove all the flowers, fruits and the lower leaves.
The fruits and flowers must be removed, since the shoot is to take care of root formation and not reproduction. The lower leaves would only rot in the water.
The root formation:
Then we take a dark, opaque vessel, as roots grow in the dark in the earth. In my case this is an old clay jug:
This is filled with fresh tap water or still mineral water. Place the cuttings clean and in a bright, warm place.
Since the window is always quite cool with me, I added as a small support a terrarium heater mat. This will only lukewarm, keeping the temperature but slightly higher and forming faster roots.
After some time small white elevations are formed. The roots then come from it. This may take several weeks, but it may take several months, depending on the temperature and well-being of the plant.
The water in this time always just refill, do not change. Also a mucus formation on the stalk is normal.
The leaves also always meticulously search for pests, especially aphids.
If one reacts too late, the plant juice is sucked and the cuttings die.
Planting:
The roots can then be grown quietly, I plant my shoots only in the spring again into the earth. Then it looks something like this:
Nothing is to be considered here. Take some soil, a suitable pot and use the cuttings. Well, shoot and light.
