In this video, we are going to be sharing with you how you can clone your own lemon tree. This is a really awesome way to propagate citrus trees that you already have on your property and make more. Whether you want to sell those starts or just increase your own fruit production, cloning is a great way to do that.
CHAPTERS:
0:00 Propagating Citrus Tree
1:27 Taking Cuttings
2:27 Preparing Cuttings
4:38 Tips on Propagating
7:36 Pink Lemon Tree
TRANSCRIPT FROM VIDEO:
Hi, it’s Lindsey and I’m here at the Urban Farm. I am standing in front of our variegated pink lemon tree. This is one of our producing lemon trees here on the property. And today I am gonna be sharing with you how you can clone your own lemon tree. This is a really awesome way to propagate fruit trees that you already have on your property and make more. Whether you wanna sell those starts or just increase your own fruit production. Cloning is a great way to do that.
If you think that the world is headed in a direction that makes you a bit concerned for the future and you’d like to be as self-sufficient and independent as possible, then you’ve come to the right place. My name is Lynette Zang. Now it’s time to go Beyond Gold and Silver.
As you can see, it is just starting to bud out a little bit. We’re starting to get new green growth. You want to do this propagation before the tree has fruit on it. So at this stage, it can put its energy towards creating roots and creating new growth. But if it was in fruit production mode, the plant is using a lot of its energy to put that towards fruit. So the best time to do it is when it is not fruiting.
On the tree, you wanna look for the newest greenest growth, and that’s the segments that you want to take. So I am going to take this. This looks like it has new growth on, it looks like a healthy stem. I’m just gonna cut about a foot off and I’m gonna take a few cuttings and then I will show you the next step.
You can also take cuttings of the woodier part of the tree. So if you look back here, you can see it goes green and then it gets more woody. We can try to take one of those cuttings too and just see the difference. But usually that entails taking off a bigger branch. So I don’t wanna do too much of it, cause I don’t want to just be taking bigger limbs off the tree.
And the first step is, I’m going to use that one. You want to get rid of some of the excess foliage and you can, if you cut a branch like this that separates, we won’t use this one cause that one’s kind of skinny, but you can get multiple cuttings from this. So I’m gonna cut here where it branches off. And then again, I’m gonna cut, cut this off, and I will cut here as well. And I got two cuttings from this. I’m gonna cut this one shorter and you can use a lot of these pieces.
But just to show you, I’m gonna show you the different, okay, once you have a piece like this that is about six to eight inches, you are going to take off some of the lower leaves. So if it had leaves down here, I would take those off, but I am gonna cut these off. And then with the few remaining leaves, I’m gonna cut them in half. And what this does is it just puts the plant’s energy not towards these leaves. We want this cutting to be able to focus on producing new roots rather than worrying about these leaves. I’m also going to cut this bottom at more of an angle, and that just gives it a bigger surface area to grow those roots.
And the final step is to take a rooting powder and just dip that bottom in. You can coat a little bit around the base, just make sure it’s coated. And then these, this is just potting soil that I pre-moistened, and you just stick it in and it’s that simple. And then you’ll just water this. You wanna make sure you don’t overwater it. Get a good draining soil that will be able to make sure that you’re, you just don’t want this to rot. You also don’t want it to dry out. So it’s just that delicate balance that a good potting soil will create.
And then this is a more green stem, so I’ll show you this style as well. Cutting off the bottom leaves. And I’m just going to take this all off like that. When you are cutting these branches, no matter if you’re using a more green piece or a more woody stem, you want to cut at where a node is. So where you have nodes, where the leaf comes from, there’s a higher concentration of something called oxens. And these are growing hormones in the plant. So when you cut at a node, that higher degree of those hormones will allow your plant to root faster. So I’m gonna cut at a diagonal again, right through the center of that node, and with the rest of my leaves. Just going to cut them in half. Could probably take a few more leaves off. And then I’m going to stick it in the rooting hormone And straight into the soil. You can put it in a little deeper. Eventually roots will come out of the, whatever part of the stem is under the soil. So even though you just put the rooting powder on, the tip, roots will eventually come out the sides as well. So feel free just to get it snug in there, whatever feels like it’s gonna hold it in place. And then it’s important just to keep these protected. You don’t want them out in the cold. They’re not an established tree. So for me, I’m gonna put these in the cold room where we do our germination, it’s still about 70 degrees. So it’ll give them a nice warm climate where they can grow. And I’ll probably water these, I’ll mist the soil today, but I probably won’t water them for another couple of days just to make sure I don’t overwater.
Another important thing just to keep in mind is that I’m doing this on a lemon tree. Lemon trees are a great thing to clone this way. But keep in mind that this is not applicable for all citrus. A lot of times citrus, especially orange trees, will use a different root stock. So when the nurseries are growing the plant, they’ll use an ornamental fruit tree root stock because it has a stronger base, it has a better root system, and they will graft the edible fruit tree part on top. So when you’re taking a cutting of the top part, you’re not getting that essential root stock, those genes and that ability to grow. So this could just be an issue when your tree reaches more maturity, that you won’t have the ideal root stock. So just keep in mind that it’s not applicable to all citrus trees, but the ones that it is. This is a great way to propagate.
