Why buy an expensive magnolia from a specialist store when you can grow it yourself? But be careful: propagating magnolias is difficult and you also need a lot of patience. After all, that's why the plants are so expensive.
How do I propagate magnolias via cuttings?
To propagate magnolias via cuttings, lowering is the best method: choose a flexible shoot, dig a shallow pit, score the underside of the shoot, apply a rooting preparation (€13.00 Amazon), place the shoot in the ground, weigh it down with a stone, water and wait about 8-10 months.
Advantages of propagation via cuttings
Lowering is a useful method for propagating plants whose cuttings have difficulty forming roots - as is the case with magnolia. Although it takes several months until the lowered shoot has formed roots and can therefore be separated from the mother plant, these young plants are stronger than shoots grown from cuttings. The young magnolias are supplied by the mother plant until they can literally stand on their own roots. They are less susceptible to disease and are also already used to soil and various weather conditions.
Different types of lowering
A distinction is essentially made between three types of lowering:
- Air lowering, in which the growing medium (e.g. a flower pot) is raised up to the shoot,
- Moss removal, in which the shoot is scratched and wrapped with moist moss,
- French subsidence, in which soil is piled over a shoot
- as well as conventional lowering, in which the entire shoot is placed into the ground.
How to Propagate Your Magnolia by Potting
The most common form of lowering should be explained at this point.
- Select a flexible (i.e. not yet or only slightly woody) and he althy shoot that can be bent down to the ground.
- Dig a shallow pit in a suitable location.
- Cut the bottom of the shoot about two to three times.
- Apply a rooting preparation (€13.00 on Amazon) to the wounded area to promote root formation.
- Place the shoot section in the ground (the tip still sticks out of the soil).
- Fill the hole with soil and weigh down the area with a stone.
- Alternatively, the shoot can also be anchored with a piece of wire.
- Water the area well and keep it continuously moist.
- Now we have to wait at least eight to ten months.
Tips & Tricks
The best way to propagate magnolias is through so-called moss removal.