Do you want to grow a cypress hedge or plant a cypress as a single tree in the garden, but don't want to spend a lot of money? Propagate your cypress yourself. This is time-consuming and requires some maintenance. In return, you will get robust plants if the propagation is successful.
How to successfully propagate a cypress?
Cypress trees can be propagated by cuttings or seeds. For cuttings: Tear off in winter, remove needles, top, place in potting soil and keep moist. For seeds: use female cones with ripe seeds, sow in a seed tray and cover, place at around ten degrees and wait for months.
Is it worth propagating cypress trees yourself?
Propagate cypress trees yourself is only worthwhile if you have a lot of time. It takes up to eight years for cuttings to develop into trees over a meter tall.
Propagation can be done via cuttings or seeds.
The best time to propagate cypress trees is winter or early spring.
Pulling cypress trees from cuttings
- Tear off cuttings in winter
- Remove needles at the bottom
- Heading cuttings
- put in potting soil
- keep moist and cover with foil
- Air the film regularly
Cypress cuttings root best if you pull them off in winter. A piece of bark should remain on the cutting. The length of the cutting should be approximately eight centimeters.
You can tell whether roots have formed by looking at the new growth of the cutting.
Once it is big enough, plant it in a pot and continue to care for it there. Overwinter the young plants frost-free for the first few years. They should only go outdoors when they are at least 80 centimeters high.
Sowing cypress trees
Propagate a cypress tree by sowing is basically possible, but is rarely done. To do this, you need a female cone in which seeds have ripened. It takes at least two years for germinable seeds to form. The cones become woody and only crack open after they have been exposed to high heat.
The seeds are sown in a prepared seed tray (€35.00 on Amazon) and lightly covered with soil. Cover the tray with foil to prevent the seeds from drying out.
Place it brightly at around ten degrees. It takes several months for the first peaks to appear. Cypresses propagated in this way must be kept frost-free for the first few years.
Tip
Cypresses that you bring home from your holiday on the Mediterranean have no chance in the garden in Germany. You can get he althy plants that also thrive here in garden shops or online.
