A birch tree or even a small birch grove is a decorative addition to any garden. If you plan enough space in the area and have the right location conditions available, you can easily propagate birch trees and plant your own tree using a simple offshoot. Here you will find out step by step how to do it.
How do I propagate a birch tree from a cutting?
To propagate birch trees from a cutting, choose a strong shoot, remove lower leaves and flower heads, place the cutting in a pot with soil, keep it moist and in partial shade and plant it as soon as roots appear at the bottom of the pot.
Requirements for your own birch tree
Birches are considered uncomplicated and resilient because the pioneer plants are not easily stopped from multiplying and growing, even in poor conditions. They distribute their seeds throughout the area through wind pollination. This means that you will usually find small cuttings near mature birch trees, which you can easily dig up and move.
Otherwise, simply pull the offshoot from a branch as explained in the next step. But first it is important to create the optimal conditions for the plant. Since birch trees are designed entirely for reproduction by seeds, cuttings only readily form roots under the best location conditions. This includes two aspects in particular:
- Sunny partial shade, but no direct sun due to risk of burns
- keep moist but avoid getting wet
Propagate birch from cuttings – step by step
- Choose a suitable shoot as an offshoot. A suitable cutting should be as follows:
- firmly woody in the lower area
- also provided with several “eyes” at the bottom
- strong green in the upper part
- Cut off a strong offshoot of at least 10 to 20 centimeters at the shoot tip. The so-called shoot tip is the area of the branch from which the new shoot grows, i.e. the fork between the branch and the new shoot.
- Strip off the leaves loosely from the lower part of your offshoot.
- Cut particularly large leaves from the upper area with scissors.
- You should also remove possible flower roots, as these unnecessarily rob the offshoot of strength. Just snap it off.
- Place the cutting carefully and very straight in a small pot with soil.
- Place the plant in partial shade and keep it moist. However, avoid getting wet.
- As soon as the offshoot grows upwards, roots also form in secret.
- When the roots start to protrude on the pot, it is the right moment to plant the birch.
