I learned to propagate plants early.
My main teachers were older ladies with flowers and ornamentals.
They taught me to divide Easter lily bulbs, start cuttings from impatiens, propagate ivy and more. I was interested in plants even as a little boy, and eagerly soaked up information.
I even started cuttings and sold them by the side of the road – along with the help of my brother and younger sisters:
Many years later I worked at a very well-run nursery and learned more advanced propagation techniques and tricks. I got to visit big operations and cloning facilities and see climate-controlled greenhouses and huge misting areas with thousands of cuttings in trays.
Far beyond my pay grade!
When I started my own nursery I used the simplest techniques on a shoestring budget. This eventually led to writing my popular book Free Plants for Everyone: The Good Guide to Plant Propagation.Â
When you propagate your own trees and plants, it costs almost nothing. Imagine: you could buy a single fig tree for $24.99 from a nursery… plant it, then in a year or two, start 70 more from cuttings! Or you could beg cuttings from a neighbor’s tree and do the same.
You could start pomegranates and carob trees from seed. Graft rare varieties of pears onto weedy wild Bradford pear seedlings. Turn one clump of lemongrass into dozens of clumps…
You get the idea. When you aren’t spending hundreds on trees, the stress is off. You can plant your food forest for free – or almost free – and experiment to your heart’s content.
Want to try closer spacing? Do it! The trees didn’t cost you anything!
Why not plant a hedge of mulberries, instead of one, expensive potted tree you worry about? Overplant, and then cut through the middle with a chainsaw when it gets too shady!
When you’ve spent little or nothing, you are free to play without worry.
Learning simple plant propagation really freed up my own gardening, and it’ll free you up as well. Once I had a good set of nursery tricks at my command, I could really propagate like a boss.
Take the time to learn the techniques that let you bypass high nursery costs. Skip the middleman, and you’ll be amazed at home much you can grow without spending a dime.
-David
P.S. If you want to go deeper into this topic and see some of these propagation techniques on video, we recently posted an in-depth demonstration titled “Start Your Food Forest for (almost) Free” over in the active Survival Gardener Community. It’s part 6 in our ongoing food forest course, where I share how you can turn any yard into a garden of Eden. Not only that, there are many, many hours of training videos over there and lots of good gardeners.
