Cutting, rooted or grafted: what turns up in the box
Three listings that look interchangeable, and three very different first weeks. What each one is, and what to do on day one.
30-second version first, the whole guide below6 min read
The short version
- A grafted plant is two plants: the top you chose, and a faster plant underneath supplying the roots.
- Check the cut face is hard, dry and shiny.
- Stand it one to two inches deep in dry mix.
- Give it no water on planting day. A single splash a week later is fine, growers say, or nothing until roots show; either one works.
- Keep it away from your other plants for a few weeks.
Your setup
Pick yours to see what changes in this guide.
Where it grows
In the ground
Nothing in this guide changes in the ground.
In a pot
Pot at the old soil line, not deeper.
Where it lives
Outdoors
Outdoors, moving air is better mold insurance, one grower says; the scar just looks more lived-in.
Indoors
Indoors on a rack, no rain, dew or dust lands on the wound, so, growers say, the callus finishes photo-clean.
The season
Winter
If nights are still under about 60°F (16°C), roots reportedly come slowly or not at all outdoors, so keep it dry, shaded and frost-free until it warms.
Not winter
Nothing in this guide changes outside winter.
Lines are from this guide, or from the cultivar library where one says so. For where they come from, see the end of the guide.
Introduction
One listing arrives as a dry stick you must not water. Another turns up rooted and, growers say, behaves like any potted plant. The third is two plants joined together. The price will not tell you which is which; the listing does.
The five things people sell
Cuttings, rooted plants, grafted plants, and seed. Four of the five sell as comparable things. You are choosing how much work has already been done, not a grade. Seedlings are a common way in for someone starting out.
Sellers say rooted plants normally ship , soil shaken off, and that a good listing says so. Seedlings ship bare root too, growers report; they often arrive floppy at the base and firm up once replanted.
Tip, mid and base
A long column cuts into three kinds of piece:
- A carries the growing point and, sellers say, keeps getting taller from that tip.
- A has no growing point. It restarts by pushing new branches from its , and with no tip it cannot go thin at the tip while rooting, growers say.
- A base or cut is the lowest piece, sellers say, often already rooted. Of the three it is the easiest to grow on.
Figure
One column, three pieces
The two cuts that turn a column into products, plus the notch rule that settles which way up a mid goes.
Tip cut
keeps the growing point — carries on climbing
Mid cut
no tip — restarts by branching from its areoles
Base
the stump end — often already rooted
Wings up — the usual sign of the right way up: this end down, and it grows.
An upside-down cutting never starts.
A mid roots and grows as well as a tip, growers say — a standard product, not a lesser one. Just plant it the right way up. The notch above each areole, wings up like a seagull, is the usual guide growers use to tell which end that is, though it varies from plant to plant. Upside down it never grows at all.
Tip cut
one cut face · growing point intact
Mid cut
two cut faces · no growing point
A tip carries on from its growing point, sellers say; a mid or a stump has to push new growth from an areole.
What the plant is doing: cut, callus, shrivel, root, pup
Every unrooted cutting is somewhere on this track.
Interactive
Cut, callus, shrivel, root, pup
Play it through, or step between the stages. A cutting is sold at the first or second stage and a rooted plant at the last. That gap is most of what the price difference is.The whole life of a cutting in five stages — and note how much worse it looks in the middle than it does at either end.
Day 0
1. The cut
A fresh cut is a wet, open wound, and the flesh is still completely full. The cut is taken at a slight angle so water runs off it instead of sitting on it, and then the piece is left standing in the shade with air around it. Nothing is planted today.
No soil, no water
Where you buy in. A cutting cut to order passes through this stage: it is cut after your order, then dried like any other before it ships.
One to two weeks
2. Callused
The cut face pulls inward and hardens into a dry, shiny tan scab. That scab is the door closing. Very humid air slows it down — and only now does the piece go into dry mix, an inch or two deep, staked if it is tall.
Plant it into dry mix
Where you buy in. A cutting listed as callused arrives at this stage, ready to plant.
Weeks two to eight
3. The shrivel
It gets thinner every week and looks worse every time you check. Nothing is wrong: the plant is living off the water stored in its own body while it puts everything into roots you cannot see. This is the stage where most first cuttings are lost, because it looks thirsty and somebody waters it.
Nothing — leave it alone
Around two months
4. Roots
White roots push out of the base and take hold. The ribs fatten back out — that is the reliable sign, not digging. A gentle wiggle near the top meets resistance instead of moving freely. Now it earns its first proper soak.
First full soak
Around six months
5. A pup
Enough root to behave like an ordinary potted plant, and the first new head pushing out of an areole. Water on the normal dry-then-soak rhythm, and keep it unfed until the buried skin has turned to bark, around a year in.
Normal rhythm, no feed yet
Where you buy in. A rooted plant ships from here — six months of rooting already done for you.
No soil, no water
Day 0
The cut
A fresh cut is a wet, open wound, and the flesh is still completely full. The cut is taken at a slight angle so water runs off it instead of sitting on it, and then the piece is left standing in the shade with air around it. Nothing is planted today.
Where you buy in. A cutting cut to order passes through this stage: it is cut after your order, then dried like any other before it ships.
Stage 1 of 5: The cut. Day 0. No soil, no water.
The cut. A wet open face that shrinks as it dries. It must heal over before it goes near soil.
Figure
Why the shape of the cut matters
A healing face shrinks and the skin around it does not. That one fact decides whether the top of your plant sheds rain or collects it.
Cut flat, left square
the one that rots
Healing flesh shrinks and the skin around it does not, so a square cut dishes into a saucer. Then it rains.
Cut flat, edge chamfered
one extra pass
Take the top edge back all round and the face still shrinks — but there is no rim left to hold anything.
Cut at an angle
nothing to fix later
A slanted face sheds on its own, and the piece will stand upright to heal with air moving across the wound.
Day zero
wet · pale · ring bright
Day fourteen
dry · buff · sealed
The has no fixed date. The face pulls in, goes tan, and finishes hard, dry and shiny. That look is the only sign it is done. Budget one to two weeks for an ordinary cutting, longer when the air is very humid; a slim pup is quicker and a fat column slower. Given two figures, take the longer. Drying too long is a far smaller problem than not drying enough.
Where it dries is cosmetic, not survival. Indoors on a rack, no rain, dew or dust lands on the wound, so, growers say, the callus finishes photo-clean. Outdoors, moving air is better mold insurance, one grower says; the scar just looks more lived-in.
The shrivel, weeks three to eight. The column visibly thins, growers say, living off its stored water. This is when people reach for the watering can, and it is how most first cuttings are lost.
Week zero
ribs full · firm
Week six
ribs drawn in · same height
Roots, around two months. White roots come out of the base and the ribs start to fill out again, growers say.
A pup, around six months. Enough roots to behave like any potted plant, growers say. The buried green reportedly takes about a year to turn to bark; after that it can no longer easily.
That is what the price difference buys. A cutting is stage two. A rooted plant is stage five — six months of someone else's patience included.
What grafted changes
A grafted plant is two plants: the top you chose, and a faster plant underneath supplying the roots. That energy reportedly makes the top grow quicker and fatter and sooner than on its own roots. Some clones look different grafted, too.
Two things follow.
- Pups on the below the join must come off, growers say, or they starve the plant you paid for.
- On a rootstock a graft usually stays on for years. The base can reportedly carry it a long time, though a stock can be outgrown or fail.
Grafts ship , roughly two weeks after they are made.
Day one, by what arrived
Common mistakes, try it, quick check and sources
Quick check
Question 1: Your new cutting looks thin and thirsty after three weeks. What should you do?
Question 2: Which of these can never go thin at its tip while it roots?
Question 3: Small pups are appearing below the join on a grafted plant. What do you do?
