Grow a Privacy Hedge From One Plant by Rooting Arborvitae Cuttings

The Problem

A run of arborvitae is the default privacy screen, and buying it is the expensive part — a dozen plants at nursery prices is a serious number, and the bigger you buy the more each one costs.

Arborvitae roots readily from cuttings. One plant, bought once, can supply as many as you have patience for. His own accounting: one tree at around six dollars, taken two years ago, and a bed of rooted cuttings from it.

The Technique

1. Take cuttings from a healthy parent plant. Semi-hardwood growth from the current season works best — flexible but not soft.
2. Strip the foliage from the lower part of each cutting, leaving the top growth intact. Anything buried would rot.
3. Scrape or wound the bottom of the stem. He roughs the stripped section up before dipping. Scraping through the outer bark exposes the cambium, which is where roots form, and increases the surface that hormone and moisture reach.
4. Dip the wounded end in rooting hormone.
5. Insert into coco coir — a moisture-retaining, free-draining medium that stays damp without waterlogging, which conifer cuttings need because they root slowly and rot easily.
6. Cover the tray to hold humidity. A clear cover makes a small greenhouse: cuttings have no roots yet and can only take water through their foliage, so the air around them has to stay near-saturated.
7. Wait. This is the part he's explicit about — the savings are large and the timescale is years, not weeks.