Home gardening for preppers: 7 Medicinal herbs you can propagate from cuttings

07/07/2022 / By Zoey Sky

Having a garden on your homestead can help you save money. But you can save more by propagating herbs from cuttings instead of buying seeds. Learning how to propagate herbs can be very useful, especially if it’s hard to get or buy seeds in your area.

You can either buy organic herbs from the produce section of the grocery store or ask a prepper friend who is growing them for a cutting. Follow instructions carefully and use the right tools to propagate herbs like basil and rosemary from cuttings in your home garden. (h/t to PrepSchoolDaily.blogspot.com)

Tips for propagating

If you are a gardening beginner, here are some useful propagating tips:

When selecting herb stems, choose stems that are green, not woody or brown.
Cut stems that are about six inches long and avoid parts with flowers or seeds. Always remove the lower leaves and anything else that will be submerged in the water.
If your water is chlorinated, like most municipal water is, let it stand for 24 hours before making your cuttings. You can also use filtered water or bottled water instead.
Place all cuttings next to a window so they receive some sun every day. The roots will develop within two weeks and the plants can be transplanted into pots or garden beds.
Let the new plant acclimate from water to soil. When a plant cutting is rooted in water, it develops roots that are best adapted to get what they need from water instead of soil. If you move the plant immediately from water to your garden soil, the plant may be stressed. To prevent this, add a small amount of soil to the water that you’re using to root your cutting. Do this gradually over a period of four or five weeks to help acclimate your plant to its new growing conditions.

Basil

Basil produces many seeds and volunteer plants the following season. However, the herb is not cold hardy and it takes a long time for them to start.

If you take a cutting at the end of summer and keep it as an indoor plant all winter, you can have fresh herbs year-round. This is also possible with the other herbs on this list.

Mint

Herbs in the mint family like catnip, lemon balm, peppermint and spearmint all spread very easily. When growing mint, keep them in containers or boxed beds so they don’t overrun your yard.

Oregano

The remaining oregano for stem cutting should have only two to three sets of leaves. Make a second cut at a 45-degree angle.

Oregano takes at least four weeks to produce new roots. (Related: Prepper medicine: Combat antibiotic resistance with these medicinal herbs.)

Parsley

Parsley is rather difficult to start from a cutting. For best results, add an aspirin to the water and let it dissolve before adding the parsley cuttings.

Rosemary

Rosemary won’t develop as many roots compared to the other herbs listed here. However, once the roots are at least two inches long, rosemary should be ready to plant.

Sage

Like oregano, sage needs a 45-degree angle cut on the stem. A cutting will take at least four weeks to root.

Thyme

With thyme, you can make an exception about using a non-woody or brown stem. Like the other herbs, thyme should be ready to plant after several weeks.

Save money on your home garden by using cuttings to grow medicinal herbs like oregano and sage.

Visit SurvivalMedicine.news to learn more about medicinal herbs that you can grow in your garden.

Watch the video below to know more about the fastest method of rooting plant cuttings.

This video is from the Truth or Consequences channel on Brighteon.com.