Outside it’s still snowing and icy in Canada, but inside it’s warm thanks to our wood stove.
We have some pots of geraniums on the window sill that I propagated from cuttings last year, and they’ve started to produce a lot of small, young leaves.
I had originally planned to prune them back because they were leggy. It seems safe to prune them at this time because there are already small shoots coming out.
Then I thought that I could take cuttings from the pruned branches and propagate them more.
Geranium cuttings in perlite
However, the soil in the garden is still frozen and cannot be used. So I thought of perlite, which we bought at the end of last year’s season.
Perlite is supposed to be used for cuttings, but I was wondering if it is possible to use 100% perlite without any soil.
After researching online, I found out that it is possible to take cuttings even with 100% perlite, as long as you take care not to let the water run out. The package of perlite also says “for cuttings”, so it must be OK.
Allow the cuttings to dry for 6 hours before planting
I was going to use 100% perlite for the cuttings, but I found some leftover gardening soil in a planter in the garage. So I ended up using a mixture of perlite, regular soil and vermiculite as the soil to put the cuttings.
In the morning I pruned the geraniums and took the cuttings to dry out for about six hours. In the afternoon I prepared the soil and moistened it and then stuck the cuttings into the soil.
I’ll leave them in the shade for a couple of weeks and see how they grow. I hope they will take root well.
