At the beginning of March I ordered willow cuttings from a farm in PA. They had a small stock of their own cuttings available for sale, and I decided to go for it. I ordered 10 cuttings, and they arrived a few days later in the mail. I enjoy weaving with willow and have attended two classes, and want to make more items with willow. However, classes and materials (willow) are expensive, and not locally offered. I’m going to try to grow my own this year.

The cuttings arrived quickly, and each cutting was about 1 foot long. I left them in the fridge overnight, while I rehydrated a brick of coco-coir to use as the base of my growing medium for the cuttings.

Once again, I used clear plastic containers to plant in, this time I used 6 inch pots, instead of the small cups. These cuttings were quite a bit thicker and longer than my fig cuttings, and I wanted to be able to plant a couple of the growth points to help with the rooting process.

I’m trying something different this time around. I dipped the top ends of the cuttings in wax before planting. This is supposed to help them better retain moisture and protect them from disease. Not sure yet if it will work, but I had wax, so I decided to give it a go. I did not dip these cuttings in rooting hormone like I did for the figs, willow naturally produce rooting hormone and are supposed to root quickly from cuttings.

My light and airy homemade potting mix, which I use for all my cuttings. Coco-coir, pine bark fines, and a small amount of perlite. It retains moisture but doesn’t get soggy. Once all the cuttings were planted, I put them in a tote on a heat mat to make a miniature greenhouse. They were in an area with minimal light, so I was hoping the plants would focus on root growth.

The cuttings were planted on March 12, and left in the tote with the lid just cracked for the first few days. I misted them with water once to make sure the top of the soil wasn’t drying out. In less than a week there was visible bud growth as they broke dormancy and started growing. I did spot tiny roots around the edge of a couple of the containers, so I think they are going to all make it and do just fine.

By early April they all had shoots of new growth and some roots were quite visible around the bottom of the clear cups. A couple of them actually started to wilt and go brown, I think this was because the initial growing mix did not contain many nutrients for these fast growing plants. I potted them up into 6 inch pots and gave them fresh potting mix with a bit of compost.

They are all now in the basement under grow lights and a few are putting out fresh, healthy shoots. I plan to keep them in pots on the back patio so as to not have them become invasive in the yard. Don’t know what kind of a harvest I will get from potted, first year willow, but I’m looking forward to the experiment.