How to Start Cherry Trees From Cuttings

Cherry trees add beauty, fragrance and color to the landscape and make a lovely addition to any yard. If gardening is your hobby or you enjoy growing new and different plants, you need not always begin with seeds or seedlings purchased from your local nursery. Use a cutting from an existing cherry tree and, in a few short weeks, you'll have a cherry tree seedling to keep for yourself or share with a friend.

Garden knife or scissors

Newspaper

Root-promoting chemical

Peat moss

Pot

Spray bottle

Cut a healthy branch tip off your cherry tree. Make your cut about 8 to 10 inches away from the tip of the branch. Cut at an angle with your garden knife.

Peel the bark on two sides of your cherry tree cutting, using the garden knife. The white layer beneath the bark is the cambium. New roots will be able to break through the cambium more easily with that layer of bark gone.

Layer newspaper on your worktable to keep it free from dirt.

Stick the cut end of your cherry tree cutting into the root-promoting chemical.

Fill a pot 1/3 of the way with peat moss. Set your cherry tree cutting into the pot and fill the pot the remainder of the way with peat moss. Pat the peat moss down using your hands.

Mist the cherry tree cutting and the peat moss with a spray bottle. Keep your cutting moist, never allowing it to fully dry out. Check your cutting's root system after three weeks to ensure the roots are growing and getting stronger. Continue to grow your cutting indoors until spring.

Tree cuttings do best when cut in the late fall or winter, after trees have gone dormant for the season.

Place your cherry tree cutting in indirect sunlight so it doesn't dry out.