Propagate wisteria

How to propagate wisteria

There are several ways to propagate wisteria.
1. seeds 2. cuttings 3. grafts

Seeds
Soak the seeds for 24 hours before planting in seed soil mix.
When started from seed, wisteria will not be true to variety and can take 10 years or more to bloom.

Cuttings
Take soft stem cuttings in late spring-midsummer. Cuttings should be  2  1/2″-3″ long with two to three pairs of closely spaced leaves. Remove the soft tip. Dip the cutting in rootone and plant in sand, perlite, vermiculite or a mixture of all three. Keep moist and when you see signs of new growth you’ll know there are some roots. Rooting should take 6-8 weeks.
Not all cultivars will root or be true to the cultivar.

Wisteria will bloom 2-3 yrs from stem cuttings-better than 10 years when started from seed.

Another method is by digging out suckers and underground runners that spread in the soil.  The roots will produce a true cultivar.

Layering
You can also try layering – which is done by covering part of a one year old stem that has been bruised with soil and leaving the shoot tip above the soil line. This can take as long as a year and produce the same plant. When the plant develops new roots, sever the stem from the main plant and transplant it.

Once established wisteria can become an aggressive vine climbing up to 30 feet. Some varieties are considered invasive in warmer climates. So check with your local extension office for which one is “safe” to grow in your area.  All parts of the plant including the seeds are poisonous. Here’s the good news wisteria is deer resistant.