Well, the main pot has been knocked over several times by storms, and on one of those occasions a very discriminating chipmunk came and bit off all of the suckers except for the biggest one. Grr. (Plant is now tied to a rigid post.) But even if that hadn't happened, the only advice I've found about rooting curry leaf from a sucker would have me cutting off that major root, on either side of the sucker. Illustrations don't show any root hairs on the major feeder root that would have to be cut. I don't see how this is any more likely to succeed than taking a cutting, and I cannot risk losing the whole plant by doing such drastic surgery in a relatively small pot.

Update re cuttings I took in early summer: I planted them in new "Miracle Gro" potting soil, supplemented with perlite. They have all failed: rot. They have never been watered since first planting, and it's been 7 weeks now. That's how humid it has been here in Minnesota this summer.

I have today taken a couple more cuttings. If you look at videos from India etc or read the "usual" advice, you'll see that they recommend taking cuttings that are a pencil-size in diameter. "Hah" say I. A pencil-size in diameter, that has to be only semi-hard, from a plant growing in a 15" pot?? That simply can't exist. My semi-hard cuttings are about 1/8" in diameter. And they're short. They look good to me: proportional. But we'll see.

I have set up a Forsyth pot: terra cotta outer and inner pots. Medium is straight vermiculite, nothing else. Vermiculite was watered with soft water (from the lake I live next to). The same water went into the water supply pot.

Cutting prep: Advice I've seen runs from stripping the bark/skin of the cutting for the lower 2" before dipping in rooting hormone, to no recommendation of stripping any skin at all. My compromise on these cuttings was to peel away about half to two thirds of the skin. I suspect the principle may be that the rooting hormone contacts living tissue on the cut edge of the skin? Because I doubt anything can really grow from heartwood. Stripping away all the skin seems like you're stripping away all chance at life.

I followed with rooting hormone plus the usual procedures for setting cuttings in whatever medium. The Forsyth pot is outdoors in full shade, with no bag or covering, because humidity levels here are reasonable right now. Dew points in the 50's-60's. I'll be watching carefully and bag the pot if it looks like stuff is wilting. (I threw a few star jasmine cuttings in as well because why not.)

My observation is that there is no authoritative advice about starting curry plants from cuttings, that either supposedly works everywhere, or can be adapted to Anywhere USA. No recommendations re details of medium, lighting, temperatures day/night, or humidity; nothing about how long it should take. If anyone can suggest ideals with regard to any of these parameters I'll be happy to hear. If you watch videos from India where this plant is nearly a "weed," it looks like it grows in powder-dry soil, and gets potted up in same. So I'm going with the nutrient-free, airy, but fairly moisture retentive vermiculite. At worst I'll just have to bring the space-hog tree into the house again, and keep trying.

My next step will be to cut back a couple of the long-to-the-side-reaching branches "hard." Not all of them, lest cutting back beyond where there's visible green growth results in basically killing that branch, as it would with, say, a spruce tree. But if I do a couple, and the tree pushes new growth well back toward the central trunk, that means there's a chance I can eventually make the tree fit better into my house for the winter. If the cuttings fail and I have to try again next year.

Kinda feel like I'm talking to the air here, since no one has responded in over two weeks. But maybe my musings and experience so far will help someone else.

I'll update in 4-6 weeks unless somebody actually says something.

Joan

Northern Gardener : Hi Joan, I'm interested in your update! My curry leaf plant lost most of its leaves last winter when I had it indoors in my chilly house, so I cut it back hard in the spring. It started putting out shoots, and then I put it outside for the summer. It seems to be like many shrubs that respond well to being cut back hard, (not at all like a spruce tree). I cut it right down to just 6 inches of the thick little trunk sticking out of the pot. I've got it in a pot of maybe 2-gallon size, and I'm afraid it's probably too small for the long term.

HighColdDesert,

My second set of cuttings also snuffed it. Maybe they need to be set in sun? I don't know. It could also be that one day my grandson (two years old) was outside watering everything and found the Forsyth pot and washed everything out of there. I had to reassemble the whole thing. It had been looking good up to then, but after that - gradual decline and failure.

But I did decide to cut the tree back a few weeks ago so it's only two feet wide, and you're right: it sent new growth pretty quickly, plus the remaining sucker in the pot shot up and got happy-looking. The new growth is all from the ends of the sticks though, which means it's going to try to get wider again. One more winter of detouring around it.

It's great to know that one can cut back that hard! I don't want to do it now that I'm going to have to bring it in to a warm and relatively dark place for six or seven months, it just doesn't seem like the time, but maybe sometime next March I'll give it a real hard trim and see what happens.

I'm concerned about pot size too, long term. That's why I want to learn how to propagate, so I don't have to try to nurse this one plant along forever. Wish me luck! Just have to keep trying.

Joan

You are wasting a lovely plant - the pot is too small, re-plant it with fresh compost in a larger plant. Cut off any dead branches. When you have the plant out for re-potting remove the off-shoots carefully and plant them in small pots. You will have more plants.

Hi, thanks so much for your input. I know the pot is too small. It's too small because I am getting older and lugging around ever-increasing-sized pots is not in my future, and I also kept it small in order to prevent the tree from turning into a behemoth. It's a very exuberant grower when allowed to do whatever it wants. I do not have indoor space for wintertime housing of a big tropical. I can move this plant up one pot size, and that's the end of the road; so I've been intentionally delaying.

I don't suppose you have any pictures of what I can expect to see when the offshoots are unearthed? From what I've read about propagating in that manner, it involves cutting the (major) root from which the new shoots arise, and the root system doesn't appear to be very fibrous. I'm not sure there will be much "down there" to work from, and am concerned that any root cutting will look like an inverted T: a fairly thick root with not much coming off it except a sprout going upwards. The thought of the potential damage is discouraging.

Update since last post: After finding that I got new growth quickly after cutting back in August (or whenever that was) I cut the other branches back as well. There is a great deal of new growth now, including from lower down the branches, and the crown of the tree is considerably bushier. It looks happy - but slightly pale, in a way that hasn't been remedied by fertilizer. It needs repotting, for the sake of micronutrients and pH etc.

My plan right now is to do that repotting (however messy it might be) in my kitchen, as soon as the local box stores start stocking the larger bales of potting soil again. I'll see if I can figure out how to separate a baby or two. Crossing my fingers. I'll take some pictures to try to illustrate whatever challenges I encounter.