How To Clone Pepper Plants

Although cloning animals remains a controversial topic in science, no one gets very upset at the idea of cloning plants. That's because most people know the process of cloning a plant by another name. Gardeners refer to cloning a plant as rooting a plant cutting. You can start many plants from rooted plant cuttings, including pepper plants. Pepper plant cuttings grow slightly smaller than their parent plants, but also propagate more reliably on a one-to-one ratio than seeds will.

Step 1

Slice away a pepper plant leaf and leaf petiole along with a 5 cm section of stem.

Step 2

Fill a potting tray with peat moss. Water the tray by placing it into a cake pan filled with water to a shallow depth. Allow the peat moss to absorb the water through capillary action until the entire planting tray is as damp as a wrung-out sponge.

Step 3

Open a planting hole in the peat moss with a spoon.

Step 4

Dip the stem of the pepper plant into rooting hormone.

Step 5

Place the stem and lower half of the leaf petiole in the peat moss and cover with soil.

Step 6

Put a plastic dome over the planting tray. Place the tray in a windowsill out of direct sunlight.

Step 7

Check the plant daily. Mist the plant anytime the soil becomes dry.

Step 8

Remove the dome from the tray as soon as the clone plant sprouts roots.