Take a walk through almost any West Virginia neighborhood this week and you will notice it: the hillsides that were blazing red and orange a few weeks ago are turning bare and gray. According to the West Virginia Explorer's 2026 fall foliage guide, color peaked in the high Alleghenies in late September and early October, and even the lowest river valleys only hold their leaves into late October or, if the weather allows, early November.
Most families see bare branches as the end of the growing season. Gardeners see something else: the start of hardwood-cutting season. Clemson Cooperative Extension's guide to hardwood cuttings says the best time to take them is in fall, right after the leaves drop. A bare, pencil-thick twig can grow roots and turn into a brand-new plant.
That makes this week a great time for a homeschool question that sounds almost like magic: can a stick grow into a tree?
What your kids will learn
Growing a new plant from a cutting is real botany, and it works for every age at your table.
Grades K–5
- Some plants can grow from a piece of another plant, not only from seeds
- The jobs of stems, buds, leaves and roots
- How to observe, measure and draw a plant's changes over several weeks
- Caring for a living thing with water, light and patience
Grades 6–12
- Asexual propagation: why a cutting grows into a genetic copy of its parent plant
- Dormancy: why trees drop their leaves and "rest" through a West Virginia winter
- How rooting hormones (auxins) help a stem form new roots
- Planning a fair test, controlling variables and keeping a science journal
This week's activity: the bare-twig rooting experiment
You can try this with plants already growing in your yard. Forsythia and willow are two of the easy-rooting plants listed in Clemson's guide, and both are familiar backyard plants.
- Pick your parent plant. Choose a healthy shrub that has dropped its leaves, with permission if it's not your own. Let kids hunt for the buds along the stems.
- An adult takes the cuttings. With clean pruning shears, an adult cuts a few pieces about six inches long and about as thick as a pencil. (Sharp tools stay with grown-ups.)
- Mark the top. Buds point upward, so have kids wrap a small piece of tape near the top end of each twig. Planting a cutting upside down is an easy mistake to make.
- Set up a fair test. Plant two cuttings in a pot of well-draining mix and two more in a second pot. Dip only one group in rooting powder if you have some. Label each pot.
- Make a prediction. Which group will grow roots first? Have kids write it down before anything happens.
- Keep them cool and damp. Clemson suggests keeping hardy cuttings in a sheltered, unheated spot like a garage or shed through winter, never letting the mix dry out or turn soggy.
- Watch and record. Check every week. Kids can sketch the buds, measure any new growth and note the date the first leaves appear in spring.
Rooting a dormant twig takes patience, and that's part of the lesson. If your family would like a project with clear instructions, real tree cuttings and lessons already written, our Plum Tree Cutting Rooting Science Kit puts everything in one box:
- A real plum tree cutting, about 4 inches long
- Rooting powder and step-by-step rooting instructions
- Curriculum and worksheets for your child's grade band (K–5 or 6–12), emailed after purchase so you can print them at home
- An optional add-on with a second cutting, two peat pots and two different growing mediums, so kids can compare how each cutting does
Pair your backyard twigs with a plum cutting and your kids get two experiments at once: a backyard shrub against a fruit tree, side by side in the same science journal.
Join the growing community
Every kit comes with an invitation to our Facebook group, "Aardvark's Seed Planting For Little Hands," where kids and parents get support with anything they need. Share a photo of your first root, ask a question when a cutting looks unsure, and cheer on other young growers. The group is open to young growers everywhere, from the West Virginia hills to the Arkansas Ozarks and the Arizona desert, and every result your child shares helps other kids learn too.
Start your plum tree this week
Bare branches won't last forever, and neither will this season's head start. Here's the kit that fits this week's experiment:
- Plum Tree Cutting Rooting Science Kit – Grow a Plum Tree from a Cutting, with Curriculum & Worksheets: $19.00 for the kit, or $29.00 with 2 pots, an extra cutting and 2 growing mediums. Choose Grades K–5 or 6–12.
