How To Propagate

How To Propagate | Propagation Methods

What is Propagation?

To propagate a plant is to reproduce a plant, propagation Is the act of propagating a plant. There are sexual and asexual types of plant propagation. To put it simply it’s how you make baby plants!

Asexual Propagation | Cloning

Asexual propagation could also be called cloning and involves taking part of a parent plant and regenerating a new plant from that part. Asexual Propagation utilizes the vegetative portions from the donor or parent plant.

There are several methods to choose from:

• Cuttings
• Layering
• Division
• Separation
• Budding
• Grafting

Cloning Can Preserve Varieties

Fruit trees and nut trees are a good example how our society commonly uses asexual propagation or cloning to produce consistent quality and flavor as well as grafting for pest and disease resistance traits.

When you harvest seed maintaining the same level of purity to the “mother plant” would require substantially more effort and still deliver less reliable results, although potentially longer lasting preservation.

How to Propagate Cuttings

To propagate via cuttings involves rooting a vegetative piece of the parent plant. Be sure to sterilize your cutting instrument so as to reduce the risk of infection. Soft green cuttings can often be rooted by simply placing in water. For harder woodier cuttings you can dip in a variety of rooting hormone products from powders to gels to honey there are plenty of ways to encourage root growth. Leaf and stem cuttings do well in bright but indirect light.

Types of Stem Cuttings:

• Tip Cutting – Try to take a fresh sprouted stem tip if possible sever a 2 to 6 inch section cutting just below a node. Remove the lower leaves and any buds and flowers and minimal foliage to allow the cutting to focus it’s energy on growing new roots.
• Cane Cutting – Sections of a stem cut to ensure it contains at least one or two eyes or nodes the cane is laid flat half submerged in rooting medium.
• Medial Cutting – Another Section cutting including multiple nodes and approximately 2 – 6 inch length then rooted like a tip cutting.
• Single Eye Cutting – Single eye refers to the node used on plants with alternating leaves.
• Double Eye Cutting – Double eye is used for plants with opposite leaves.
• Heel Cutting – This is the process of cutting a heel shaped piece of the woody stem plus a leaf.

Types of Leaf Cuttings:

• Whole Leaf with Petiole – Remove a leaf with roughly one and a half inches of petiole and place the bottom end of the petiole into moist rooting medium.
• Whole Leaf without Petiole – Used to propagate plants which have sessile leaves
• Split Vein – As it sounds with this you cut a leaf and then make a number of splits in the leaf veins spread around the body of the leaf, this is where new plants will form. Place the leaf split side down into the rooting medium and cover enough to holds wounds down in the rooting medium.
• Leaf Sections – A propagation method commonly used for begonias and snake plants. You can cut begonia leaves into sections with at least one vein and plant flat in rooting medium. Snake plants can be propagated by cutting leaves into approximately 2 inch sections, plant vertically making sure to keep that orientation of top and bottom the same.

Root Cuttings: A section of root generally are taken from plants during their dormant season. Large roots can be buried vertically with the top of the root cutting level with the soil or rooting medium surface

How to use Layering to Propagate

Layering is the process of providing a condition for a part of the parent or donor plant to be exposed to a rooting media to stimulate root growth while still attached and then severed after roots have been established. This can greatly reduce the shock experienced with other cutting propagation methods.

Types of Layering:

• Air Layering – I always found this one interesting, you wrap a stem with rooting medium and a bandage the sever from the parent plant once roots have formed.
• Tip Layering – The simplicity is a beautiful thing here, just dig a small hole insert the branch tip and bury it. Once it has rooted and pushed new growth above the soil cut the branch from the parent plant, or don’t how ever you want it will grow just fine.
• Compound Layering – Alternating segments of buried and exposed stem allowing for multiple root sites wound the bottom side of the stem to encourage root development.
• Mound or Stool Layering – In the dormant season cut the plant down close to the soil leaving approximately 1 inch stubs, mound soil over emerging shoots in spring.
• Simple Layering – Bend a stem of the plant to the ground and cover a section with soil leaving about 6-12 inches exposed.

How To Propagate with Division

Division can be used on plants which have more than one rooted crown. Just pull plants apart and plant crowns separately, if crowns are joined by horizontal stems cut with a sharp sterile knife.

How to Propagate by Separation

Separation is used for things which bulb like garlic, tulips etc. Simply dig up clusters and separate each bulb or clove and plant in a new location.

Grafting and Budding | Cut & Joint Methods

First of all always make sure you are using a clean, sterile and sharp knife or pruning shears. Making these cuts is a little bit of an art form because the better you can match your scion (cutting) to the receiving root stock the higher your success rates will be.

How to Propagate with Budding

• Patch Budding – As it sounds with you cut a patch containing bark, cambium and a bud then place it in the same size opening on the rootstock plant removing the bark and exposing the cambium so that the two can mend as one.
• Chip Budding – The chip bud cut is a 45 degree angle at on end and a slice along the branch containing a bud intersecting with the terminal 45 degree cut. A matching notch is cut in the receiving root stock and the bud chip inserted.
• T-Budding – The first cut of the desired bud is just a chip cut, however on the receiving root stock a t shaped incision in the bark is made and the chip is slid into the T wrapping the chip.
• I-Budding – This is a patch cut wrapped by the receiving root stocks bark by making an I shaped cut the pulling back and inserting your patch cut.

How to Propagate with Grafting

Side Grafting | Side grafting the root stock is not topped until the joined parts have healed thoroughly.

• Side-Veneer Graft – A slanted cut into the root stock with a one sided wedge cut onto the scion which fits into the slanted cut so that the cambium layer from each are in close contact.
• Side-Tongue Graft – A thin side cut is made to forming a tongue and a long cut is made on the scion with a second thin cut forming another tongue, then the tongues are slipped together interlocking so that the cambium matches on at least one side
• Cleft & Wedge Graft – the top is slices like a thin wedge the other topped and split down the middle with the wedge inserted until the parts meet tightly and close contact of the cambium occurs.
• Splice Graft – The splice is useful for grafting plants and is a simple method requiring just two slanted cuts one on the rootstock and the opposing on the scion
• Whip Graft – This uses the same first cut as a splice graft the a second small slice or notch is taken on each so that they can be interlocked like tongues.

Aftercare for your graft

If using strong cord or tape be sure to cut just after new growth starts to prevent girdling. After two or three weeks it’s wise to check and make sure wax has not cracked and re-seal if needed.

Sexual Propagation | Pollination & Germination

Sexual propagation is the plant reproducing via the pollination of an egg using the floral parts of the plant. Unlike Cloning which produces a genetically identical replica of the parent plant, sexual propagation pulls genes from the two parents to make a new individual plant with it’s own genetic structure.

As you can see if you want to create a hybrid of traits you would want to propagate using the sexual propagation method cross pollinating varieties with traits you desire.

Growing For Seed | Sexual Propagation

How to Pollinate for Variety Preservation and Viable Seed

Seed saving allows us to preserve varieties through seasons where a particular strain might die off due to extraordinary weather conditions. In order to pollinate for variety preservation you will likely want to manually pollinate so that you can ensure pollination comes from the same variety.

For viable seed production plants need successful pollination and time to produce sound viable seeds. Seeds harvested too early may not be mature enough to even germinate.

How to Harvest Seed

The first step in harvesting seed is to make sure you had good pollination, and fully matured seeds. Next Pick the fruit or flowers that exhibit the best flavor, color, size, desired time to harvest, or any other traits you might be looking for. Extract your seeds, wash if necessary to remove excess fruit or flower residue and air dry.

Proper seed storage methods and conditions will preserve the quality, integrity and extend the lifespan that your seed will remain viable. Fully cleaned seeds prepared for storage would do well for example in a paper bag in the door of your of your refrigerator.

How to Germinate Seeds

There are four primary factors which will affect seed germination, water, temperature, light and oxygen.

• Water – seeds need sufficient moisture to germinate but be careful not to drown them or let them dry out once germination has begun.
• Temperature – The temperature range for germination varies according to plant and variety so be sure to adjust according to the needs of the plant you are growing. This goes for air and soil temperature.
• Light – Some seeds need light exposure to stimulate germination, others exposure to light inhibits germination so be sure to check the needs of the plant you are germinating
• Oxygen – Yes that’s right seeds breath even when dormant, although respiration in dormant seed is low some oxygen is still required.

How to Grow a Propagated Plant

First and foremost of course the conditions need to be relevant to the type of plant being propagated however in the propagation process, stability with regards to temperature and somewhat higher than usual moisture and humidity levels.

Types of Rooting Medium:

When propagating Cuttings

• Rock-wool cubes
• Coarse Sand
• Potting Soil
• Vermiculite
• Peat Moss & perlite mix
• Water
• Misters
• Net Pots
• Coco coir
• Starter Plugs

Growing Conditions

• PH – When in doubt go neutral but again this should be relevant to the plant you are propagating.
• Temperature range – Regardless of plant hardiness in most cases newly propagated plants should be protected from freezing.
• Moisture Content / Humidity – These numbers should be higher than normal for most plants, nothing too extreme but a little extra moisture is a good general rule of thumb. As in most cases with regard to growing plants you want moist not dripping wet or dusty dry.
• Soil Type – once again this should be relevant to the plant you growing, however a little extra moisture retention from things like peat moss or vermiculite can be helpful on newly propagated plants.
• Nutrients – Generally you don’t need a lot at this stage, seeds provide initial nutrients and there have been studies which showed that starving cuttings of nutrients can actually expedite initial root growth.
• Season – If taking cuttings new growth is generally the desired portion so a vegetative growth portion of the season will most likely be the ideal time.
• Pollination – If using sexual propagation for the purpose of variety preservation or hybridization you will need to provide a strictly controlled pollination environment.

Good quality soil is always a good idea for plants at any stage, for more info on composting methods check out our How To Compost article right here in the Gro Guide.

Disease

Fungus is a common threat as well as disease potentially spread from other plants when cutting instruments are not properly sanitized. To prevent fungus a lot of rooting hormone products will also have anti-fungal ingredients.

Glossary of Terms

• Scion – The cutting taken when grafting which you will fuse with a rootstock, the scion is the variety which you wish to grow, flower, fruit etc.
• Callus – an important step in the healing process this is a mass of parenchyma cells that form around the wounded plant tissue to stop evaporation and begin the healing process.
• Clone – A genetically identical asexual propagation of a donor or parent plant.
• Cambium – A thin tissue portion of plants between the bark layer and wood layer critical for successful grafting as you need the cambium from both plants to be in close contact.
• Grafting – Connecting two pieces of living plant tissue together to form one plant.
• Node – The part of a plants stem where one or more leaves grow from.