Dueep Jyot Singh - Introduction to Plant Propagation: The Essential Guide to Plant Propagation Methods and Techniques

The Essential Guide to Plant Propagation

Methods and Techniques

Gardening Series

Dueep Jyot Singh

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Smashwords Edition

Mendon Cottage Books

JD-Biz Publishing

All Rights Reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproducedin any form or by any means, including scanning, photocopying, orotherwise without prior written permission from JD-Biz CorpCopyright 2015

All Images Licensed by Fotolia and 123RF.Sketches/ illustrations by DJS

Disclaimer

The information is this book is provided forinformational purposes only. It is not intended to be used andmedical advice or a substitute for proper medical treatment by aqualified health care provider. The information is believed to beaccurate as presented based on research by the author.

The contents have not been evaluated by theU.S. Food and Drug Administration or any other Government or HealthOrganization and the contents in this book are not to be used totreat cure or prevent disease.

The author or publisher is not responsiblefor the use or safety of any diet, procedure or treatment mentionedin this book. The author or publisher is not responsible for errorsor omissions that may exist.

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Warning

The Book is for informational purposes onlyand before taking on any diet, treatment or medical procedure, itis recommended to consult with your primary health careprovider.

\It is always been the nature of humanbeings to try to improve on nature. That is why, you can be certainthat millenniums ago when some enterprising soul learned how todomesticate wild plants and grow them in his own little yard forfood, shelter and wood, one fine day he decided what is going tohappen if I can grow the branch of such and such tree on such andsuch other tree? That means I am going to have oranges and applesin one parent tree.

The start of such creative ideas must havegiven rise to many bizarre experimentations, most of which wouldfail monumentally. However, as time went by, and more and morepeople started to experiment, they gained more knowledge andgardening experience related to plant propagation.

In the natural state, you are going to seedifferent vegetative propagation methods through which a plant cangrow. That means the plant is going to grow its own seeds, and usenatural methods like air, wind and water to spread the seeds farand wide.

In a strawberry, you are going to have theplant sending out long branches trailing on the soil. Stimulus ofmoisture causes the production of roots below a bud on a longbranch. The bud is then going to send out shoots. Soon theconnection between the new plant and the old plant is severed by awithering up of the intervening branch.

In the same way, the Agave which we alsoknow as aloe produces a tall pole on which small bulbils grow.These are going to fall off and each would usually produce roots,which will then grow into new plants.

Each plant bulb that you see is just apotentially germinating bud packed up in food material.

In the case of Bryophyllum, you are going tohave a leaf that can be planted and it is going to bring forthshoots.

So that means just one leaf would be capableof populating the whole forest with Bryophyllum plants!

All these natural propagation methods shouldshow you how nature manages to keep plants surviving under adverseconditions. The survival instinct of plants is very highlydeveloped. That is why they have managed to adapt themselves todifferent environments, atmospheres, and conditions.

The natural propagation methods used forpropagating baby plants in Bryophyllum were noted by gardeners,ages ago, and they decided to try that same experiment on Begonia.Begonia could also be grown through leaf cuttings.

The natural propagation of strawberries wasrepeated and tried out in the artificial layering of climbersclimbing up all over our walls, balconies, arbors and pergolas.

In the same way, we looked at the way theagave grew, and thus learned about cuttings to grow many othervarieties of plants.

So now we are going to learn about thevarious methods of plant propagation, which we can utilize to growmany types of plants in our garden. All of these methods have beentime tested, and have been in use for centuries, throughout theworld. In the 21st century we may be using technicalshortcuts for growing plants with artificial lighting and harmfulhormones, but the basic rules of gardening apply universally.

So this book is going to tell you more abouthow natural gardening plant propagation techniques are being usedeven today to create richer harvests, and also unusualcultivars.

Compared to cuttings, layering is a plantpropagation process which has been overlooked by a number ofgardeners. That is because layering is slower, even though it issurer than other propagation processes.

In layering, you are not going to interruptthe supply food and water from the mother to what is going to be anew plant. However, in cuttings, the new plant-to-be is cut offentirely from the mother plant and it has to depend on its own foodand water contained in itself or taken from the soil. In thisrespect, the plants that we call soft wooded with succulent tissuesare going to have more advantage over so-called hard wooded plantswhich comparatively do not have large stores of water in them.

As I said before propagation by layering is acomparatively slower process, even if it is more sure. Larger andmore advanced plants can be obtained by layers than bycuttings.

So how do you start layering your plants?First of all you are going to select the branch of wood which hasto be layered. This wood should be sturdy enough to bear being bentdown to the earth without breaking.

Now cut the branch half through with a sharpknife, just under one of the leaf buds towards its extremity. Thenpass the knife upward so as to slit the branch about an inch or twoup.

This slit piece with the leaf bud at itsextremity is called a tongue.

It should be kept open by inserting a smallpiece of tile or a match in the cutting. Remove the earth to thedepth of two or 3 inches from, or place a flower pot over the spotjust with the tongue falls on the branch being bent down. Thencarefully bend the tongue portion of the branch into the earth orinto your flowerpot.