Introduction to Plant Propagation - The Essential Guide to Plant Propagation Methods and Techniques

Book excerpt: Table of Contents Introduction to Plant Propagation The Essential Guide to Plant Propagation Methods and Techniques Introduction Layering Marcottee Cuttings “Striking” Cuttings Successfully Using Sand Traditional Cutting Growing Technique Benefits of Shallow Pan Technique Triple Pot Method Propagation through Buds Grafting Benefits Wedge Grafting Grafting Wax Solutions Grafting Wax Conclusion Growing Cuttings in Water Points for Water Cuttings Author Bio Publisher Introduction It is always been the nature of human beings to try to improve on nature. That is why, you can be certain that millenniums ago when some enterprising soul learned how to domesticate wild plants and grow them in his own little yard for food, shelter and wood, one fine day he decided – what is going to happen if I can grow the branch of such and such tree on such and such other tree? That means I am going to have oranges and apples in one parent tree. The start of such creative ideas must have given rise to many bizarre experimentations, most of which would fail monumentally. However, as time went by, and more and more people started to experiment, they gained more knowledge and gardening experience related to plant propagation. In the natural state, you are going to see different vegetative propagation methods through which a plant can grow. That means the plant is going to grow its own seeds, and use natural methods like air, wind and water to spread the seeds far and wide. In a strawberry, you are going to have the plant sending out long branches trailing on the soil. Stimulus of moisture causes the production of roots below a bud on a long branch. The bud is then going to send out shoots. Soon the connection between the new plant and the old plant is severed by a withering up of the intervening branch.