Increasing Your Stock - Simple Propagation
Gardening Basics
Increasing your stock (Simple Propagation)
written by Lauren Berry (BSc Horticulture Undergrad)
written by Lauren Berry (BSc Horticulture Undergrad)
At some point in your gardening enterprises you are probably going to want to increase your stock of a particular plant. You've got two choices about how you do this; you can either propagate your own plants or you can pay someone else to do it for you by buying more plants or hiring a gardener.
Propagation on a small scale, where you are trying to produce just a couple more plants, is usually a fairly simple task and doesn't take as much time as you might think. You will need to have a couple of extra tools to do the job properly and get higher success rates.
Most importantly you will need some decent seed compost and something to grow the plantlets (young plants or seedlings) in. The best thing for small scale propagation is a simple mini propagator that are only a few pounds and sold in most garden centers and many supermarkets at the right time of year.
On the other hand you could easily make your own with a spare pot, a few cocktail sticks and some cling film (see right). A simple tent like this will keep the seedlings/cuttings humid and protect them from pests such as aphids and slugs.
Division
Perhaps the easiest way to get more plants is to simply divide one clump into two or more.
Most herbaceous perennials (non-woody plants that die down and come back every year) like Hostas and ornamental grasses can be propagated in this way.
The best time to do this is when the plant is dormant and the weather is favourable, usually in early spring when the ground is no longer frozen and the plant is just about to commence growth.
Dig up the clump and shake as much soil from the rootball as possible to help you see where the roots are, then place it on the ground. Take two forks and slide them both, back to back, into the centre of the clump. Using the forks, carefully ease the clump into two halves. This may take some time but persevere until they come separate from each other, both with plenty of root.
If you wish you may repeat the process to get more smaller plants and once they reach a small enough size you could probably just use your hands.
Give each new plant a good soak in water to replace any moisture that may have been lost while it was out of the ground.
To help the plants settle and re-establish quickly, prepare the soil by forking it over until it's soft and crumbly. Add some well-rotted manure or compost and mix that in as well. Doing this means that instead of being put back into cold hard ground, the plants will have some nice soft, well aerated, nutritious soil that they just can't wait to get their roots into.
Not all plants can be divided using the two forks method however, especially if you only own one fork! Some plants, like many iris's, have a thick fleshy rhizome that will need to be cut (see right). Follow the steps as above but use a sharp knife (preferably one you don't mind being blunted) to cut the clump/rhizome so that each piece has a good root system and some shoots. Discard any plant material that you find to be diseased or unhealthy in any way.
Seeds
Seeds are a great way of getting a lot of new plants relatively quickly but care must be taken to ensure you are getting what you think you are.
Not all plants will come true from seeds. For example, if you have a prized purple pansy next to another fine red pansy then you would expect the new plants from the seeds of either to be red or purple. Unfortunately this is not always the case. The seeds could grow to be almost any colour as the plants will have bred with each other and with every other pansy in the neighbourhood!
This is the same with many plants you can buy, as both your purple pansy and your red pansy are cultivars. A cultivar is a plant that has been propagated by cuttings, and this is the only way they can be grown to get identical plants.
But if you know that your plant is a species, or you want to try playing seed roulette and see what you get, then you may well wish to try gathering the seed.
Collecting seeds
Large seeds: Plants that have very large seeds, like acorns, can easily be picked either once they have fallen to the ground or straight off the plant. Only pick seeds from the plant if they come away easily. If you are having to pull them off, leave them for a couple of days then try again. Ripe seeds are easy to pick whereas unripe ones are not.
Seed pods: If the pods are ripe and open, shake the seeds out of them into a bowl or an envelope. If the pods are not quite open yet you could pick them and place them in paper bag so that when they do open you can collect them easily. Only do this if you are sure the pods are close to opening or they won't ripen properly.
Fruit/berry seeds: If your seeds are covered by a fruit, like Mahonia, collect them when they are just ripe and put them in a muslin or cotton cloth. Mash the cloth to break the fruits and run the whole thing under a tap. Keep doing this until you have squeezed all the juice out and are left with the pulp and seeds. Clean the seeds thoroughly of fruit and leave to dry before storing.
Small seeds: If the seeds are teeny then only collect them on a still day and keep them in a sealed container. There's nothing worse than spending an hour carefully picking pods and extracting minuscule seeds only to have a slight gust blow them all into the lawn.
How to Check on the Health of your Seeds
A good way of checking the health of your seeds is to put them into a bowl of cold water. Any that have been attacked by insects or are rotting will float to the surface; healthy seeds, on the other hand, will sink.
To store your seeds make sure they are thoroughly dry and place them in an envelope, in a cool dark place. It's always a good idea to label the packet just in case you forget what you put in it.
If by any chance you don't know the name of the plant the seeds came from, simply write a description you will recognise later.
Cuttings
As mentioned before, some plants can only be propagated by cuttings because they do not come true from seeds. They may also be difficult to divide.
There are many different types of cuttings, and ways in which they can be grown, but most have the same basic needs. They need water, humidity, air and most need heat.
The first two are easy enough; follow the design for the simple propagator at the top of the page as this will give the humid environment the cuttings need. Cuttings root best if they are given some form of basal heat. You can purchase a special semi-permeable membrane that is heated by electrical filaments running through it, or a small heated propagator, and these are well worth the cost if you intend to make a lot of cuttings.
If you only want one or two plants, however, then placing the pots on a warm windowsill or in the green house will suffice. Remember, though, that cuttings almost never have a 100% success rate so always plant more than you need.
The way you treat your cuttings will depend on the stage of growth at the time of cutting. The various growth stages are explained below:
Soft wood: Soft wood is the the sappy growth from this year. These cuttings are best taken in spring when the new growth is well developed but still soft. The cuttings have a high potential to root but are very easily damaged and prone to wilting. They can root very quickly.
Greenwood cuttings: Just slightly more mature that the soft wood, these cuttings are easier to handle as they have had time to toughen up a bit. Still prone to wilting though.
Semi-ripe cuttings: The stems are firmer, more mature, and the foliage has reached its full size. More difficult to root than the soft and green wood but is less prone to wilting and damage.
Hardwood cuttings: These are fully mature stems that are often taken from deciduous trees and evergreens when they are dormant. They take much longer to root but can do so outside easily, and are much more resistant to damage or wilting.
The cutting itself should always come from a healthy plant as a stressed or diseased plant will have a much lower cutting-success rate. Also, if your plant has a virus this will be passed on to the new plant. To take the cutting you will need either a very sharp knife or secateurs for larger specimens.
If you look at the stem of your plant you will see little bumps or spots at set distances apart. These are the nodes, where the new stems would grow if the plant was left to its own devices. They may already have leaves growing out of them.
This area is the best place to take a cutting from because it already has the potential to grow and so has a store of hormones ready. We don't want it to grow leaves though; we want it grow some nice new roots. So once the stem has been cut it may need some persuasion.
Dip the cut into rooting hormone. This is available in various forms from powders to liquids you dilute, so follow the directions on the back of the pack/bottle.
Remove any flower buds and the growth shoot from the cuttings tip so that it focuses all its attention on rooting. If the leaves are large trim them back to about half their original size to reduce the amount of water the cutting will lose.
The main reasons why cuttings fail are wilting caused by the humidity not being high enough, and more water being lost through large leaves than the plant can replace. Insert the cuttings into some free-draining compost so that they are firmly set and able to support themselves. Quickly move them to where they are going to be grown, be it propagator or windowsill, to keep them humid.
Only ever do one cutting at a time. By all means collect all the material necessary but each cutting needs to be completed and in the compost before the next is started. This will reduce the amount of time the plant has to wilt between being cut and put into some moist compost, and will increase their chances of survival.
If you do plan on trying to propagate your own plants always remember that there is never a 100% success rate.
No matter how perfect the rooting or germination environment, not all will grow into new plants. This being the case always plant more seeds or cuttings than you need and be ruthless when deciding which ones you are going to keep.
Only keep the strongest and healthiest of the batch as this will ensure your plants stay at their best for the longest time and will not disappoint you.
© Lauren Berry 2007.
This article must not be reproduced without written permission.
This article must not be reproduced without written permission.
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