Plant propagation: Growing of new plants from existing ones, typically using seeds or cuttings.

Micropropagation involves the application of tissue culture techniques to propagate plants from really small plant parts .
The small plant part is grown in a test tube, petri dish, or other sterilized container with a culture medium and precise environmental conditions.
The container and growing medium should be sterilized.
Because plants often harbor bacterial and fungal spores, the plant tissue must be disinfected.

Keep your brand-new plants warm and in bright light, but out of direct sunlight.
Many cuttings will also reap the benefits of added humidity.
To improve moisture and develop a mini-greenhouse effect, place the pots in an obvious plastic bag.
Don’t let the plastic you utilize to cover the pots touch the cuttings.
Mayonnaise jars, milk cartons, and plastic soda bottles can also be used to cover cuttings.
Search for a healthy stem absent of flower buds, disease and insects.
Utilizing a sharp, sterile knife make a clean cut at a 45° angle to maximize the rooting area.

If rooting only a few cuttings, you may use a flowerpot or small flat (Figure 13–4).
Maintain high humidity by within the cuttings with a bottomless milk jug or by placing the container right into a clear plastic bag.
Cuttings may also be placed in plastic trays covered with clear plastic stretched over a wire frame.
Dormancy can be regulated by the environment or by the seed itself.

Significant to crop variability may be the breeding system of the crop.
Additionally, if a novel plant does appear, a closed breeding system helps it be easier for a farmer to perpetuate plants with that specific feature.
In contrast, plants with a far more open breeding system are more likely to be variable, with offspring that don’t all look alike and don’t necessarily look like their parent.
And when a plant with favorable characteristics is found, it is more challenging to perpetuate these features through time.
In fact, it is likely that these features will go away quickly, from being ‘washed out’ by breeding with people that do not contain the feature.
It is also significant that population size and reproductive isolation influence variability.
Leaf sectioning also works with more fibrous leaves such as for example those entirely on Sansevieria or Eucomis .

Grafting

By harvesting the seeds which are naturally produced, you can grow more plants without extra cash at the nursery.
This is usually a great choice for prolific annuals and vegetables.
Creating new plants from cuttings is easy, inexpensive, and rewarding.
Otherwise, it may not recover from the increased loss of so many roots.
Dig carefully round the foot of the parent plant to expose a few of the roots.
Place the potted cuttings in a protected area outdoors.
Water the dormant cuttings only

• In this instance, seeds which were kept may be used to replenish the land.
• Make 3 or 4 wraps above the bud and three or four below.
• Limbs on the old cultivar that aren’t selected should be scale back at the time of grafting.

Decide on a smooth, knot-free, straight-grained section.
If the saw cut isn’t smooth, work with a knife to trim off the rough edges.
In most cases, it is advisable to wrap the graft to keep contact between cambial areas .
Wrap the graft with a rubber budding strip, grafting tape or perhaps a plastic adhesive tape.
To prevent the graft union from drying, cover the wrapped area with grafting wax as uniformly as you possibly can.
In wrapping and waxing, be careful not to dislodge the aligned cambial areas.

Leaf Cuttings

Cuttings are frequently found in permaculture to propagate herbs, vegetables, annual and perennial flowers.
Sensitive plants that require special growing conditions may also be difficult to propagate.
However with knowledge and patience you’ll be able to propagate all plants.
Division is the easiest & most successful method and involves separating the pups or offshoots from the mother plant and rooting them.
Great for beginners, pothos are forgiving plants which are virtually disease and pest-free and tolerant of low light conditions.
You can even use clear plastic jars, milk cartons or plastic soda bottles to cover your cuttings and keep them humid.

Once your new plants have become roots, it is possible to plant them in their pots.
Slow your daily watering as you approach planting day, and be sure your potting mix is well-drained when you plant your brand-new plants.
Your new plants should take root and continue steadily to grow over the next few weeks.
For your first time propagating a plant, it’s far better select a healthy, hardy, easy-to-grow plant with standard, developed roots that you’ve had for a while.
This means that its roots are established in its pot and that the parent plant could have no adverse effects from being propagated.
There are a variety of plant propagation tools and methods; from taking cuttings to layering to dividing and much more.

Runners and offsets are specialized structures that facilitate propagation by layering.
Remove the petiole of a plant for instance a rex begonia, cut the veins, and lay the leaf flat at first glance of the media.
Containers will need to have holes in the bottoms for drainage.
The plastic helps maintain the humidity high and reduces water loss from the plant.
If a more elaborate structure is needed, construct a little hoop frame or use an intermittent mist

The importance of utilizing a sterile medium and container can’t be over-emphasized.
The house gardener can treat a little quantity of soil mixture within an oven.
Place the slightly moist soil in a heat-resistant container in an oven set at about 250 degrees F.
Use a candy or meat thermometer to make sure that the mix reaches a temperature of 180 degrees F.