Jacki Cammidge is a Certified Horticulturist specializing in frugal, low-input gardening and propagation, with lifelong hands-on experience and years as a wholesale nursery head propagator.

What Is Vegetative Propagation?

How Is It Better Than Other Ways Of Growing Plants?

I've grown lots of things from seed, but growing them from vegetative propagation adds a whole other dimension to growing plants. Find out What Vegetative Propagation Is here.

So here's the definition of the method of raising more  plants using part of the mother plant;

"Vegetative propagation is a type of asexual reproduction in plants where a new plant grows from a vegetative part of the parent plant, such as the roots, stem, or leaves, rather than from seeds or spores.

The new plant is a clone of the parent plant, meaning it is genetically identical, although sports and mutations may form the basis of new cultivars and varieties.

This process can occur both naturally and artificially."

Natural Vegetative Propagation

Many plants have developed natural methods for vegetative propagation. Some common examples include:

• Runners: These are stems that grow horizontally along the ground. At various points, or nodes, along the runner, new roots and shoots can develop, forming new plants. Strawberries are a well-known example. These stems are also referred to as 'stolons'.
  
  
• Bulbs: These are underground storage organs with fleshy leaves that store food. New bulbs can form from the main bulb and grow into new plants. Onions and tulips propagate in this way.
  
  
• Tubers: These are swollen underground stems or roots that store food. "Eyes" on the tuber can sprout and grow into new plants. The most common example is the potato but there are many other plants that follow this method of propagating themselves.
  
  
• Rhizomes: These are modified stems that grow horizontally underground. New shoots and roots can grow from the nodes of the rhizome. Ginger and irises are examples of plants that use rhizomes to propagate.
  
  
• Suckers: These are new shoots that grow from the base of the parent plant. Bananas and raspberries are examples of plants that produce suckers.
  
  Sometimes cherry and apple trees are grown this way, but often just for the root stock, which is then grafted with the more desirable fruit variety.

Artificial Vegetative Propagation

Humans have developed several techniques to propagate plants vegetatively. These methods are widely used in agriculture and horticulture. Some of these methods include:

• Cutting: A piece of the parent plant's stem or leaf is cut and planted. Sometimes a rooting hormone is used to help promote the roots, and if the conditions are right, the cutting will develop roots and grow into a new plant. This is a common way to propagate houseplants and shrubs.
  
  
• Grafting: A piece of a stem from one plant (the scion) is attached to the root system of another plant (the rootstock). This is often done to combine the desirable characteristics of two different plants, such as the fruit of one and the root system of another.
  
  
• Layering: A stem of a parent plant is bent down and covered with soil. The stem will then develop roots, and the new plant can be separated from the parent. This method is used for plants like jasmine and bougainvillea.
  
  
• Tissue Culture: This is a more advanced method where small pieces of plant tissue are grown in a sterile laboratory environment on a nutrient medium. This technique can be used to produce a large number of identical plants in a short amount of time. You may see this used in orchid production, and with plants that are not easily grown by other means.

Division is a good way to get more of the same plant, and is used extensively with perennials. The clump forming types, such as Hylotelephium (used to be known as Sedum telephium) and many others of the same growth habit are often propagated this way.

Every plant grown by division is identical, unlike seed grown plants.

If you're interested in this topic, you might be a horticulturist. Finding out more about growing plants in different ways is fascinating, and may become a lifelong obsession if you're not careful

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