Propagation

A wildling is a seedling that grows naturally in the wild. Plentiful can be found on forest floors.

However, the term is now used broadly to include those which grow from seeds that fall under the canopies of adult trees, shrubs, and palms that are intentionally cultivated.

These naturally growing seedlings can be the best choice as planting materials if available, easily accessible, and affordable.

Where there is an immediate need for potted seedlings grown in the nursery but supply is scant or uncertain, access to sources becomes valuable.

Personal experience by the author also revealed that with Robusta coffee (Coffea robusta L.) having stems approximately as thick as a common pencil or over, flowering may be advanced, that is, within a year.

In contrast, it may take three years for young nursery-grown seedlings to mature.

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Vegetative propagation or asexual propagation is the method of reproducing plants with the use of organs other than the seed and spore.

In contrast to sexual propagation, the union of the male and female sexual gametes (fertilization) is not a requisite to the production of new plants.

Hence the word “asexual”, means “without sex” or “not sexual”.

The word “vegetative” refers to plant organs with the exception of the reproductive parts.

In conventional propagation without the employment of tissue culture techniques, asexual propagation is accomplished with the use of roots, stems, and leaves.

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In conventional methods, sexual propagation is with the use of seeds or spores.

Seeds are used in the spermatophytes or seed-bearing plants while spores are used in the seedless, spore-producing ferns and allies and the bryophytes.

The descriptive word “sexual” is attached to this type of propagation because the union of the male and female sexual gametes (the process is called fertilization) is a requisite in the production of the seed or in the development of a new plant from a spore.

The certainty of sex in plants was established by Camerarius in 1694 (Poehlman, 1977).

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Plant cuttings are segmented parts of plant organs that are used in vegetative propagation.

Just like other asexual or vegetative propagation methods, the use of cuttings allows the production of clones or plants which are considered “duplicates” of the parent plants genotypically.

It is advantageous where a plant does not produce seeds, the seeds are sterile, or whenever seeds are not available.

With crops that can be easily propagated using cuttings, this method has numerous advantages.

Many new plants can be produced in a limited space from a few stock plants.

It is simple and can be easily applied without having to learn the special techniques in grafting or budding.

It is rapid because there is no need to produce rootstocks.

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What is grafting in plants?

In crop farming or crop agriculture, grafting is most commonly referred to as an artificial, vegetative method of plant propagation.

However, as a technique or procedure, it has many other uses.

The term is also applied in animals and in humans as in skin grafting.

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Budding, often called bud grafting, is an artificial method of asexual or vegetative propagation in plants.

Like grafting, this method is employed to convert one plant (the rootstock) into another plant type with desirable characteristics.

Similarly, the resulting plants, in general, have shortened stature and maturity as compared to plants propagated from seed.

This method of plant propagation has the advantage of producing numerous clones from a single piece of stem or twig, each node being a potential source of the one-budded scion.

But in grafting, this same piece of the stem may account for only a single scion.

It is therefore advantageous where there is a limited source of plant cuttings or scions for grafting.

Likewise, the necessity of transporting bulky scions is eliminated.

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Plant propagation is the branch of horticulture that deals with the deliberate (or intentional) production of new plants using various starter materials (e.g. organs, tissues), including their intensive but temporary care.

It is primarily practiced to produce seedlings or clones of nursery crops for outplanting, or for planting in containers for display or decor, or other uses.

Nursery crops are those which commonly require the use of pre-grown planting materials for outplanting, or field planting.

A plant nursery is a place where seedlings, clones, and potted plants are raised temporarily under intensive care.

The basis of plant propagation is totipotency, the capability of cells to regenerate missing parts and, subsequently, an entire organism.

Applied to plants, it means that any live part that is separated from the parent plant is composed of live cells, can possibly produce missing organs of an intact plant, such as roots and shoot, and give rise to an entire plant.

It means that all plant organs with live cells, such as seeds, stems, etc., either intact or segmented, are potential propagules, or propagating materials.

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