Plant Propagation - Asexual Propagation

Asexual Propagation

Plants have a number of mechanisms for asexual or vegetative reproduction. Some of these have been taken advantage of by horticulturists and gardeners to multiply or clone plants rapidly. People also use methods that plants do not use, such as tissue culture and grafting. Plants are produced using material from a single parent and as such there is no exchange of genetic material, therefore vegetative propagation methods almost always produce plants that are identical to the parent. Vegetative reproduction uses plants parts such as roots, stems and leaves. In some plants seeds can be produced without fertilization and the seeds contain only the genetic material of the parent plant. Therefore, propagation via asexual seeds or apomixis is asexual reproduction but not vegetative propagation.

Techniques for vegetative propagation include:

• Air or ground layering
• Division
• Grafting and bud grafting, widely used in fruit tree propagation
• Micropropagation
• Stolons or runners
• Storage organs such as bulbs, corms, tubers and rhizomes
• Striking or cuttings
• Twin-scaling