You might expect a lot of sex talk in a class on propagation; you would then be disappointed to learn that gardeners prefer asexual propagation.

Bummer.

Quotation

Asexual propagation is cloning; the resulting plants are genetically the same as the parent plant.

Lessons Learned

• Plants propagate sexually and asexually.
• Sexual propagation involves seeds and spores.
• Asexual propagation involves a number of techniques requiring human intervention.
  • Cuttings
  • Division (of roots)
  • Layering
  • Grafting and budding
  • Micro propagation (requires a lab)
• Asexual propagation involves more materials and work than I plan to invest. (This may be the most important lesson I learned. Self-knowledge is a good thing.)

Vocabulary

• Germination – Sprouting of seed and start of plant growth.
  

  Source: Wikipedia

• Layering – Probably the neatest kind of vegetative propagation. You take a stem still attached to a parent plant and place them in a rooting medium – it can be the ground – where they grow their own roots and can be cut from the parent plant, resulting in two plants, the parent and the clone.
• Seed scarification – Breaking, scratching or softening the seed coat to that water can enter and begin germination.
• Seed Stratification – Some seeds must be chilled to dormancy lest they germinate before conditions are satisfactory for their survival, i.e., remaining dormant over the winter. Creating this dormancy artificially is called stratification.
• Vermiculite – Heat-treated, expanded mineral used to condition soil, start seeds, or root cuttings; holds moisture and nutirents well, acting as a soil substitute.

Today’s Photo

Along the parking lot at Green Spring Gardens.

Homework

Read chapter on Entomology. Mid-term next Thursday!