Gardeners and growers make artificial clones of plants by taking cuttings. A cutting is a short piece of stem (or sometimes a leaf or root) that is removed from the parent plant and grown into a new plant. Because it forms by mitosis, the new plant is genetically identical to the parent.How to take a stem cutting• Choose a healthy, non-flowering shoot.
• Cut the stem cleanly between nodes, usually just below a node, with a slanted cut to increase the surface area for rooting and to stop water collecting on the cut surface.
• Remove most of the leaves, leaving a few at the top, to reduce water loss by transpiration while the cutting has no roots.
• Dip the cut end in rooting powder, which contains auxins (plant hormones) that stimulate root growth.
• Plant it in a suitable compost and keep it warm and humid, for example by covering with a plastic bag, to reduce water loss.
• Keep it well watered and out of direct strong sunlight until roots form.
Cuttings are cheap and simple, and produce large numbers of identical plants with the same desirable features, such as flower colour or flavour. They are widely used for plants that do not produce seeds easily and for those that do not breed true from seed, such as many varieties of apple, grape, rose and geranium.Some plants can also be propagated from leaf cuttings (for example African violets) or root cuttings.Worked example: if 30 cuttings are taken and 24 form roots, the success rate is 24 ÷ 30 × 100 = 80%.
• Cut the stem cleanly between nodes, usually just below a node, with a slanted cut to increase the surface area for rooting and to stop water collecting on the cut surface.
• Remove most of the leaves, leaving a few at the top, to reduce water loss by transpiration while the cutting has no roots.
• Dip the cut end in rooting powder, which contains auxins (plant hormones) that stimulate root growth.
• Plant it in a suitable compost and keep it warm and humid, for example by covering with a plastic bag, to reduce water loss.
• Keep it well watered and out of direct strong sunlight until roots form.
Cuttings are cheap and simple, and produce large numbers of identical plants with the same desirable features, such as flower colour or flavour. They are widely used for plants that do not produce seeds easily and for those that do not breed true from seed, such as many varieties of apple, grape, rose and geranium.Some plants can also be propagated from leaf cuttings (for example African violets) or root cuttings.Worked example: if 30 cuttings are taken and 24 form roots, the success rate is 24 ÷ 30 × 100 = 80%.