Cutting Propagation

Learn how to take cuttings from a variety of plants and reproduce them quickly and successfully.What will you learn about cutting propagation?

• Take and prepare a variety of plant cuttings from various species.
• Consider taking stem, root, leaf, and bulb cuttings.
• Understand the distinctions between potting mixes and propagation mixtures. soil analysis
• Discover the procedures employed in production nurseries. hormonal roots
• Greenhouses and plant propagation techniques

Which direction will this course lead you?

• work in a nursery, either retail or wholesale.
• work in a nursery production
• Create your own, modest nursery.
• Adapt your methods.
• Offer you plants for your own garden almost free!

Today’s nursery industry places a high value on the ability to propagate a variety of plants from carefully selected and prepared cuttings. While no single course will turn you into a master propagator, this training will provide you the required groundwork to develop these talents.

Lesson Structure

There are 8 lessons in this course:

• Introduction.
  • The principles of propagating plants by cuttings
  • Importance of cuttings
  • Phenotype vs genotype
  • Why choose cutting propagation
  • Where to get cuttings from
  • Basic cutting technique.

• Stem cuttings
  • Ease with which tissue forms roots
  • Types of stem cuttings (softwood, hardwood, semi hardwood, herbaceous, tip, heel, nodal, cane etc)
  • Treatments (eg. basal heat, mist, tent, etc)
  • Testing rooting success

• Non-stem cuttings
  • Leaf cuttings
  • Root cuttings (natural suckering with or without division, Induced suckering, In situ whole root cuttings; ex situ detached root cuttings)
  • Bulb cuttings, scaling and twin scaling, sectioning, basal cuttage.

• Materials and equipment
  • Selection and maintenance of stock plants
  • Disinfecting cutting material

• Growing media
  • Propagation media
  • Biological, chemical and physical characteristics of propagation and potting media
  • Testing for toxins
  • Air filled porosity
  • Potting up cuttings
  • Soil-less mixes, rockwool, etc.

• Factors affecting rooting
  • Juvenility
  • Cutting Treatments
  • Hormones & their application
  • Anti transparents
  • Acid/base treatments
  • Disinfectants
  • Callusing
  • Mycorrhizae
  • Carbon Dioxide enrichment, etc.

• Setting up a propagation area
  • Creating and managing an appropriate cutting environment in terms of: Water; Disease; Temperature; Light and Air Quality
  • Greenhouses and other structures
  • Watering methods (mist, fog, capillary etc)
  • Heating, etc.

• Management of cutting crops
  • Estimating cost of production
  • Keeping records, etc.

Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school’s tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.

Aims

• to acquaint the student with the fundamentals of plant cutting propagation
• to become knowledgeable about how to grow plants from stem cuttings
• to gain knowledge on how to grow plants from non-stem cuttings
• to gain knowledge of the tools and supplies used for growing plants from stems
• to comprehend expanding media principles in reference to cutting propagation
• to comprehend why and how cuttings develop roots. to understand how to control the growth of roots on cuttings
• to comprehend the fundamentals of creating effective plant propagation regions
• To comprehend nursery crop scheduling principles

How You Plan to Act

• Create a location close to your home where cuttings can be raised.
  • It only has to be a protected area where you can raise the cuttings you will be required to grow for this course; it doesn’t need to be a greenhouse.
• Choose ten distinct plants that can be propagated using stem cuttings. Unless you are confident that you can prepare various cuts, practise.
• Samples of your cuttings should be placed in the propagation area with a propagating mix. Keep the mixture moist and watch how the clippings behave. Does it grow new leaves, for instance? Does growth respond to variations in temperature? Do any cuttings pass away?, etc.)
  • Take notes on what you notice. Later in the course, questions regarding your results will be asked of you.
• Prepare five different plant species’ leaf cuttings. Once you feel competent to accomplish this, practise.
• Five different plant species should have their root cuttings ready. Once you feel competent to accomplish this, practise.
• Five distinct plant species’ bulb cuttings should be prepared. Once you feel competent to accomplish this, practise.
• Insert cutting samples in a propagation mixture.
• Find out where they get their propagation material by visiting three plant propagation nurseries. Test and identify soil samples.
• Find out what rooting hormones are sold by visiting your neighbourhood nursery or garden supply store. Check if you can find out what substances are in the products.
• See three distinct commercial greenhouses.
• Make a pot of cuttings, then calculate the production costs for each cutting that is made.

DISCUSS THE SPAN AND TYPE OF CUTTINGSCuttings are used to propagate plants for a variety of reasons, including:Cutting-grown plants resemble their parent exactly. A plant that has developed from a cutting is genetically identical to the parent plant from which the cutting was originally obtained. Plants developed from seeds do not always follow this rule.The most popular method for growing “true to type” plants is by cuttings. This makes sure that the distinctive traits of the parent plant, like leaf variegation or blossom size and colour, are passed on to the offspring. The flower and foliage effects, for instance, can differ from those on the parent plant when a plant is developed from seed.Cuttings make it simpler to grow fresh plants. Production of seeds might be challenging for some plant species for one or more of the following reasons:a) The plant doesn’t produce viable seed or produces seed irregularly; b) the seed is difficult to germinate (e.g., Boronia, Eriostemon); c) the seed is difficult to collect, for instance, plants with seed pods that burst open dispersing the seeds widely; d) the seed is produced at a time when seed cannot be collected, or collection would necessitate a second trip to the area (often very difficult for remote areas), or (e.g. plants whose seed matures during wet seasons when access may be limited).generating plants that bloom or bear fruit earlier. A juvenile stage is experienced by many plants that are developed from seeds, during which flowering and subsequent seed production do not take place. Some plants could start flowering 5, 10, or even more years after they are planted. After a plant has bloomed, plants that are grown from it by cuttings will skip the juvenile stage and bloom quickly, frequently just a few months after the cutting was made. When plants are young, they frequently exhibit undesired growth shapes. They consist of incredibly rapid growth, thorniness, or ugly foliage or shape. These unfavourable traits can be prevented by taking cuttings from adult plants.preserving juvenility A plant’s juvenile stage occasionally possesses traits that make it more desirable than its mature form. The smaller, juvenile leaves of the Hedera helix varieties is an excellent illustration of this (English Ivy). Cuttings from young material will take for some plants more quickly.Why is Cuttings? Notwithstanding all the challenges associated with other plant propagation methods, cutting is still one of the simplest and most economical ways to create a large number of new plants, whether for domestic or commercial use. This course provides the groundwork for a career as a professional propagator, the launch of a production nursery, or the development of gardening hobbyist skills. 

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