Vegetative Propagation
Vegetative Propagation
Vegetative Propagation
Vegetative propagation of plants is a form of asexual reproduction which involves the regeneration
of new plants from portions of vegetative organs such as stem, leaves and roots.
Propagule: The part of plant or the plant material that is used for vegetative propagation is
called propagule
Clone: The population of genetically identical individuals produced from a single plant through
vegetative propagation.
This is plant propagation using stem, leaves and roots of plants artificially. It enables the rapid
production of new plants preserving all desirable traits and hence is widely adopted in agriculture
and horticulture. The commonest methods include cutting, layering, grafting and budding.
1) CUTTING
Cutting is the vegetative propagation by which new plants are raised from the cuttings of
vegetative parts of a parent plant.
a) Stem cutting
In stem cutting the vegetative part used is stem. There are two types of stem cuttings-Stem
tip cuttings and stem section cuttings
i) Stem tip cuttings or terminal cuttings
In stem tip cutting the tip of stem is cut out and used to produce a new plant. Eg.
Lantana, Duranta, Phyllanthus etc.
ii) Stem section cuttings
In stem section cuttings pieces of stem are used for planting. Rooting of these cuttings are
stimulated by the use of rooting hormones like indole acetic acid (IAA), indole butyric acid
(IBA), naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) etc. Stem section cuttings are of different types such as
softwood cuttings, semi-hardwood cuttings, deciduous hardwood cuttings, conifer cuttings and
herbaceous cuttings. Eg. Rose, Hibiscus, Tapioca, Croton, Coleus, Sugarcane, Bougainvillaea
etc.
b) Root cuttings
In root cuttings the selected part for cutting is root. Roots are cut, trimmed and planted. New
roots and adventitious buds arise from the planted cuttings and new plant arises.
Eg. bread-fruit plant
Factors affecting rooting of cuttings
4) BUDDING
Budding is the vegetative propagation in which the scion is a single bud. The
mother plants from which buds are taken to be used as scions are called budwood.
Fully matured buds are taken and inserted into a recipient plant known as root stock
and both are sealed together. Budding is regarded as pseudografting or bud grafting.
a) T-budding
In this method the scion (bud) is cut in a shield shape and a T shaped cut is made in the
3
bark of the root stock. The shield shape scion is inserted into the Tshaped cut of the
stock and is sealed with grafting wax.
b) Patch budding
In this method a patch of the bark is removed from the stock and the bud pieceis cut in the same
shape as the stock. The bud piece must coincide with that of the root stock. The patch bud is
wrapped to seal the cut edges and to hold the bud piece tightly into the root stock.
Advantages of vegetative propagation
• Useful for plants in which sexual propagation fails, seedless plants and sterileseeds
• Steady multiplication of plants and quick establishment
• Preserves genetic purity, genetic constancy and hereditary potentialities
• Produce genetically identical offsprings hence uniformity of produce quality
• Vegetative propagation through grafting brings about best combinations ofeconomic
advantage
• The plants produced by grafting are qualitatively superior than parents andflowers and
fruits early
Disadvantages of vegetative propagation
• Systemic infections spread to entire progeny
• Plant materials are bulky to handle and transport.
• Due to uniformity of plants a disease or infection can wipe out entire
populations
• Mechanized propagation is not practical every time