5.2 Artificial vegetative reproduction
What are some methods to grow new plants without seeds?
Plant parts such as stems, buds and leaves can be used in artificial vegetative reporduction. This is a man-made way to reproduce plants with certain preferred characteristics.
Common methods of artificial vegetative eproduction are cutting, grafting, budding and air layering.
Cutting
This method involves cutting off a plant part and planting it in the soil, so that it can grow into a new plant. the plant part used is caled a cutting or a plant slip. Different plant parts can be used for the cutting method.
Stems
The most commonly used part for this method is the stem. Plants with woody stems, such as the hibiscus or chrysanthemum plant, can reproduce by stem cuttings.
Another way is to place the stem in water. When roots begin to grow, the stem is then planted in the soil.