EZ Clone Machine - 30! Gardening With Cuttings - A How to Guide Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/2144252

Taking cuttings from plants or cloning is the process whereby a plant part is removed from the mother plant; this part could be a leaf, shoot, root or perhaps a division of the entire plant. Cuttings or cloning normally produces a very similar plant to the mother plant. Variations between clones and mother normally occur because of cultural differences, as the genetic material is the same in both clones and mother. The only other way your clones can be different from the parent plant is by mutation. Mutation is the process where genetic variation occurs randomly within an individual. This individual could be either a mother or a clone.

Genetic mutations are very rare occurrences in most plant species. For the most part you can expect clones taken from a mother plant and then grown under similar cultural conditions to be very similar plants. Clones are an excellent way to reproduce your favorite plant. I will quickly go over the process for cloning first thing to do is select the plant for this example we will be using African violets.

African violets are a very easy plant to clone. They reproduce from leaf cuttings inflorescence cuttings as well as from micro-propagation. We will get more into micro propagation in a later chapter. Leaf cuttings are the most common way people propagate African violets a single leaf can produce several plants. The process is simple remove leaves from your favorite African Violet leaving the leaf petiole long enough to be placed in soil or other media. Diagonal cutting of the petiole is said to be beneficial for faster rooting. The type of media used should be light and have good water retention. One such good media is a blend of perlite, vermiculite and peat. This media blend allows for good aeration at the diagonal cut this can aid in the rooting of the leaf. African Violet leaves can take up to six months to root depending on temperature and several other factors. One such factor is whether rooting hormone was used.

Most rooting hormones contained gibrilic acid. This hormone aids in the rooting process to varying degrees with different cultivars. In tests I've done most African violet leaf cuttings root almost twice as fast using rooting hormones as without. The rooting hormones simply add to the existing hormones in the cutting and by this addition cuttings root faster. Remember, in propagating plants we are asking a portion of the plant, be it a stem, root, leaf, or tip, to develop a root system strong enough to support new plant growth. In order for this to happen a cutting must alter its production mode. Instead of producing a stem cell a cutting must begin to produce undifferentiated cells and then root cells. Rooting hormones promote undifferentiated growth and therefore stimulate and assist the rooting process, rooting hormones not only speed up the rooting process but they also foster strong plant growth remember fast rooting cuttings produce healthy strong plants. Rooting hormones come in gel, liquid or powder form. I for the most part almost always use the gel, but all of these types are used by growers with great success.

A few tips about taking cuttings sometimes a small air bubble will form at the base of the cut this air can cause embolism. Embolism is when water and nutrients cannot reach plant organs due to an air bubble having formed at the base of the cut. This bubble prevents transport of water and nutrients to plant parts. To avoid this always dip your cuttings in water before applying the rooting hormone also holding cuttings at an angle when dipping will help eliminate embolisms. Hormone gels work particularly well to seal cuttings immediately after they have been cut this reduces not only embolisms but also shock and infection. Another thing that you can do if you are worried about embolism is to make an initial cut and then make your final cut underwater. Just place your leaf in a bowl of water and make your final cut with a sharp razor. Most liquid hormones can be diluted if you find that your cuttings are not prospering you may want to switch to a weaker hormone solution dilute up to 50%. Another tip is to always use a sharp razor blade for all of your cutting this razor bladed should be clean so that no contamination is transferred from clone to clone. Please look for future articles on cloning and micro-propagation and thank you for reading this.

I hope you have found this article interesting please visit my website for more information on cuttings and cloning.

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Richard Bennett

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EZ Clone Machine - 30