Artificial reproduction

Artificial reproduction/propagation is the creation of new life by other than the natural means available to an organism. Examples include artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization, cloning and embryonic splitting, or cleavage.

Cutting plants' stems and placing them in compost is also a form of artificial reproduction. We can grow many plants from one plant by using the man-made methods. The process of growing many plants from one plant by man-made methods is called artificial propagation of plants. A number of methods of artificial propagation of plants are used in agriculture (for raising crops), and horticulture (cultivation of vegetables, fruits and flowers). The three common methods for the artificial propagation of plants are:

We will now describe all these methods, one by one. Let us start with the cuttings method for the artificial propagation of plants.

A small part of a plant which is removed by making a cut with a sharp knife is called a 'cutting'. A cutting may be a piece of stem, root or even a leaf. While making a cut, care should be taken to see that there are some buds on it.

In this method, a small part of a plant is removed by making a cut with sharp knife.

The plants like rose, Bougainvillea, Chrysanthemum, grapes, sugarcane, bananas, and cactus, etc. can be grown by means of cuttings. For example, rose plants and chrysanthemums are propagated (or reproduced) by means c cuttings from stems (or shoots) as follows: A piece of stem (or side shoot) having bud is cut from an existing rose plant with the help of a knife. The lower part of this cutting is buried in moist soil. After a few days, the end of cutting buried in soil develops roots and later on grows to become a new rose plant. An advantage of cuttings method is that by using this method we can produce many new plants from just one plant quickly, without waiting for flowers and sexual reproduction.

In this method, a branch of the plant is pulled towards the ground and a part of it is covered with moist soil leaving the tip of the branch exposed above the ground. After some time, new roots develop from the part of the branch buried in the soil. The branch is then cut off from the parent plant. The part of the branch which has developed roots grows to become a new plant (just like the parent plant). Jasmine plant (chameli) is propagated or produced by the layering method.

We can see from that one left side branch and one right side branch of the parent jasmine plant have been buried in moist soil. The parts of branches which are buried in soil grow their own roots. When this happens, the branches of the parent plant connecting the newly formed plants are cut off so that the newly formed plants may grow on their own and develop into mature plants (like the parent plant).

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Wikipedia