Propagation Of Plants

The smaller the seed, the shallower it should be planted.

Mix small seeds with dry sand for easy sowing.

To collect seeds, place the ripe seed heads in a paper bag and shake.

Seeds that are still in the pod should not be stored in airtight containers. They need a flow of air around them. When the pods are dry, remove the seeds and put them into a paper bag.

Conserve moisture and maintain an even temperature by covering seedling pots with cling film or polythene bags. Push short pieces of wood or twigs into the compost around the pots to keep the cover from touching the seedlings. Take off the covers from time to time and turn inside out to remove the condensation building up.

If the light levels are too low where your seeds are growing, stand the pots on kitchen foil so that they benefit from the reflected light.

Seeds with hard coats can be soaked in water overnight before sowing. Warm up the soil before planting seeds, by putting a sheet of black polythene over the bed. Keep it in place by weighting it down with stones. When you are ready to plant, remove the cover.

Make a mini-greenhouse. Cut an empty 5 litre plastic water bottle in half, you then have two small propagators to place over your seedlings.

Cuttings

When taking cuttings, place them into a plastic bag until you are ready to plant them. The bag helps to retain moisture and helps to keep them fresh.

Stem Cuttings: - These are pieces of growth taken from the aerial parts of the parent plant, and can be either side shoots or the tips of main shoots. They may be soft wood, half-ripened wood or ripe wood. Soft woodcuttings are taken from young tender growth of the current season; half-ripened cuttings are made from semi-ripened wood that has been grown for some time and become slightly woody or firm; ripe wood cuttings or hard wood cuttings are made from mature wood at the end of the growing season and are chiefly used for the propagation of trees and shrubs.

All stem cuttings are prepared by removing the lower leaves, and then cutting straight across the stem, just below a joint or node. The cutting should be about 3 inch (7.5cm) long.

In the case of ripe wood cuttings they can be made with a "heel" of the older wood attached at the base and be up to 10 or 12 inch (25-30cm) long.

Inserting the Cuttings

No mater how well the preparation of the cuttings is, they will not root properly unless they are inserted correctly. When the cutting is made it causes a wound, which must heal and in doing this new tissue is formed to cover the damaged area. Under favourable conditions the wound will heal and grow roots and so provides a means to continue a separate existence.

Sometimes cuttings will put too much effort into healing the damage at the expense of root formation. They may appear to be growing yet will not produce roots. High soil temperatures, or a coarse rooting medium may cause this. Open and coarse planting mediums allow too much air to penetrate to the base of the cutting. The use of very coarse sand has been found to create such development problems.

Want to find out about grass fertilizer and how to plant grass? Get tips from the Plants And Flowers website.