Smaller plants only allow for a few cuttings to be made per plant. Propagating by cuttings tends to be more labour intensive. Remember me Log in. Lost your password? Want to stop killing plants, become a great gardener and grow your own food? Let us guide you. Advantages Of Propagating From Seed: Seeds are the source used most widely New cultivars and varieties can be created through sexual propagation It tends to be cheaper to propagate from seed The majority of seeds are readily available Sexual propagation seldom requires expensive propagation structures Large numbers of plants can be produced in minimal space Sexual propagation can be used to create rootstocks for budding and grafting Sexual propagation promotes genetic variability which helps plants evolve against pathogens and fluctuating environmental conditions Manny seeds allow for the possibility to be stored.
Trees grown from seed tend to live longer, bear more fruit and are hardier. Propagating from seed generally carries a lower risk of transferring diseases from the parent plant. Provided adequate sanitation practices are followed Certain plants can only be raised from seed.
When starting a garden for the first time 9 out of 10 people are going to turn to seeds. Seeds are by far the easiest way to have a variety, after all you just pick out whatever varieties you want to grow and plant them.
Buying seeds essentially means you are buying multiple plants of the same variety for a lower cost than buying already established plants, which means you will be getting more bang for your buck. Round 2: We have the Cuttings fighting out of the yellow corner.
Cuttings, or live plants are already established growing plants. If we consider Granny Smith apples for example, the scion wood of all grafted trees of this variety, all around the world, everywhere, can be traced back to a single tree in one part of the world! Quite amazing when you think about it. In each part of the world where a Granny Smith apple is grown, scion wood which is a clone of the parent tree will be grafted onto a various different rootstocks to cope with the local growing conditions.
There are a large number of different grafting techniques that are used in different circumstances and on different trees, the diagram below illustrates how basic cleft grafting also known as V-grafting works.
Since the scion wood is a basically cutting that has the same genetic maturity as the parent plant, a grafted tree fruits much sooner. This saves a lot of waiting around and avoids having unproductive trees taking space in a garden for many years. For example, an avocado grown from seed may take 6 to 10 years or more to fruit, while a grafted tree will produce fruit in 3 to 4 years.
If you graft a tree using an appropriate rootstock, it will be better able to handle adverse conditions. Specific rootstock can be used to cope better with different soil types and soil conditions, such as heavy or clay soils, or resist particular diseases. The general rule with rootstock is that like is grafted onto like, apples onto apple rootstock, pears onto pear rootstock, and so on. The technique of grafting can be used to control the size of the tree. Grafting is used to produce everything from fully dwarfed trees to full size trees and everything in between.
Semi-dwarf and dwarf trees are produced by grafting onto a less vigorous or weaker rootstock. Citrus is always grafted to specific rootstock such as flying dragon to create dwarf citrus trees or trifoliata to grow full size trees that will be suitable for specific soils. Trifoliata rootstock does well in heavier clay loams to loamy soils in the cooler climates and is resistant to citrus nematode and some species of the phytophthora a soil-borne water mould that causes root rot.
Some fruit trees grow great from rooted cuttings and will fruit as soon as they have enough roots to support fruit production. Mediterranean fruit trees such as figs, pomegranates and mulberries, as well as climbers such as grapes and kiwifruit can all be grown from hardwood cuttings to produce genetic clones, no need for seedling grown trees or grafting.
When you buy these trees. Cuttings grown plants typically have a weaker root system than seedlings or grafted trees, but to keep things in perspective, grafted dwarf trees are intentionally grafted onto weaker root systems, which is what makes them into dwarf trees. If the type of tree has a deep taproot and not many fruit trees do , this is something that will only be present in a seedling root and on a grafted rootstock. Cuttings produced by aerial layering also known as air layering or marcotting grow and behave exactly the same way as cuttings rooted in the conventional way.
With air layering, a ring of bark is stripped off the branch, but the branch is left on the tree. The exposed wood is covered with a moisture retentive medium such as moist sphagnum moss or coco-peat coconut coir and wrapped in plastic to keep the moisture in until roots form.
Once the roots are sufficiently developed, the branch is cut, and potted up to grow on and produce a stronger root system. This method also works on citrus which is an evergreen tree, but citrus are better propagated using bud grafting or shield grafting methods, which are different to the cleft or V graft mentioned earlier. If a fruit tree is not true to seed , the seedlings will be different from the parent, and they will often take many years longer to fruit, in some cases, well over ten years.
One major use for seedling trees is as grafting rootstock, as they have a strong root system which make them ideal for grafting known varieties onto. Seedlings grown trees will live longer than grafted trees or cutting grown trees, they are more vigorous and grow slightly larger.
If a grafted tree is hit hard by frost, the graft will usually die off, but the rootstock will survive. With a seedling grown tree, if the rootstock survives a hard frost it will usually reshoot from the ground. Apricots, peaches and nectarines grow fairly true to seed, some say plums do too. They wont be exact but often quite close.
Gardeners often ask whether they can grow citrus from seed, or avocado. The answer is both yes and no, as these require a bit of an explanation…. Most citrus are true to seed because they are in fact polyembryonic , the seeds contain more than one plant embryo, one only embryo is the product of fertilization sexual reproduction and the rest are genetic clones of the parent tree.
When these seeds are grown they produce multiple shoots, the fertilised one is usually the weakest and is removed. The following citrus are monoembryonic and do not grow true to seed — Clementine Mandarin, Meyer Lemon, Nagami Kumquat, Marumi Kumquat, Pummelo, Temple Tangor, and Trifoliate orange also known as Citrus trifoliata, Poncirus trifoliata, Japanese bitter-orange, or Chinese bitter orange. Email address:. Skip to primary navigation Skip to main content. Seed Propagation Seeds have parents and are the result of cross-pollination between two different plants or single self-fertile parent.
Pros of Seeds Seeds are genetically distinct from each other and their parent plants. Desirable traits can be selected for via careful plant breeding.
Seeds create and protect genetic diversity. Genetic diversity creates resiliency from climate, pests, and disease stresses. The random recombination of genes can new yield new traits; desirable fruit, cold hardiness, etc.
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