METHODS OF VEGETATIVE PROPAGATION IN FRUITS

Asexual or vegetative reproduction uses a part of the plant for multiplication. Plant parts used are
stems, leaves, buds, roots, bulbs, corms, rhizomes, suckers, and tubers. Asexually propagated
progeny is identical to the parent plant in all respects.
1. Layering
Layering means rooting of shoots, stem, or branches while they are still attached to the parent
plant. Some trees and bushes, like blackberry, layer themselves, naturally. Strawberry produces
runners, another form of natural layering. The advantage in layering is that the young plant
continues receiving nourishment from the parent plant. Layering can be carried out in the spring
or late summer months.
2. Division
Division involves separating vegetative parts like rhizomes, offsets, crown, runners, or suckers
from the parent plant and establishing them as independent plants. The method has wide
application in the propagation of flowering shrubs. Among fruit crops, strawberries are
propagated by runners, date palms by suckers, pineapple by offsets and crown, and bananas by
suckers or rhizomes.
3. Cutting
A cutting is a piece of a plant: a shoot, stem, leaf, bud, root, or merely a tiny piece of meristem.
Though incomplete in themselves, cuttings have the capacity to produce roots and shoots,
essential to the development of plants identical to the parent which furnished the cutting.
Cuttings should only be taken from strong and healthy plants. Grapes, sweet limes, lemons,
limes, roses, and other perennial flowering shrubs are commonly propagated through cuttings.
4. Budding
When a single bud is used as a scion and inserted into the rootstock, the method is called
budding. Budding is relatively easy to do and is extensively used in the vegetative propagation of
vast numbers of species of fruit and flowering trees, particularly evergreens. Four different
methods of budding are generally identified. Examples are citrus fruits and ornamental plants.
5. Grafting
When a piece of stem or branch carrying more than one bud is used as scion and inserted into the
rootstock, the method is called grafting. For example, side grafting in roses, cleft grafting in
fruiting trees, and Splice grafting in cactus species.