by: Charlene Rennick
You don’t have to be a scientist to make a clone!! Home cloning; how exciting is that? Although this process isn’t appropriate for human cloning, it is perfectly acceptable for plants.
Cloning means that the new generation has the same genetic fingerprint as the parent because it was not the result of a new male/female combination of seeds. You don’t have to know this to perform the procedure, though. It can be as easy as cutting a shoot from a plant that gave you the best harvest, the nicest colour or the tastiest fruit. The shoot can be rooted in water or a growing medium.
The air flow, temperature, light strength and humidity levels should be the same as they would for germinating seeds. In addition, dipping the end of the cutting in a rooting hormone and mixing in a 25 percent nutrient solution to 75 percent water helps to speed up the growth rate.
What Part of the Plant can be Cloned?
The cutting should be 3-5 inches long and taken from the newer shoots. Cut the shoot just below the second set of leaves, counting the ones at the tip of the shoot.
A clean sharp blade should be used to reduce any possible trauma to the plant. Place the new shoot immediately into a room temperature solution that is a diluted mixture of nutrients and water.
Sometimes, air bubbles get trapped in the stem and may prevent absorption of the nutrient solution. To avoid this, hold the cutting under the solution and make a slit at a 45 degree angle to the original cut.
Remove from the solution and dip the cut end into a rooting compound.
It is now ready to be placed in the rooting environment of your choice: a nutrient solution, a Perfect Starts rooting cube or a growing medium.
Good to Know Stuff about Rooting
Shoots than have been rooted in water transplant easily into a hydroponic system; so do shoots that have been germinated in a moist growing medium. Plants that have been started in a water solution don’t frequently survive the move to a dryer environment. This is because shoots that develop in a moist area have extra, tiny, hair-like fibres on the roots. These delicate tendrils get damaged in the transition to a dryer medium. Shoots that develop roots in a dryer compound don’t have these tiny fingers. What do you need to remember out of all this? Wet shoots transplant to wet growing mediums and dry-grown roots can handle the move to a dry environment. Mixing it up can damage the new roots.
Roots should develop between one and three weeks of time. For optimum results, try making the move to the final growing place gradual. Cuttings that are used to a higher humidity level, softer light and more water need a transitional phase and not a shock. Try a happy medium between the nursery and the environment where strong lights are the real deal.
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