What preparations should be made for plant cutting?

1. Soft branches are also called shoots and green branches. They are new shoots this year. Choose branches with moderate maturity as cuttings. If they are too old, they will take root slowly, and if they are too tender, they will rot easily. At the same time, they will accumulate too little nutrients, which is not conducive to rooting. The rooting rate of cuttings collected from the branches of strong or young mother plants is high. The cuttings are 3 ~ 10 cm long, and some leaves are left on the upper part, and the rest are cut off from the leaf base. The incision should be smooth, and parallel incision is advisable. Soft branches and cuttings take root quickly, and when conditions are suitable, it takes 15 ~ 30 days to take root or even become seedlings. Most plants take root near the node, so they are cut off below the node. But some herbaceous flowers can also take root and sprout in festivals, such as chrysanthemum, cherry blossom and snapdragon. In order to collect a large number of suitable soft cuttings, the mother plant can be cored or sprouted to promote the development of lateral branches. In order to collect cuttings, woody flowers should be placed indoors at high temperature in winter and spring to promote branching.

Most herbaceous flowers and some woody flowers can be propagated by softwood cutting. Plum blossom, rose, azalea, camellia, osmanthus fragrans, rose, jasmine, nandina, tortoise plastron, green radish, ivy, chrysanthemum, carnation, geranium, dahlia, bunches of safflower, Petunia, Phyllanthus urinaria, colored grass and begonia can all be cut by this method.

Soft cuttings are cuttings with leaves, which should be cut as soon as possible after harvesting to avoid the leaves from wilting due to water loss. However, the cuttings of cactus family and fleshy class must be left for several hours to several days, and can only be cut after the incision is dry, otherwise it will rot easily.

2. Semi-soft branch cutting Semi-soft branch refers to the branch that was born that year, has grown substantially, and its base has been semi-lignified. Semi-soft cuttings are usually used for evergreen woody flowers. This method has the advantages of fast rooting and high survival rate. Some kinds of hardwood cuttings often take 2 months to take root, while semi-soft cuttings only take about 1 month to take root. Cuttings should be selected from fully grown parts. If the top is too tender, it should be cut off. The lower branches should be used as cuttings, and the lower cuttings should be about 3 mm below the bud. The length of cuttings is 8 ~ 25cm, and each cuttings has 2 ~ 4 knots. Cut the cuttings with sharp scissors to make them smooth, otherwise they will rot easily. Root cutting depends not only on its own nutrition, but also on the photosynthesis of leaves on cuttings, so it is necessary to keep leaves properly, only remove some leaves, or cut off larger leaves 1/3 ~ 1/2. Remove all the buds from the cuttings to avoid consuming nutrients when flowering.

3. The woody 1 ~ 2-year-old branches of hardwood cuttings are called hardwood branches. This branch is rich in nutrition, high in cell sap concentration and weak in respiration. When used in cutting, it is easy to maintain the balance of water metabolism of cuttings, which is beneficial to the formation and differentiation of callus to form root primordium and eventually grow adventitious roots. Before deciduous flowers and trees germinate after defoliation, evergreen flowers and trees cut cuttings before they stop growing until the juice flows out in spring. This method can be used to cultivate a variety of garden trees and fruit trees such as Begonia, Magnolia, Yingchun, Hibiscus, Hibiscus, Lagerstroemia indica, Nerium oleander, Michelia, Gardenia and so on. In the north, after defoliation in winter, the branches of that year are cut to 20 ~ 30 cm long, tied and buried in wet sand for the winter, and taken out in the open field for cutting in the next spring. Or combined with pruning before sprouting in spring, cutting cuttings for cutting. Cutting should have at least 2 ~ 3 buds, and the cutting mouth should be smooth. It should be cut into horizontal plane at the upper part of terminal bud 3 ~ 5 mm, and cut into inclined plane at the lower part.

4. Leaf cuttings are called leaf cuttings to reproduce new individuals with leaves as cuttings. Some plants can produce callus from broken veins, germinate adventitious roots and buds, thus forming new plants, which can be used for leaf insertion and reproduction. Erythrina macrophylla, African violet and longevity flower can all be propagated by cutting leaves.

5. Root cutting The cutting method with roots as cuttings is called root cutting. The roots of some woody flowers and perennial flowers can be propagated by cutting. The lateral roots with medium thickness near the stem base of the mother plant were selected and cut into small pieces with a length of about 5 ~ 10 cm as cuttings. The flowers suitable for root cutting are perennial phlox, peony, peony, Chimonanthus praecox, Lingxiao, wisteria, rose, clove, begonia and Chlorella.

6. Leaf bud cuttings Although the petioles of some flowers can grow adventitious roots, they cannot produce adventitious buds, so they cannot grow into new individuals. Therefore, it is necessary to cut leaves or terminal buds with 1 buds at the base (Figure 5- 10) to form new plants. Flowers with leaves can be divided into two halves, and flowers with alternate leaves each have 1 bud as cuttings. Flowers that can insert leaves and buds include peony, rhododendron, osmanthus, camellia, jasmine, rubber tree, gardenia, hydrangea and so on. 1. Insert into the sand. 2. Cover the base of cuttings with moss.

Figure 5- 10 Leaf Bud Insertion