Question

Explain artificial methods of propagation in plants.

Answer 1

The techniques which are used to produce plants by humans in the laboratory or on land using vegetative parts of the plant.

Complete answer:
- Vegetative propagation is a type of asexual reproduction where new individuals are developed from the vegetative parts of the plants such as stem, buds, fragmentation.
If this type of reproduction is carried out by humans on land or in laboratories it is called artificial vegetative propagation.
- Various types of vegetative propagation are cutting, grafting, layering, and tissue culture. The plants produced via this method are genetically identical to the parent plant
- In cutting, a vegetative part of the plant such as stem or root is incised from the parent plant. This incised portion is planted in the soil. Adventitious roots develop from that stem or root and give rise to the new plants.
- In layering, the vegetative part of a plant such as a stem is bent towards the ground and this bent portion is placed inside the ground without separating it from the parent plant. After developing adventitious roots the stem is separated from the parent plant which grows into a complete plant
- In grafting, the desired portion of stem from one plant is separated and is inserted into the stem of another plant that is tied and left for some days. It is helpful in producing hybrid plants.
- In tissue culture, instead of taking the whole vegetative part of a plant, they use a single cell or tissue and are cultured in a test tube under suitable laboratory conditions. Totipotent cells are chosen in the tissue culture technique

Additional Information:
The number of new individuals formed will be more in artificial propagation. These techniques are used to produce plants of desired characters. Hybrid plants are produced in large numbers using these techniques in a short time.

Note: Examples:
-Cutting: acacia, curry leaf
-Layering: jasmine, chrysanthemum
-Grafting: guava, citrus fruits
-Tissue culture: all plants which contain totipotent cells.