Photo above: Crataegus macrosperma, Hawthorn (c.Katherine Schlosser, 2016)
From the Botany & Horticulture section of our Unit meetings and contributions from members...
CLONING -- YOU CAN DO IT!
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We have all heard about cloning sheep, but perhaps you would rather try cloning a favorite plant so you have another to add to your garden or share with a friend.
To begin, it is likely something you have already done, but in days past we just called it rooting a cutting. Many of those cuttings survived growing out their roots in glasses of water. It was a legitimate method, if a little lacking in meeting the needs of the stem. Is there more to cloning than what we have been doing on our kitchen windowsill? Fears about cloning have focused on the possibility that genetic diversity, essential to strong plants and crops, weakens in following generations of those plants that are not produced via sexual reproduction. But it has been found that clones, or rooted cuttings, are often naturally different from the parent plant. In fact, many plants already clone themselves via runners or stolons, Producing seed to start new plants usually works well, but if pollinators are missing or the weather is foul, putting their energy into cloning (when possible) is an answer to increasing populations. There are a number of trees (think about aspen forests!) that regularly depend on cloning. “Those responses are not a one-off. It’s not short-term,” Douhovnikoff said. “Even though you started with the same genotype, depending on what combination of genes you’re using or activating, the result is a different epigenotype. So there is a level of diversity that is available even though there is no genetic diversity.” (Vlad Douhovnikov, https://www.bowdoin.edu/news/2016/03/the-evolutionary-benefits-of-cloning-according-to-bowdoin-ecologist.html) So don't fear rooting your cuttings, but give them a boost with a few tips from Professor Douhovnikov: 1. Select a healthy plant that is large enough that taking a cutting will not put the plant into shock. 2. Your cutting will have a better chance if you take the time to spray the plants with seaweed or fulvic acid (a water=soluble organic compound found in humus, commercially available) a few days before taking the cutting. 3. Put your cutting in good soil and keep it moist but not wet. You can root many cuttings in water, but the plant may be weaker and will be starving. 4. Keep an eye on the temperature and lighting where you place your stem to root. Too much sun can be too harsh, not enough will make life difficult for the cutting. Same goes for temperature. 5. A rooting solution or gel is helpful. It isn't required, but may give your cutting a head start. 6. Leave the cutting alone for a week before you try looking for signs of tiny roots appearing. When they appear and the roots look healthy and strong enough to be re-planted or potted, do so with care. Don't wait too long to plant your cuttings--they need to be in their element to thrive! |
Rosemary 'Nichol's Select', fresh cutting. January 2. Two inches tall. Kept on a sunny southeast kitchen windowsill.
Rosemary, 'Nichol's Select'. February 14 . Six inches tall and ready to be planted or re-potted. depending on the weather--we still get snow in February and March.
A Rosemary Repast for the gardeners planting a Rosemary Collection.
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Below: MASS CLONING: An Aspen forest created by rhizomes spreading underground from a parent tree, and the trees formed in that manner do the same...creating a forest.
c. Katherine Schlosser, 2016 CC BY NC 4.0