propagation
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Table of Contents
Propagating Native Plants
- Amy Hereford
- St. Louis Community College
- June 2017
Overview
Why Na * tive Plants?
- Propagation by Seed
- – Identifying, Collecting, Storing, Treating, Sowing
- Propagation by Cutting
- – Hardwood Cutting, Softwood Cutting, Root Cutting, Layering
Why?
- * Unordered List ItemBeauty
- Food and Habitat for pollinators and wildlife
- Genetic resource
- Decrease water use
- Storm-water management
- Decrease maintenance
- Hold soil in place
- Increase soil microbiology
- sequester Carbon
Seeds – Identification
- Field guides: Denison
- Online guides:
Seeds – Collection
- Your own yard, or with permission
- Allow seeds to mature
- Collect in envelopes
- Label: Plant name, Date, Place
- Mature Seed Heads
- Seeds – Storage and Treatment
- Seeds should be fully mature and dry
- Consider how they propagate in nature
- – Spring or Fall seeds
- Store in refrigerator or freezer, or cool basement
- Stratification – 30-90 days cold treatment (wet or dry)
- Scarification – breaking seed-coat – acid or abrasion
- Prairiemoon database
- Seeds – Sowing
- Sow outside in winter – seeds will stratify naturally.
- Sow thickly in the pot – you can separate once they germinate (full packet in 4” pot)
- Label each pot with plant name and date
- Keep watered once they sprout
- Or sow indoors….
- Seeds – Transplant
- Transplant sprouts to separate pots – grow out for a
- few months – Grow Native seedling ID
- Transplant sprouts directly to garden beds
- Most wildflowers won’t flower in the first year
- May want to plant with annuals
- Sleep – Creep – Leap
- Cutting – Hardwood
- Take 1 year wood in the fall
- Pencil thickness
- 4-6 nodes
- Cut top diagonally
- Put in soil or medium over winter
- Cutting – Softwood
- Take during active growing season
- 3-6 inches, 4-6 nodes
- Strip leaves from lower part, trim upper leaves
- Keep humidity up: spray or tent
- Indirect lighting
- Rooting hormone can help
- Most will root in 2-4 weeks
- Cutting – Root
- Collect in late winter (label)
- Pencil width is good
- One or two nodes
- 4-6 inches
- Plant in pots and allow to leaf out
- Plant in beds and mark clearly
- Cutting – Layering
- Simple layering: bend a stem down to the ground and pin it there until it roots
- Air-layering: Place a ball of soil around a growing stem,
- keep soil moist, cut from plant when roots are showing through.
- Cutting – Division
Resources
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