Propagation and Renewal 233 



OTHER METHODS OF PROPAGATION 



Practically all the plants used in commercial operations 

 are field grown runners from maiden plants. In home 

 gardens, and the more intensive types of market gardening, 

 other methods are used to a slight extent, such as potted 

 plants, cuttings or summer bedding, seeds and division. 



Potted plants. 



The runners from spring-set maiden plants may be 

 layered into two-inch, two and one-half-inch or three- 

 inch pots, in order to hasten the time when they may be 

 detached for summer planting. This is practiced, for the 

 most part, only in the North. Ordinarily layering is 

 done in July and August. Several weeks before the plants 

 are needed, the pots are filled with a specially prepared 

 potting soil or rich soil from the field, and plunged to 

 the rim beside the row of maiden plants, and not over 

 eight inches distant from them. When one or two leaves 

 have developed on a runner tip it is pressed lightly into 

 the soil and held in place with a small stone or handful of 

 soil. It may be necessary to go over the field several 

 times, at intervals of four or five days. Discard "blind" 

 runners, those in which the tip has been injured or has 

 ceased to grow. In a normal season, it takes tw^o or three 

 weeks for the plant to fill the pot with roots ; then it is 

 detached, or the roots w^ill turn brown and the plant will 

 become pot-bound (Plate XXII). Pot-bound plants can 

 be renewed by washing out the soil, cutting off the lifeless 

 roots, and planting in fresh soil. The soil in the pot dries 

 out quickly and the runners do not root readily in a dry 

 season. 



The potted plants are placed in a cool shady place and 

 watered frequently ; in a week or ten days they are ready 



