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CHAPTER IX 

 CLASSES OF CUTTINGS 



161. Plant parts to use. Cuttings may be made from 

 any plant part that has a primary tissue (meristem). 

 They may be divided into four groups, dependent upon 

 the parts used: 1, Roots; 2, root-stocks and tubers; 3, 

 stems ; 4, leaves. As in all other kinds of asexual propa- 

 gation, cuttings reproduce the same variety as the parent 

 plants from which taken, bud variations or "sports" 

 excepted. 



162. Root cuttings may be made from true roots of any 

 plant species which naturally produce suckers (osage, 

 orange, poplar, willow, 



red raspberry, trumpet 

 creeper, dracaena, horse- 

 radish, plumbago, bou- 

 vardia). The roots are 

 cut in pieces usually 

 three inches long, either 

 stored in moist moss or 

 sawdust or placed di- 

 rectly in the propagating 

 bed. With most cool 

 climate plants the rooting is done out of doors without 

 artificial heat ; with warm climate subjects bottom heat 

 in greenhouse or hotbed is required. Plants in the former 

 group are often handled with bottom heat to get best 

 results or shorten time. 



Blackberries and red raspberries, especially when stock is 

 scarce, are often increased commercially by root cuttings (Fig 98). 

 Roots one-fourth inch or even smaller in diameter are dug in 

 fall, cut in pieces one to three inches long, packed in green saw- 

 dust or moist sand, stored in a cold but frost proof cellar till 

 spring and the callused ones then planted like peas, not closer than 

 an inch asunder in furrows wide enough apart for horse cultiva- 

 tion. They make salable plants by fall. When an extra demand 

 111 



FIG. 98 BLACKBERRY PLANTS 

 A, root-cutting plant; B, sucker plant. 



