1 14 PLANT PROPAGATION 



Since the sweet potato is a true root and therefore 

 without buds it produces sprouts from adventitious buds 

 most abundantly, as a rule, at the stem end. The shoots 

 take root as do those of Irish potato, but roots may also 

 develop from the potato itself. The sprouts are "slipped" 

 off with roots attached and planted in rows by hand or 

 with transplanting machines (Fig. 100). Should they not 

 have roots at the time of planting, they soon overcome 

 this apparent handicap in favorable soil. Sweet potato 

 propagating beds are either mildly warmed manure hotbeds 

 or heated by flues (Fig. 72) in permanent beds. 



Stem cuttings of certain tuber-bear- 

 ing plants (potato) do not develop new 

 plants, but tubers either at the bases 

 of cuttings or in the axils of leaves 

 above ground. New plants will devel- 

 op from these tubers. Leaf cuttings 

 of some kinds also do this. 



165. Rhizome cuttings, made from 

 underground stems (achillea, canna, 

 rhubarb), are treated like tuber cut- 

 tings. Two bad weeds accidentally 

 propagated in this way are quack 

 grass and perennial morning glory 

 (bindweed), every joint of which is 

 capable of producing a new plant. 



166. Stern cuttings are of three 

 kinds : 1, dormant, ripe, mature or 

 hardwood ; 2, green, immature, soft 

 wood or succulent; and 3, an inter- 

 mediate class, semi-hardwood. 



167. Styles of mature cuttings. Ma- 

 FIG. 101- CARNATION ture wood cuttings may be made of any 



length, but 6 to 10 inches is the usual 



! ' 2. eV Rood e> range for those with more than one 



bud. With perhaps the majority of 



species so propagated, two nodes and one internode 



