n6 



PLANT PROPAGATION 



pand, sprinkling- must be frequent to prevent wilting. 

 In four to six weeks the plants may be potted. Species, 

 variety, season and locality, all influence results. 



169. Mature wood cuttings may be made at any time. 

 With plants growing in the open the great majority are 

 made for planting in spring. Many of these are cut 

 only a short time before being planted ; many more are 

 cut in fall and stored over winter in bundles buried in a 

 well-drained sandy knoll, or stored 

 until spring under cover in moist 

 soil, sand, sawdust or moss. 



The chief advantages of the last- 

 named plan are that the bases callus 

 over before planting time and pos- 

 sible winter injury is avoided. Oc- 

 casionally (currant, gooseberry) 

 cuttings are made as soon as the 

 wood is mature and the leaves begin 

 to fall. They are then callused and fall 

 planted, thus gaining a good deal of 

 time. Winter mulching of fall-set 

 cutting beds is essential to success, 

 because heaving and settling of soil 

 under alternate freezing and thaw- 

 ing break the tender roots. 



With short-jointed plants, little 

 care is taken to cut the lower end 

 FIG. 103 to a bud, but with long-jointed ones 



GOOSEBERRY CUTTINGS best results follow cutting just be- 

 low nodes. It has also been noticed 



that grape cuttings with more than two buds 

 give better root systems than do those with two buds or 

 only one, since roots are developed at each buried node. 

 Only the top bud is left to produce a stem, the others 

 being rubbed off. Long, mature wood cuttings are 

 usually set obliquely in the cutting bed so as not to be 

 too deeply covered. Another advantage of this is that 



