PROPAGATION BY LAYERS. 81 



CHAPTER V. 



PROPAGATION BY LAYERS. 



Layering consists in inducing the growth of roots on a 

 cane before it is separated from the mother plant. This 

 method, which, like propagation by cuttings, preserves all 

 the characters of the mother plant and even those of the 

 cane, offers the advantage of better insuring the strike of 

 the young plant, as it is only separated from the mother 

 stock when it is provided with all organs necessary to its 

 existence. Therefore it should be preferred, although rather 

 complicated, for species not rooting freely, such as V. Candi- 

 cans and V. TBerlandieri, or for rare and expensive c^pages. 

 We will study successively the following items : 1st. Types 

 of layers. 2nd. Means of promoting their root growth. 

 3rd. Best time for layering. 



IST. PRINCIPAL TYPES OF LAYERS. 



These are : A. Ordinary layering ; B. Complete burying 

 of the mother plant; C. Multiple layering ; D. Reversed 

 layering. 



(A.) Ordinary layering. This maybe used for the produc- 

 tion of rootlings, filling up a vacant space [in a vineyard, 

 liberating an American variety grafted on a European vine, 

 or for rooted nodes used as stock for bench grafting. When 

 rootlings alone are required a portion of the cane is buried 

 underground as close as possible to the mother plant, leav- 

 ing two eyes projecting from the soil at a certain distance 

 from it. All the intermediate buds between the mother 

 plant and the point where the cane enters the soil are 

 removed, to prevent the development of shoots at the 

 expense of the layer. The part in the ground must be as 

 short as possible so as to save wood and use the extremity 

 as a cutting, and also to avoid the formation of a great 

 number of tufts of roots, with small individual development. 



This layering may be done with lignified or herbaceous 

 shoots. In the latter case we gain time as we obtain 

 rootlings the same year ; when such rootlings are to be 



10890. F 



