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Step 4Hints 1: Producing plants
You'll find these ways to get plants the easiest ones:
Buy / find / collect seeds or bulbs and plant them:
Check in the package for information about when to plant them, how much water they'll need, how deep they need to be buried, how many days they'll need to germinate, etc. In fact you should do this step before buying the seeds, as you may find that some plants are not good for the conditions in your place.
I get the seeds for tomatoes, alisum, indian cress, and many other plants directly from my own plants. In this way, every year I grow the offspring of the plants which lived the previous year. And when you collect fruits, remember to save a few seeds for the next season!
As a general rule for growing seeds and bulbs, most of them need to be covered by a layer of soil similar in (thickness) to the diameter of the seed or bulb. The best conditions for germination include high humidity and a warm environment. Small plastic bags or cut bottles can be used as greenhouses that store moisture and protect from cold. Most seeds and bulbs will germinate within 5 to 20 days if the conditions are appropriate. I generally put them all together, to high density, and then separate them to small pots when they are between 5 and 10 cm tall. After growing a few more centimeters in the pot, I move them to their definitive place (either direct soil or a bigger pot).
You'll find that most species can be more or less adapted to the conditions of template climates. For example, I live in a template region of South America and I can grow a variety of fruits from Mango (tipically tropical) to strawberries (typical from colder regions). However my raspberries (original from cold regions) were never very good here.
Buy / find plants:
Some seeds are hard to grow, as in the case of most berries; while other seeds can't produce appropriate plants and will need proper injertion with another plant (this is the case of most citrus). In such complex cases, the easiest thing to do is to buy the plants. Later on, you may reproduce them asexually (yeah, cloning at home!).
In particular, buying plants is the prefered choice for citrus trees and your first copies of plants which you can multiply later on, like strawberries, ciboulette or raspberries.
If you want to know about planting trees, check this instructable: How to Plant a Tree
Asexual reproduction (cloning your plants): Several plants are very easy to reproduce by cloning. This results in plants which are identical (regarding their genomics) to their parents. There several ways to achieve asexual reproduction, depending of each plant:
Strawberries produce a specialized branch at the end of summer, which usually contains rooting cells at their endings (see photo). This cells can develop roots as soon as they touch soil. So you can take this endings, bury them, and after 2 or 3 weeks cut the reproducing branch so that the new plant becomes independent. In this way, besides having more plants, you will have better fruits, because young plants give bigger, tastier fruits.
Bulbs like ciboulette give away new small bulbs each year. So, every 1 or 2 years you have to remove the bulbs from the soil (taking care not to brake them nor the leaves), separate the bulbs, and re-plant them in separate places. This procedure not only gives you more plants, but also makes the new plants grow faster. You'll notice it.
Mint, geraniums, and some species like oregano, rosemary and thyme can be reproduced by cutting green branches and putting them directly in humid soil, or first in water and then transfered to soil after they have developed some roots. In some cases the plant may need external help from synthetic hormones. Check this instructable for further info on using hormones: Rooting plant cuttings
Buy / find / collect seeds or bulbs and plant them:
Check in the package for information about when to plant them, how much water they'll need, how deep they need to be buried, how many days they'll need to germinate, etc. In fact you should do this step before buying the seeds, as you may find that some plants are not good for the conditions in your place.
I get the seeds for tomatoes, alisum, indian cress, and many other plants directly from my own plants. In this way, every year I grow the offspring of the plants which lived the previous year. And when you collect fruits, remember to save a few seeds for the next season!
As a general rule for growing seeds and bulbs, most of them need to be covered by a layer of soil similar in (thickness) to the diameter of the seed or bulb. The best conditions for germination include high humidity and a warm environment. Small plastic bags or cut bottles can be used as greenhouses that store moisture and protect from cold. Most seeds and bulbs will germinate within 5 to 20 days if the conditions are appropriate. I generally put them all together, to high density, and then separate them to small pots when they are between 5 and 10 cm tall. After growing a few more centimeters in the pot, I move them to their definitive place (either direct soil or a bigger pot).
You'll find that most species can be more or less adapted to the conditions of template climates. For example, I live in a template region of South America and I can grow a variety of fruits from Mango (tipically tropical) to strawberries (typical from colder regions). However my raspberries (original from cold regions) were never very good here.
Buy / find plants:
Some seeds are hard to grow, as in the case of most berries; while other seeds can't produce appropriate plants and will need proper injertion with another plant (this is the case of most citrus). In such complex cases, the easiest thing to do is to buy the plants. Later on, you may reproduce them asexually (yeah, cloning at home!).
In particular, buying plants is the prefered choice for citrus trees and your first copies of plants which you can multiply later on, like strawberries, ciboulette or raspberries.
If you want to know about planting trees, check this instructable: How to Plant a Tree
Asexual reproduction (cloning your plants): Several plants are very easy to reproduce by cloning. This results in plants which are identical (regarding their genomics) to their parents. There several ways to achieve asexual reproduction, depending of each plant:
Strawberries produce a specialized branch at the end of summer, which usually contains rooting cells at their endings (see photo). This cells can develop roots as soon as they touch soil. So you can take this endings, bury them, and after 2 or 3 weeks cut the reproducing branch so that the new plant becomes independent. In this way, besides having more plants, you will have better fruits, because young plants give bigger, tastier fruits.
Bulbs like ciboulette give away new small bulbs each year. So, every 1 or 2 years you have to remove the bulbs from the soil (taking care not to brake them nor the leaves), separate the bulbs, and re-plant them in separate places. This procedure not only gives you more plants, but also makes the new plants grow faster. You'll notice it.
Mint, geraniums, and some species like oregano, rosemary and thyme can be reproduced by cutting green branches and putting them directly in humid soil, or first in water and then transfered to soil after they have developed some roots. In some cases the plant may need external help from synthetic hormones. Check this instructable for further info on using hormones: Rooting plant cuttings
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May 20, 2010. 7:52 PMdevonfletch
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When you propagate plants by cuttings, the big killer is drying out. A mini-greenhouse will help to avoid this. Take a large plastic drink-bottle, recycle the lid, make a few drain-holes in the bottom half, cut around the waist of the bottle, plant your cutting in the bottom half, put the top half back on, and you have a very cheap, effective, re-usable mini-greenhouse. Be sure to keep the plants out of direct sunlight, even a greenhouse cannot protect against over-heating. I usually put 8 or 10 1/2 inch vertical cuts at the bottom of the top half (you paying attention?), and 'weave' the top onto the bottom for stability. Watering is easy enough through the top, but for damp-tolerant plants (basically any with sappy stems, like the geraniums in the article above) sitting your cuttings in 1 inch of water works well.
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