Rooting tree cuttings - question

[AmyRey]

Rooting tree cuttings seems to be a really inexpensive way to grow trees.

But after thinking on this a bit today, something puzzles me.

Let's say I want a fig tree. So I find someone with a fig tree, cut some twigs from it and root them.

Now, I should expect that little switch of a branch to become a whole new tree right?

What tells this piece of wood that's a branch to suddenly become a trunk instead?

 

[patandchickens]

Meh, trunk vs branch is nothing, and really after all there is no serious difference between the two... what you SHOULD be impressed with is that the meristem in the leetle dormant bud points on that twig can (depending on the circumstances) develop into twig/branch OR leaf OR root OR even flowers

It is controlled by plant hormones (auxins, giberellins, cytokinins, stuff like that) which in turn are controlled by various factors such as light/dark, gravity, and what other nearby tissues in the plant are doin'.

It has been a bit too long since I taught intro bio type courses for me to feel confident doing a summary Here is Wikipedia's entry on plant meristems http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meristem

Plants that tend to grow with a single main axis of growth -- pine trees, for instance, as opposed to messier shrubbier things with several-to-many main trunks -- do that because of a thing called apical dominance. Whichever bud is endmost on a plant sends out hormonal signals that somewhat suppress the growth of nearby buds/shoots, so that the topmost shoot grows preferentially and you get a traditional single-trunked tree shape. (In species that DO that, of course -- plenty don't). Although, if you notice in a lot of plant species the branching pattern is basically fractal -- the branching pattern within subshoots of a particular branch mimics the overall architecture of the whole plant -- which also contributes to the ease of "a twig becomes a trunk".

There have GOT to be some good 'plant growth form and development regulation 101' type explanations on the web, but a whopping three minutes spent with google failed to find any, perhaps someone else can make suggestions?

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[AmyRey]

what you SHOULD be impressed with is that the meristem in the leetle dormant bud points

Woah you lost me there. lol But then you came back to earth.

Ahhhhh - so... hormones do it all? How cool!

Thank you for the Wiki-link. Off to check it out!

 

[obsessed]

Figs are supposed to root real easy. I however have not been succesful.

 

[patandchickens]

To clarify - meristem is the little clump of cells that is the "business part" of a bud (any kind of bud, be it stem/leaf/root/flower), the meristem cells have not yet committed to being one particular kind of cell and thus (under the right circumstances) they can become something different from what you'd expect from their location on the plant.

This is how most woody-plant cuttings work, in fact -- you are stimulating the meristem in the wee tiny primal bud points along the stem to grow into *roots* rather than the shoots/leaves that they would normally do if you'd left the twig on the plant.

Pat

 

[Gnome_Czech]

I have been trying and they look like they are doing OK, then fizzle out. This last time, I took woodier cuttings and used a rooting compound. So fa two seem to be doing really well....leaves are opening, so I'm keeping myfingers crossed and talking nice to them.

 

[desertwillow]

Has anyone tried to propagate a eucalyptus? They grow so well here in the desert but are so very expensive to buy. You never see seedlings in catalogues or in nurseries.