Ever heard of plant cloning?
What is it and what are the benefits of cloning a plant?
We can reproduce a genetically identical copy of a plant through different methods such as vegetative propagation, tissue culture, and cloning through cuttings.
And it’s all easier than it sounds.
Cloning is simple and effective.
People opt for this method for different purposes, like saving rare or endangered species, producing a large quantity of good-quality plants, and creating plants with certain desirable attributes.
It also saves time and money.
And it saves a whole awful lot of it, too.
You only need a few items.
YouTube channel Vườn & Nhà, who has 1.8M subscribers for his expertise in gardening, posted a video showing a very simple and unexpected technique.
By using a banana, he successfully cloned a rose plant and grew an excellent set of roots in just a few weeks.
Curious about the process? Here’s how it was done:
Materials:
- 1 Banana (middle part)
- Perlite
- Cutter
- Cable tie (medium)
- Rose (healthy and disease-free parent plant)
- Pruning shears or scissors
- Twigs
- Plastic cup
- Moist soil
How to clone:
1. First, you need a parent plant. This is the plant that you’ll use in the cloning process.
In the parent plant, select a stem, and make an incision in the middle using your cutter. Insert a perlite.
2. The next thing to do is to get a twig and use a cable tie, secure around 3-4 inches below the incision horizontally.
3. Get a banana and cut the end parts. Then, cut it in the middle and then wrap it around the stem, including the perlite. Make sure that it covers the perlite.
4. Secure with cable ties. In the video, he used three cable ties.
5. Once that is secured, get your plastic or cup, cut it on one side, and under, and then cover the banana and secure it again with cable ties.
6. Fill the cup with moist soil.
7. Using sticks, secure the clone and the parent plant. It’s crucial to secure the weight of the clone so it won’t break.
8. After 25 days, check the clone.
9. Carefully remove all the cable ties and the base of the clone from the parent plant.
10. Remove the plastic cup and the soil until you see the roots.
11. Cut the base and plant it in a pot.
Water and that’s it.
Why choose to clone a plant?
There are several benefits when you clone a plant.
If you have a plant that you think has desirable traits, is very good at resisting certain diseases, is beautiful, or bears good fruit, then cloning is your best choice.
You also save money when you clone a plant, and it grows faster compared to waiting for a plant to grow from a seed, and the best part is that you get the same genes and characteristics as the parent plant.
People who are doing research on plants also practice cloning. Overall, cloning plants can be an effective tool for gardeners, farmers, and even researchers.
See this fascinating process in full in the video tutorial below!
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