What are different artificial reproduction methods in plants?

Artificial plant reproduction involves human intervention. The common types of artificial vegetative reproductive techniques are mentioned below.
All these methods are used by many farmers and horticulturists. These will be useful for producing healthy vegetable plants.

1. Cutting: A stem or leaf, or any other part is cut off from the plant and planted. Roots will develop from the cuttings and new plant forms. Cuttings are sometimes may be treated with hormones before being planted.

2. Grafting: In grafting, the desired cutting is attached to the stem of another plant that remains rooted in the ground.
3. Layering: This method involves bending plant branches or stems so that they touch the ground. Another technique called air layering is also used in which branches are scraped and covered with plastic.
4. Suckering: Suckering has two purposes of growing new shoots and removing nutrient-sucking buds
5.Tissue Culture: The plant cells will be culture with another cell that may be taken from different parts of a parent plant.

Plants can reproduce in two ways - one is the natural way in which a new plant is produced by germination of a seed or propagation of the plant roots in lateral direction while other is the artificial way in which a part of the plant is used in a specific way through grafting or cutting etc to produce a new plant. In light of this background, the point wise answers to the above question are as follows.

a) Reproduction in plants can be done in artificial ways that is by using a part of the plant and following a specific technique which gives rise to a new plant. In this technique the seed of the flower of the plant is not required which is the general method of reproduction of a plant. In natural conditions the seeds of the plant are carried away by the winds and insects from one place to other and these seeds fall on the ground and get germinated in the soil to produce new plants. In artificial methods we do not wait for seeds and their germination but process a part of the plant which gives rise to a new plant.

b) Some of the common methods of artificial reproductions are grafting, cutting, layering, and micropropagation.
In grafting the stem of a plant is taken from which we want to make a new plant and it is to be grafted on some other plant which works as a host for it and supplies to it nutrients. The host is known as stock. The stem of the original plant and the main branch of the host plant are cut at a slanted angle and kept together tied with some cloth or string. Once attached firmly to each other the original stem starts getting leaves on it to become a new plant like the original one. Grafting is very common in citrus and grape plants for producing novel varieties.
In cutting technique many species of plants like money plant are cut and the cut part is placed in water or moist soil and it becomes another plant. Some decorative plants like African violet come in this category.
In layering method the stem of the plant is bent down and entered slightly in the soil and then covered with it. Many plants like bougainvillea and jasmine come in this category. Sometimes the bark of the stem is also removed before putting them in soil. Once the roots are emerged the new plant can be transplanted to other place.
In tissue culture or micropropagation a part of the plant is kept in a special tissue culture medium which contains minerals, vitamins and harmone. The plant part slowly turns into a mass called callus and subsequently small plantlets come out of it. These are then separated and shifted to greenhouse environment for mass production.

c) Artificial reproduction is adopted in plants for quick reproduction otherwise waiting for the seed and natural germination etc takes time and is a long process.

d) Most of the plants can be reproduced with artificial reproduction methods.

e) The advantage of artificial reproduction is mainly due to the cloning of the original plants and its characteristics. So, the original traits would remain intact in the reproduced plants. In such case the favourable traits can be preserved. So, main advantage is that there would not be genetic aberrations or changes in the species.

1. Artificial Reproduction- It involves the propagation of plants by humans other than the natural methods. Here the new plants are grown in a suitable environment that the plants require.

2. Different methods of artificial reproduction are:
a. By stem cutting- The process involves removing a portion of the stem and placing it in the soil. The stem grows the roots and the buds grow shoots and develops into a new plant. In most of the plant's small pieces of stem are cut and fixed in the soil. These grow into new plants of the same type.
Example: rose, crotons

b. Grafting- In this process a part of a stem or bud of a living plant is joined to another plant and allowed it to grow as a part of the second plant. This method is also known as Scion grafting. The plant receiving the bud or the shoot is called the stock, and the stem or the twig, fixed on it is called the scion. Example:
This method is used for a growing variety of colourful roses, fruit trees like peaches. In bud grafting instead of a twig, a bud is used.

c. Layering: In this method, a branch of the plant is covered with some material and water is provided to the branch to produce roots.
Layering methods are done in two different ways. Mound layering and aerial layering.
Example: jasmine and guava

3. Advantages of artificial reproduction are:
-To get desired plants.
-to produce new varieties of plants.
- to grow seedless plants and
- to produce more quantity