Horticulturalists spend time working with plants at all stages of life to develop the best ways to utilize them to benefit people and animals. Gardeners commonly use plants in various forms to achieve the most promising plant reproduction and growth results. Consequently, three standard ways of growing new plants include starting from seeds, clones and starts.
1. Seeds
Seeds often provide the least expensive way to begin growing plants. In addition, a wider variety of seeds rather than started plants typically exist when looking for suitable varieties to grow in your locale. The seeds’ outer shells protect the plant embryos held inside, along with sufficient food for the embryos to grow to become new plants. Seeds require patience and great care to produce viable seedlings because they need precise light, heat or cold, water and fertilizer conditions to germinate. However, because the results can vary with germinating seed, the cost for this means of gaining new plants typically remains lower than purchasing already established clones or starts.
2. Clones
Plant cloning occurs when you take a cutting from a plant and cause it to create roots, becoming a new plant. Additionally, the new plant becomes a perfect replica of its parents because it has the same DNA. You can generate plant clones by planting cuttings in soil or placing the cut stems in water, where they will eventually sprout roots. Subsequently, you can plant the rooted clones in soil for further growth until they achieve a suitable size for transplanting outdoors or in garden pots.
3. Starts
Plant starts, also called seedlings, consist of seeds that have been started in soil and tended until they have sprouted to produce a young plant. Starts, such as boax otto ii hemp seedlings and others, continue to need their specific water, light and food requirements met to reach mature size.
Your choice of seeds, clones or plant starts will likely depend on the available resources you have for plant starting to obtain the new plants you want for your garden. However, all of these methods can produce excellent results.
