Plant Propagation

The preponderance of food and fiber for human consumption is derived from plants. The ability to domesticate crop plants was a pivotal point in human evolution. It permitted the transition from a predominantly nomadic lifestyle to one of more centralized communities of towns and villages. In turn, this allowed for stratification in the community for specialized activities not directly related to acquiring food. Several agricultural disciplines have evolved from the need to domesticate crops. These include disciplines for selection of crops for superior characteristics (plant breeding), multiplication of selected crops (plant propagation), cultivation of these crops (agronomy, horticulture, forestry, entomology, plant pathology, etc.), and processing and preserving harvested crops (food technology). This chapter will be a brief overview of plant propagation. It is not possible to provide a detailed description of all the techniques used for plant propagation (Table 1), but I will attempt to highlight some of the current emerging technologies with their potential for future crop production. The chapter will be divided into methods for sexual (seed) and asexual (vegetative) propagation.