Various hardy ornamental trees are also increased in this way, as the quince, elm, robinia and mulberry, and the rose amongst shrubs. The most important use to which this mode of propagation is put is, however, the increase of roses, and of the various plums used as stocks for working the choicer stone fruits. The method in the latter case is to select roots averaging the thickness of the little finger, to cut these into lengths of about 3 or 4 in., and to plant them in lines just beneath the surface in nursery beds. The root cuttings of rose-stocks are prepared and treated in a similar way.
| Fig. 25.—Cutting of Single Eye. |
15. By Cuttings of Single Eyes.—This mode of propagation is by cutting the ripened young branches into short lengths, each containing one well-matured bud or eye, with a short portion of the stem above and below. It is a common mode of propagating vines, the eyes being in this case cut from the ripened leafless wood. The eyes (fig. 25, a) are planted just below the surface in pots of light soil, which are placed in a hot bed or propagating pit, and in due time each pushes up a young shoot which forms the future stem, while from about its base the young roots are produced (fig. 25, b) which convert it into an independent plant. In the case of plants with persistent leaves, the stem may be cut through just above and below the bud, retaining the leaf which is left on the cutting, the old wood and eye being placed beneath the soil and the leaf left exposed. In this way the india-rubber tree (Ficus elastica), for example, and many other tender plants may be increased with the aid of a brisk bottom heat. Many of the free-growing soft-wooded plants may also be grown from cuttings of single joints of the young wood, where rapid increase is desired; and in the case of opposite-leaved plants two cuttings may often be made from one joint by splitting the stem longitudinally, each cutting consisting of a leaf and a perfect bud attached to half the thickness of the stem.
Planting and Transplanting.—In preparing a fruit tree for transplantation, the first thing to be done is to open a trench round it at a distance of from 3 to 4 ft., according to size. The trench should be opened to about two spades’ depth, and any coarse roots which may extend thus far from the trunk may be cut clean off with a sharp knife. The soil between the trench and the stem is to be reduced as far as may seem necessary or practicable by means of a digging fork, the roots as soon as they are liberated being fixed on one side and carefully preserved. By working in this way all round the ball, the best roots will be got out and preserved, and the ball lightened of all superfluous soil. The tree will then be ready to lift if carefully prized up from beneath the ball, and if it does not lift readily, it will probably be found that a root has struck downwards, which will have to be sought out and cut through. Whenever practicable, it is best to secure a ball of earth round the roots. On the tree being lifted from its hole the roots should be examined, and all which have been severed roughly with the spade should have the ends cut smooth with the knife to facilitate the emission of fibres. The tree can then be transported to its new position. The hole for its reception should be of sufficient depth to allow the base of the ball of earth, or of the roots, to stand so that the point whence the uppermost roots spring from the stem may be 2 or 3 in. below the general surface level. Then the bottom being regulated so as to leave the soil rather highest in the centre, the plant is to be set in the hole in the position desired, and steadied there by hand. Next the roots from the lower portion of the ball are to be sought out and laid outwards in lines radiating from the stem, being distributed equally on all sides as nearly as this can be done; some fine and suitable good earth should be thrown amongst the roots as they are thus being placed, and worked in well up to the base of the ball. The soil covering the roots may be gently pressed down, but the tree should not be pulled up and down, as is sometimes done, to settle the soil. This done, another set of roots higher up the ball must be laid out in the same way, and again another, until the whole of the roots, thus carefully laid, are embedded as firmly as may be in the soil, which may now receive another gentle treading. The stem should next be supported permanently, either by one stake or by three, according to its size. The excavation will now be filled up about two-thirds perhaps; and if so the tree may have a thorough good watering, sufficient to settle the soil closely about its roots. After twenty-four hours the hole may be levelled in, with moderate treading, if the water has soaked well in, the surface being left level and not sloping upwards towards the stem of the tree. In transplanting trees of the ornamental class, less need be attempted in respect to providing new soil, although the soil should be made as congenial as practicable. Generally speaking, fruit trees are best transplanted when three or four years of age, in which time they will have acquired the shape given by the nurseryman, who generally transplants his stock each autumn to produce large masses of root fibres. Nowadays, however, quite large trees, chiefly of an ornamental character, and perhaps weighing several tons, are lifted with a large ball of soil attached to the roots, by means of a special tree-lifting machine, and are readily transferred from one part of the garden to another, or even for a distance of several miles, without serious injury. The best season for transplanting deciduous trees is during the early autumn months. As regards evergreens opinions are divided, some preferring August and September, others April or May. They can be successfully planted at either period, but for subjects which are at all difficult to remove the spring months are to be preferred.
In transplanting smaller subjects, such as plants for the flower garden, much less effort is required. The plant must be lifted with as little injury to its rootlets as possible, and carefully set into the hole, the soil being filled in round it, and carefully pressed close by the hand. For moving small plants the garden trowel is a very convenient tool, but we are inclined to give the preference to the hand-fork. For larger masses, such as strong-growing herbaceous plants, a spade or digging-fork will be requisite and the soil may be trodden down with the feet.
When seedlings of vigorous plants have to be “pricked out,” a dibble or dibber is the best implement to be used. The ground being prepared and, if necessary, enriched, and the surface made fine and smooth, a hole is made with the dibble deep enough and large enough to receive the roots of the seedling plants without doubling them up, and the hole is filled in by working the soil close to the plant with the point of the dibble. The pricking out of seedlings in pots in the propagating pit is effected in a similar way. The plants, indeed, often require to be removed and set from ½ in. to 1 in. apart before they have become sufficiently developed to admit of being handled with any degree of facility, and for these a pointed stick of convenient size is used as a dibble. In delicate cases, such as seedling gloxinias and begonias, it is best to lift the little seedling on the end of a flattish pointed stick, often cleft at the apex, pressing this into the new soil where the plant is to be placed, and liberating it and closing the earth about it by the aid of a similar stick held in the other hand.
| Fig. 26.—Section of Pot showing Crocks. |
Potting and Repotting.—Garden pots are made with a comparatively large hole in the bottom, and those of the largest size have also holes at the side near the bottom; these openings are to prevent the soil becoming saturated or soured with superabundant water. To prepare the pot for the plant, a broadish piece of potsherd, called a “crock,” is placed over the large hole, and if there be side holes they also are covered. The bottom crock is made from a piece of a broken garden pot, and is laid with the convex side upwards; then comes a layer of irregular pieces of crock of various sizes, about 1 in. deep in a 5-in. pot, 2 in. in an 11-in. or 12-in. pot, &c. The mode of crocking a pot is shown in fig. 26. A few of the coarser lumps from the outer edge of the heap of potting soil are spread over the crocks. The same end, that of keeping the finer particles of the soil from mixing with the drainage crocks, may be attained by shaking in a little clean moss. A handful or two of the soil is then put in, and on this the plant with its roots spread out is to be set, a trifle higher than the plant should stand in the pot when finished off; more soil is to be added, and the whole pressed firmly with the fingers, the base of the stem being just below the pot-rim, and the surface being smoothed off so as to slope a little outwards. When finished off, the pots should be watered well, to settle the soil; but they should stand till the water has well drained away, since, if they are moved about while the fresh soil is very wet, there will be a risk of its becoming puddled or too much consolidated. Larger plants do not need quite such delicate treatment, but care should be taken not to handle the roots roughly. The soil for these may be somewhat coarser, and the amount of drainage material more ample. Larger bodies of soil also require to be more thoroughly consolidated before watering; otherwise they would settle down so as to leave an unsightly void at the pot-rim.
Some plants, especially when potted temporarily, may be dealt with in a simpler way. A single crock may be used in some cases, and in others no crock at all, but a handful of half-decayed leaves or half-decayed dung thrown into the bottom of the pot. This mode of potting does well for bulbs, such as hyacinths, which are either thrown away or planted out when the bloom is over. The bedding plants generally may be potted in this way, the advantage being that at planting-out time there is less risk of disturbing the roots than if there were potsherds to remove. Plants of this character should be potted a little less firmly than specimens which are likely to stand long in the pot, and indeed the soil should be made comparatively light by the intermixture of leaf-mould or some equivalent, in order that the roots may run freely and quickly into it.
For epiphytal plants like orchids the most thorough drainage must be secured by the abundant use of potsherds, small pots being sometimes inserted inside the larger ones, or by planting in shallow pots or pans, so that there shall be no large mass of soil to get consolidated. For most of these the lightest spongy but sweet turfy peat must be used, this being packed lightly about the roots, and built up above the pot-rim, or in some cases freely mixed before use with chopped sphagnum moss and small pieces of broken pots or nodules of charcoal. The plants under these conditions often require to be supported by wooden pegs or sticks. Some of the species grow better when altogether taken out of the soil and fixed to blocks of wood, but in this case they require a little coaxing with moss about the roots until they get established. In other cases they are planted in open baskets of wood or wire, using the porous peat and sphagnum compost. Both blocks and baskets are usually suspended from the roof of the house, hanging free, so that no accumulation of water is possible. These conditions of orchid-growing have undergone great changes of late years, and the plants are grown much as other stove and greenhouse plants in ordinary pots with composts not only of peat but of leaf-mould, and fibres from osmunda and polypodium ferns.