Cloning is often the only method for growing some plants

Last week's column covered starting plants from seeds, but this week's focus is starting new plants without the seeds.

Seeds are the cheapest and easiest way to propagate many plants, but some plants require a different method.

Starting plants without using seeds is called vegetative propagation. This process makes an exact duplicate of the parent plant and is also referred to as cloning. While cloning in the animal world is a very sophisticated new process, plants have been cloned for thousands of years.

There are numerous reasons why you might want to start a plant without using seeds. One obvious reason is that certain plants never produce seeds. It would be impossible to produce navel oranges or seedless grapes using seeds

Other plants have seeds that do not develop or if they do develop they are sterile and will not reproduce. Cultivated banana varieties do not produce seeds and many other fruits and flowers such as Mutsu apples and "mule" marigolds have sterile seeds that do not grow.

Other plants produce their own clones. Strawberries produce runners or the mother plant replicates itself so you can dig and divide it. Raspberries produce an abundance of new shoots for your patch or to transplant elsewhere.

Your bulbs divide naturally or produce new bulblets at the base and iris, cannas and many other plants that have rhizomes produce new plants on their own.

Another reason to clone plants is to select the exact varieties you want.

For example, if you saved the seeds from one of your red delicious apples and planted them, you would get an apple but it would not be the same as the parent. Because we want to know what crop we are going to get, fruit trees are cloned by budding or grafting.

Taking cuttings and rooting them is a simple way to start many different plants. The process is easy and you can be successful with relatively simple equipment.

Cuttings need the same things that the plants need to grow — light, proper temperature and moisture. If you supply these needs, many plants will root easily.

There are two different kinds of cuttings. Softwood cuttings are the newest growth on the plant and have no woody tissue. They are the preferred cuttings for most interior plants, annual flowers and many herbaceous perennials.