Cutting Propagation
UK Tree cutting propagation
Team: Amanda Rasmussen, Alex Owens (Biosciences); Jonathan Aylott and .....(Pharmacy); Ed Marley and Kevin Hobbs (Whetman Plants International); Felicidad Fernandez, Flora O'Brien, Charlotte Nellist (NIAB-EMR).
Funding: Tree Production Innovation Fund (2021-2022); KTP (2022-2025); BBSRC DTP studentship (2021-2025); BBSRC CASE studentship (2022-2026)
Creating new plants from cuttings is widely used for garden and commercial plant production because it’s quicker than seed-raising and resulting plants inherit the memory of past environmental stresses enabling them to better cope with future stress. This makes cutting propagation an excellent way to produce high numbers of environmentally resilient trees.
However, cuttings need plant hormones like auxin (common in commercially available rooting gels) to produce roots and the exact timing, amount and mixture of hormones differs for each tree species. Understanding which trees require special hormone treatments and which already form roots is essential for our nurseries to scale up tree production.
The pilot study funded by the Tree Production Innovation Fund is testing cutting propagation success of UK broadleaf tree species using existing rooting hormone treatments. Each species will be categorised as either – industry-ready; requires optimisation; or requires research – to enable nurseries (including our partners) to make informed choices about which species to target for intensive production and which require further research.
Additionally, we are trialling the use of technologies from the pharmaceutical sector, which target delivery of actives, with tree cuttings to release plant hormones at specific times to improve cutting success. With the environment squarely in focus, our propagation media is peat-free and biodegradable cardboard propagation tubes (Ezeetrees) will replace plastic pots.
Our cross-sector team including nursery producers (Whetman Plants International), fruit tree specialists (NIAB-EMR), wider plant collecting community (including Plant Heritage) and academics (University of Nottingham) will ensure direct transfer of knowledge and know-how between all partners.
Publications:
Team: Amanda Rasmussen, Alex Owens (Biosciences); Jonathan Aylott and .....(Pharmacy); Ed Marley and Kevin Hobbs (Whetman Plants International); Felicidad Fernandez, Flora O'Brien, Charlotte Nellist (NIAB-EMR).
Funding: Tree Production Innovation Fund (2021-2022); KTP (2022-2025); BBSRC DTP studentship (2021-2025); BBSRC CASE studentship (2022-2026)
Creating new plants from cuttings is widely used for garden and commercial plant production because it’s quicker than seed-raising and resulting plants inherit the memory of past environmental stresses enabling them to better cope with future stress. This makes cutting propagation an excellent way to produce high numbers of environmentally resilient trees.
However, cuttings need plant hormones like auxin (common in commercially available rooting gels) to produce roots and the exact timing, amount and mixture of hormones differs for each tree species. Understanding which trees require special hormone treatments and which already form roots is essential for our nurseries to scale up tree production.
The pilot study funded by the Tree Production Innovation Fund is testing cutting propagation success of UK broadleaf tree species using existing rooting hormone treatments. Each species will be categorised as either – industry-ready; requires optimisation; or requires research – to enable nurseries (including our partners) to make informed choices about which species to target for intensive production and which require further research.
Additionally, we are trialling the use of technologies from the pharmaceutical sector, which target delivery of actives, with tree cuttings to release plant hormones at specific times to improve cutting success. With the environment squarely in focus, our propagation media is peat-free and biodegradable cardboard propagation tubes (Ezeetrees) will replace plastic pots.
Our cross-sector team including nursery producers (Whetman Plants International), fruit tree specialists (NIAB-EMR), wider plant collecting community (including Plant Heritage) and academics (University of Nottingham) will ensure direct transfer of knowledge and know-how between all partners.
Publications:
Cutting Propagation - adventitious rooting
Cuttings are used for propagating many important plant species including food trees such as apples, ornamental plants and forestry trees. According to the UK government, fruit and vegetable production and ornamental horticulture was worth £1.8 billion and £1 billion respectively in 2011 while in 2007 the forestry and wood product industry was worth more than £7.2 billion (DEFRA). Cutting propagation depends on root formation from the base of stems. The formation of stem-roots requires a plant hormone called auxin and different types of auxin are the core ingredient of many rooting powders and gels. However auxin treatments do not always improve rooting on cuttings. As plants get older, it becomes more difficult to get roots to form on the base of the cuttings and auxin is often not effective in overcoming this decline.
This research studies how changes in plant signals control root development on cuttings, in particular during the decline with plant age. As plants get older they pass through different stages including embryonic, vegetative, and flowering. Using pea cuttings I found that the decline in rooting with age is linked to the switch from vegetative to floral development. At this time, internal auxin levels drop dramatically.
Publications:
Rasmussen A, Hosseini SA, Hajirezaei MR, Druege U, Geelen D (2015) Adventitious rooting declines with vegetative to reproductive switch and involves a changed auxin homeostasis. Journal of Experimental Botany 66:1437-1452 (doi:10.1093/jxb/eru499)
Other signals are also involved in determining whether cuttings will develop roots including strigolactones, cytokinins and ethylene. Some of my previous work on these signals can be found in the publications below and if you are interested in pursuing a research project in this area, I'd love to hear from you.
Cuttings are used for propagating many important plant species including food trees such as apples, ornamental plants and forestry trees. According to the UK government, fruit and vegetable production and ornamental horticulture was worth £1.8 billion and £1 billion respectively in 2011 while in 2007 the forestry and wood product industry was worth more than £7.2 billion (DEFRA). Cutting propagation depends on root formation from the base of stems. The formation of stem-roots requires a plant hormone called auxin and different types of auxin are the core ingredient of many rooting powders and gels. However auxin treatments do not always improve rooting on cuttings. As plants get older, it becomes more difficult to get roots to form on the base of the cuttings and auxin is often not effective in overcoming this decline.
This research studies how changes in plant signals control root development on cuttings, in particular during the decline with plant age. As plants get older they pass through different stages including embryonic, vegetative, and flowering. Using pea cuttings I found that the decline in rooting with age is linked to the switch from vegetative to floral development. At this time, internal auxin levels drop dramatically.
Publications:
Rasmussen A, Hosseini SA, Hajirezaei MR, Druege U, Geelen D (2015) Adventitious rooting declines with vegetative to reproductive switch and involves a changed auxin homeostasis. Journal of Experimental Botany 66:1437-1452 (doi:10.1093/jxb/eru499)
Other signals are also involved in determining whether cuttings will develop roots including strigolactones, cytokinins and ethylene. Some of my previous work on these signals can be found in the publications below and if you are interested in pursuing a research project in this area, I'd love to hear from you.
- Rasmussen A, Heugebaert T, Matthys C, Van Deun R, Boyer F-D, Goormachtig S, Stevens C, Geelen D (2013) A fluorescent alternative to the synthetic strigolactone GR24. Molecular Plant 6: (1) 100-112 (doi:10.1093/mp/sss110)
- Rasmussen A, Beveridge CA, Geelen D (2012) Inhibition of strigolactones promotes adventitious root formation Plant Signaling and Behavior 7: (6) 694-697.
- Rasmussen A, Mason MG, De Cuyper C, Brewer PB, Herold S, Agusti J, Geelen D, Goormachtig S, Beeckman T, Beveridge CA (2012) Strigolactones suppress adventitious rooting in Arabidopsis and pea.Plant Physiology 158:1976-1987.
- Hunt MA, Trueman S, Rasmussen A. (2011) Indole-3-butyric acid accelerates adventitious root formation and impedes shoot growth of Pinus elliottii var. elliottii 3 P. caribaea var. hondurensis cuttings. New Forests 41:349-360
- Rasmussen A, and Hunt MA (2010) Aging delays the cellular stages of adventitious root formation in pine. Australian Forestry 73: (1) 41-46.
- Rasmussen A, Smith TE, and Hunt MA. (2009) Cellular stages of root formation, root system quality and survival of Pinus elliottii var. elliottii x P. caribaea var hondurensis cuttings in different temperature environments, New Forests 38:285-294 (doi:10.1007/s11056-009-9147-6)