What are the advantages of vegetative propagation in plants
Answers
The main advantage of vegetative propagation methods is that the new plants contain the genetic material of only one parent, so they are essentially clones of the parent plant
The main advantage of vegetative propagation methods is that the new plants contain the genetic material of only one parent, so they are essentially clones of the parent plant. This means that, once you have a plant with desirable traits, you can reproduce the same traits indefinitely, as long as the growing conditions remain similar. This is especially important for commercial growers who want to reproduce the highest-quality plants and ensure consistency of a variety of plant or crop for sale. This can also help to maintain consistent quality and taste in products made from plants or crops. For example, in Zealong’s tea plantation, they propagate new tea plants using cuttings to ensure consistency in the taste and quality of their tea.
With vegetative propagation, plants also bypass the immature seedling phase and therefore reach the mature phase sooner. This can save a lot of time and money for commercial plant production. For example, it takes 3–4 years for a tea plant to grow big enough (from a cutting) to be ready for harvesting and processing into tea. Growing from seed would take even longer.