Plants reproduce in more ways than most people realize, and the cheapest, fastest route is different for every kind. Knowing which method matches which plant is the difference between buying nursery stock forever and filling your whole garden for free. This is the map I wish I'd had early on.
From seed
The default for most annuals — vegetables, grains, many flowers and herbs. Cheap, abundant, and how you save your own stock from heirlooms. The catch is that hybrids and most tree fruit won't come true from seed, so seed is for annuals and for open-pollinated varieties you want to keep going.
- Best for: tomatoes, beans, peas, lettuce, squash, corn, most herbs and flowers.
- Direct sow (no transplanting) for taprooted crops: carrots, beans, beets, dill.
- Start in trays for slow or frost-tender crops: tomatoes, peppers, brassicas.
From cuttings
A piece of stem grows its own roots — an exact clone of the parent. The fastest way to multiply herbs, soft perennials, and many shrubs. Softwood in spring, hardwood in winter for woody plants.
- Softwood: mint, basil, sage, oregano, coleus, rosemary.
- Hardwood: figs, mulberries, grapes, currants.
- Stem-in-water: pothos, philodendron, monstera, many houseplants.
From division
Dig up a mature clumping plant in cool weather and split it into pieces, each with roots and shoots. Instant established plants, and it keeps the parent young by clearing out the dying center.
- Herbs: chives, lemongrass, French tarragon, mint runners.
- Perennials: asparagus crowns, rhubarb, sorrel, daylilies.
- Native grasses and many wildflowers in spring.
From layering
Bend a low branch to the ground, pin and bury a section, and it roots while still attached to and fed by the mother plant. Slow but nearly foolproof — the cutting can't dry out because it's still connected. Once rooted, cut it free.
- Brambles: blackberry and dewberry tip-root naturally where canes touch soil.
- Grapes, figs, and many shrubs layer easily.
- Strawberries do it for you, throwing rooting runners all season.
From specialized parts
Some plants offer their own purpose-built propagation organ, and these are among the easiest of all.
| Part | Plant | Method |
|---|---|---|
| Cloves | Garlic, shallots | Break the bulb apart, plant each clove in fall |
| Sets / bulbs | Onions, perennial onions | Plant the little bulbs directly |
| Tubers | Potatoes | Plant chunks with an eye each |
| Slips | Sweet potatoes | Sprout shoots off a stored tuber, root and plant |
| Rhizomes | Ginger, turmeric, mint | Plant a piece with a visible bud |
| Pads | Prickly pear | Snap a pad, callus it, lay it on dry soil |
| Crowns / offsets | Asparagus, agave, aloe | Plant crowns or detach 'pups' |
From grafting
The advanced one, and the only way to reliably propagate tree fruit. A bud or shoot of the variety you want is joined onto a hardy rootstock. It's how every apple, peach, plum, pear, and citrus tree in a nursery is made, because their seed won't come true. Worth learning eventually, but not where a beginner needs to start.
A quick decision guide
- Annual vegetable or herb? Seed (save your own from heirlooms).
- Soft-stemmed herb or houseplant? Cutting.
- Woody fruit like fig, grape, mulberry? Hardwood cutting.
- Tree fruit (peach, apple, citrus)? Grafted nursery stock.
- Clumping perennial? Division.
- Low flexible branches? Layering.
- Has cloves, tubers, slips, pads, or rhizomes? Use those — they're built for it.
Every plant page in the database tells you which of these applies, with the specifics for that species. Once this map is in your head, you'll never look at a plant the same way — you'll see ten future plants where there used to be one.
Written by Jordan Polasek, founder of Texas Roots, from his greenhouse in El Campo, Texas. Free to share. If this helped, the best thanks is to grow something or pass it along.