Reproduction of lilac
The lilac is propagated by seeds and vegetatively.
Seed propagation is used for breeding new varieties and growing rootstocks.
The vegetative method is the main one for the reproduction of garden forms and varieties. This includes: propagation by grafting, green cuttings, multiplication by layers.
Reproduction by inoculation. For mass lilac reproduction , the method of budding is more often used. The best stock is the common lilac, less commonly used a hare( ligustrum) - the lilac grafted on it is drought-resistant, but it blooms less abundantly.
Seeds of ordinary lilac are harvested in August-September and after a month and a half or two months of stratification are sown in furrows, closing to a depth of 1-1.5 centimeters. Spring crops give a lower germination due to the drying of shallow seeded seeds. Seeding ridges or furrows mulch with peat, humus, sawdust. The seeding rate is 1.5-2 grams of seeds per running meter of the furrow. From 200-250 grams you can get about 15 thousand seedlings.
Seedlings grow slowly and become fit for budding usually only in the second year. Plant them in the first field of the nursery in the autumn( not later than October) or early in the spring( since the lilac very early starts growing) to a distance of 40-50 and in the aisle - 80-100 centimeters( 20-30 thousand plants per 1 ha).Then watered and hilled.
Lilac lupine is carried out in July - early August, before roses, as the sap flow at the lilac stops earlier. Calling or strengthening the sap flow can be abundant watering for five to seven days before budding. For oculization use eyes from the middle part of the cuttings. Two pairs of upper kidneys are usually purely floral, the lower ones are poorly developed. The scutellum is cut with a small amount of wood or without it. Otherwise, the grafting and subsequent cultivation of seedlings are the same as those of roses.
The slower growth of the lilac often necessitates a two-year growing of seedlings in the nursery. To obtain the lilac stems, the stock is grown longer, until annual shoots of 1-1.5 meters are obtained, and then the buds are grafted or grafted onto them with cultivars.
Green cuttings. In greenhouses under glass or film, in conditions of artificial fog, the rooting of green cuttings of lilac is relatively easy( amateurs can do this in boxes or plates covered with glass or film, with frequent spraying of cuttings).In hotbeds for hot manure pour nutrient earth layer of 10 centimeters( compact it), and then coarse-grained washed sand layer of 3 centimeters.
Cuttings are harvested.at the beginning of the mass flowering of the lilac, in the semi-matured state, they are cut with a sharp knife into segments with one interstice and two kidneys. The lower cut is made 0.5 centimeters below the kidney, the upper cut is 1-1.5 centimeters above the upper kidney. The lower leaf blade is reduced to 7s, the upper one to 7g. Cuttings before planting cover with wet moss or burlap, so that they do not lose the turgor. Plant them at a distance of 7x7 or 7x5 centimeters, deepening the bottom in the sand by 0.5-1 centimeter.
Care of the cuttings is to maintain the humidity of the air under well-adjusted frames by spraying frequently, especially on hot days, from a hand sprayer or watering can with a fine mesh( if there is no fogging plant) and a temperature of 25-27 °.In hot days the frames are shaded. Root formation begins on the 25-30th day. Strengthen the formation of roots can be treated cuttings growth substances. The plants gradually become hardened: at first they remove the frames in the evening and in cloudy weather, and then finally. At this time, care consists in watering and feeding, which is carried out once every 10-12 days. With irrigation water, 5-8 grams of urea and potassium chloride are added to two greenhouse frames. Rooted plants can be left to grow and overwinter in greenhouses or plant in ridges.
Green cuttings give weak plants that require growing before planting in a permanent place. They later begin to bloom than grafted or obtained by the method of layering.
Reproduction by layers is one of the widely used methods of reproduction. To obtain layers, it is necessary to have root plants.
In the nurseries lay special queen cells. Root-owned shrubs are obtained with the help of green cuttings or by transferring to their own roots grafted shrubs. For this purpose, the grafted plants are planted obliquely, pulling the main stem above the site of grafting with a soft wire and barking the soil to a height of 25-30 centimeters. By autumn, when the roots are formed above the constriction, the root system of the stock is removed.
Under selection matrovnik choose a site with fertile soil, 40-50 tons, manure, 4 centners of superphosphate, 2 centners of potassium salt are applied for plowing. Uterine lilac bushes are planted in a row at a distance of 2-2.5 meters to receive horizontal layers, and vertical ones - 0.8-1.6 meters. After planting, the aerial part is cut off and every year in autumn all the young shoots that are formed are cut short. In the third or fourth year after planting, it is possible to obtain layers.
To obtain vertical layers( the Dahlem way) in spring, as soon as the young shoots reach a height of 15-20 centimeters, some of them at the base are pulled with a soft wire and hill, leaving only the tops free. As sprouting grows, hilling is repeated. In autumn, open mounds and separate shoots with the roots formed above the constriction. This way you can get up to 50-100 layers from the bush.
To obtain horizontal layers in spring around the bush loosen the soil and in small grooves horizontally lay young shoots, pre-pulling them at the base wire. Weak shoots are cut short.
Vertical young shoots several times hills. In autumn the obtained layers are separated. On each of the horizontally decomposed shoots, five to ten layers are formed. Each bush can give on 100-200 plants depending on a grade of a lilac and weather conditions.
Both these methods give in one year a strong plant, suitable for disembarkation on a permanent place.