How Chinese lemongrass reproduces

Chinese magnolia vine is a fast growing vine. It grows in China, Korea, Japan, and also in the north of Our Country. Increasingly, it is planted in summer cottages, since the berries of the plant have a large number of healing properties. Lemongrass can be propagated in several ways: by seeds, cuttings, layering. Each method has certain advantages, therefore, when choosing, gardeners are guided by the convenience and speed of obtaining results.

How Chinese magnolia vine breeds

Schisandra chinensis is still considered a rare and even exotic crop in our country. Therefore, it is not always possible to easily buy its seedlings. We have to reproduce at home. There are several ways in which Schisandra chinensis reproduces:

1. Green cuttings – a rare, labor-intensive method. Suitable if the garden has one liana, where you can take cuttings.
2. seed is a long term method. The gardener receives the first fruits from the plant only in the fourth or fifth year. Therefore, propagation by seeds is painstaking, troublesome work.
3. Reproduction by shoots among specialists is considered the most effective method that does not require a large amount of effort. The growth appears in the second year of the life of the vine.
4. Root offspring – the first year the plant develops poorly, but then rapidly grows, gives a lot of basal offspring. A simple method of propagation of a young shrub.
5. Separation of maternal lemongrass. The method is used when the main shrub needs to be transplanted. As a result, in a new place, the divided parts will quickly begin to bear fruit.
6. Layers – This method is for those who do not want to work. Just until the cuttings take root, they do not need to be transplanted.

Which method to use for propagating lemongrass depends on the specific situation, the number of plants available on the site, planting time, and the health of the mother shrub. It is not recommended to buy seedlings from the Far East, as wild, uncultivated lianas often come across. Thus, instead of useful Chinese lemongrass with decorative properties, you can get unnecessary diseases and pests on the site.

Lemongrass also propagates at home. You will need a stalk – it is cut according to all the rules of grafting from the mother plant of magnolia vine. This material is planted in a pot, which is filled with a fertile mixture and coarse sand. Place a glass jar or plastic bottle without a neck on top.

Watering lemongrass seedlings is done with water at room temperature. After about 18 days, roots appear. Starting from this time, the shelter needs to be removed first for a short time, then increase the interval. A month after planting the cutting, the shelter should be removed altogether. In autumn, the cutting can be transferred already to the site, to a permanent place. It is important that he has time to take root before the onset of frost. Many gardeners transplant lemongrass from a pot in the spring.

It is very important to remember that when propagating lemongrass in a vegetative way, the plant retains all the signs of the mother. In this case, an important feature is the floor of the liana. Plants of four sexual varieties have been recorded in Chinese lemongrass:

• plants with different sexes that change their flowers every year: a year for females, a year for males;
• monoecious plants, when one specimen has both male and female flowers;
• dioecious female, which has only female flowers;
• dioecious male – such a vine does not bear fruit and has only male flowers.

If the vine does not bear fruit, then when it is bred with shoots or cuttings, its descendants will also not bear fruit. Such a problem arises for those who wish to propagate wild magnolia vine and are mistaken with the sex of the plant.

Propagation of Schisandra chinensis by cuttings

For propagation of Chinese lemongrass by cuttings, it is necessary to use only summer cuttings. Small greenish-brown shoots are cut for cuttings, which did not have time to fully lignify. It needs to be cut in mid-June. Each cutting should have 3-4 buds. A straight cut is made above the upper kidney, and obliquely below the lower kidney. There should be a distance of 5 cm between the cut and the upper bud. It is not recommended to cut cuttings for propagation of lemongrass in autumn – the plant will not have time to prepare for spring.

After cutting, all cuttings must be placed in water. Can be installed in a special solution (growth stimulant) for 12 hours. It is necessary to plant planting material in a cold greenhouse. The soil should be moist and loose, and coarse river sand should be poured over the dug up soil. The optimal layer of sand is 8–9 cm.

When planting, the cuttings are immersed in the ground at an angle. In this case, the lower kidney goes deep into the ground, and the middle one remains on its surface. The distance between the planted cuttings should be 5 cm. From above, the entire planting is covered with non-woven material, on which watering will be carried out on top 3 times a day. After about 30 days, roots will begin to appear. There will not be many of them, this is typical for Chinese magnolia vine. Therefore, do not be upset if only half of the planted cuttings take root.

After a month, you can remove the material that covers the seedlings. Propagation of Schizandra chinensis by cuttings continues in the fall. At this stage, together with a clod of earth, the seedling is dug up and left in a cool place for winter storage. Until spring, you can save rooted lemongrass if you cover it with wet sawdust in the basement. In the spring, blanks can be planted at a permanent place of residence.

Propagation of Schisandra chinensis by seeds

This is an inexpensive method of breeding lemongrass, which takes time, but is quite simple in technology. It is common among gardeners who previously did not have lemongrass, and there is simply nowhere to take cuttings.

It has been noticed that specimens grown from seeds live longer and are more unpretentious in care than offspring obtained by other methods.

Seed propagation technology:

1. Collect seeds from berries, wash, dry and store in a paper bag.
2. In early December, be sure to put it in water for 3-4 days.
3. Wrap in cloth and bury in sand.
4. Keep the box with sand for 30 days at a temperature of +20 °C.
5. During this month, you need to pull out the bundle every week, unfold and ventilate the seeds for several minutes. Then wrap again and rinse under running water, wring out and bury again in the sand.
6. A month later, the seeds are dug out and transferred to a pot of sand, which is placed in a refrigerator at a temperature of zero degrees.
7. A month later (early February), you should transfer the cup with seeds to the fruit compartment, where the temperature is slightly higher.
8. After about 35–40 days, the seeds will begin to crack. This means it’s time to plant them.

For planting, be sure to use wooden boxes that are filled with special nutrient soil. The composition of the soil for propagating lemongrass with seeds:

• 2 parts of peat;
• 1 part river sand and earth.

In the ground, it is necessary to make grooves of small depth. Enough 4 cm deep and half a centimeter wide. Plant the seeds at a distance of a centimeter from each other. Cover with soil and water. Top can be covered with paper, film is also allowed.

Monitor soil moisture regularly. If the soil dries out, the seeds will not sprout. After 14 days, the first shoots begin to appear. Unlike many plants, in lemongrass, the straightening of the initial arc to two leaves takes longer.

When all shoots appear, you will need to remove the film and put the box with the seedlings on the windowsill. At the same time, it is undesirable that the sun’s rays directly fall on the sprouts. In some cases, it is recommended to even seal the window or put the box on the shady side. It can be planted on the beds after 4 leaves have appeared on the sprouts. Depending on the weather, it can be planted in open ground or a cold greenhouse.

Experts recommend transplanting in the first week of June. In any case, you need to wait until the threat of frost has completely disappeared. Even light overnight frosts can kill all seedlings or significantly slow down their development.

Planted in furrows. Between the seedlings, the distance is 5 cm. Between the furrows – 15 cm. Care consists in watering and loosening the soil.

Reproduction of lemongrass by layering

This method is optimal for breeding in the spring. The soil at the time of propagation by layering should be loose, dug up. Gardeners recommend two ways to propagate lemongrass by layering.

• Horizontal. Grooves up to 20 cm deep should be made around the bush. Layers are placed in the grooves, pressed with wooden stakes, metal clamps. Sprinkle the grooves with earth. The tops of the layers must be left on the surface of the earth. Before autumn, the soil must be watered.
• Vertical. The vertical method is distinguished by the fact that a wooden support is added dropwise to the top remaining on the surface. On it, the future vine grows until it acquires the necessary appearance.

Reproduction of lemongrass shoots

The most efficient method of reproduction, which is used most often. The algorithm is quite simple. On an adult plant there are a huge number of shoots with young buds. For planting, they must be separated from the adult vine.

Root offspring are more in older plants. To separate, you need to use a shovel, but as carefully as possible. Separate the rhizome together with the adventitious root. If there are many appendages, then divide the young shoot for reproduction with a pruner into several parts, each of which should have its own appendage.

For growing, you need to place the adventitious root in loose, moist soil. It usually takes about two years to grow. New roots grow on the adventitious shoot. Then the shoots are transplanted to a permanent place in the garden plot with nutritious soil, fertilized soil.

Conclusion

More and more gardeners want to propagate lemongrass every year. Someone has heard about the healing properties of this plant, which successfully helps hypotensive patients, and someone just likes a beautiful liana on a gazebo or garden fence. In any case, you should not mess with wild seedlings and it is better to take seeds or cuttings from a cultivated plant. If there is already one lemongrass in the garden, then it can be divided into several bushes or propagated by layering.