Mukti is Nurturing Lakhs of Herbaceous Plants Using Cutting

Mukti has aimed to nurture lakhs of herbaceous plants (e.g., garden flowers and houseplants) at 3 Mukti central gardens through cutting. Every year usually Mukti starts the cutting process just before Monsoon and it is continued throughout the Monsoon season.

In this process the stem of the plant is used. A stem cutting includes a piece of stem.  Then the new cutting portion of the plant is covered by cutting powder. After that these plants will be planted in the previously made sand bed or soil bed. Thus, the stem cutting only needs to form new roots to be a complete, independent plant.

 

Advantages to nurturing plants using cuttings:

1. The new plant will be identical to the parent plant. For example, if the parent plant has variegated (multi-colored) foliage, the new plant grown from the cutting will have the same foliage. If the parent plant is female the new plant will also be female. Nurturing a plant by cutting will allow keeping the special characteristic of that plant.
2. Nurturing a new plant via cuttings avoids the difficulties of nurturing by seed. Additionally, some seeds are difficult to germinate, taking two to three years for the seedling to appear.
3. A new plant grown from a cutting will frequently mature faster and flower sooner than a plant grown from a seed.

6 types of plants Mukti is using for cutting are Salvia, Rangan (Jungle Geranium), Duranta, Patabahar (Garden Croton), Sita (Ashoka), Lantana.

32 women workers are engaged in this cutting process. They are working under “Food for Work” project.

The plants that will grow through cutting will be used in the landscaping area  and model gardens of Mukti Gram.