Mother plant
Plants cultivated in horticulture are referred to as mother plants, which are used for mass reproduction in terms of their authenticity and their plant-hygienic status . Mother plants, often also referred to as elite plants, are found primarily in ornamental plant cultivation in bedding and balcony plant varieties . The production and cultivation of mother plant cultures presents the gardener with special tasks.
Requirements for mother plants: freedom from pathogens
Mother plants of a cultivar must be pathogen-free. This includes animal pests, fungal diseases and, above all, bacterioses and viruses . Often future mother plants are already selected in the in vitro phase with the help of various test methods such as enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) or polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Only infestation-free plant material can be used as a mother plant for further cultivation.
Requirements for mother plants: variety authenticity
In the case of licensed varieties, the authenticity of the variety must be guaranteed in the vegetative and generative habitus . This means that the plant must show the characteristics typical of the variety in terms of its growth characteristics and flower or fruit characteristics. Since mother plants are often propagated via tissue culture , there is a risk of somaclonal variation occurring here . To test the genuineness of the plants propagated in this way, they are transferred to soil after the in-vitro phase (ex-vitro) and tested accordingly in a further culture phase. Only genuine material is cultivated as a mother plant in the further course of the culture.
Use and production locations
Mother plants are the raw material from which cuttings , cuttings and scions are obtained. These are sold to production companies in horticulture for further cultivation there into semi-finished goods or ready-to-sell goods.
As a rule, mother plant culture is established in the summer or autumn before the cuttings are harvested during the winter months. Until then, the mother plants should be richly branched and sufficiently large so that many cuttings can be harvested in a short time.
Today, mother plants for vegetative mass reproduction are almost exclusively only found in southern climates with high levels of radiation, in areas with low labor costs, in order to produce a mature and inexpensive cutting. High energy and wage costs prevent this phase of value creation from taking place in Central Europe.
When sexual reproduction is called the equivalent of the mother plant, incidentally seed carrier .
literature
- Andreas Bettin: Cultivation techniques in ornamental plant cultivation. Ulmer, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 3-8001-5187-1
- Karl Zimmer (Hrsg.): Handbook of the commercial gardener, main cultures in ornamental plants. 3rd edition, Ulmer, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 3-8001-5134-0