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Foresters would recommend alternatives to seeds in some situations. However, in many cases, seedlings are generally grown from seeds in a tree nursery. The two major alternatives to seeds in a nursery are vegetative propagation and the use of wildlings. The alternative to seeds propagation method is useful where it is difficult to find seeds or germination rates of seeds are low.

Need for alternatives to seeds

• Some seeds are hard to find
• Others are difficult to germinate
• The ready availability of alternatives that would otherwise go to waste e.g. wildlings
• Desire to produce superior products (e.g. fruits in grafting)

Methods of Vegetative Propagation

Plants can reproduce both sexually and asexually. Sexual reproduction occurs where pollen and stamen combine to produce seeds. In contrast, asexual reproduction includes the human-assisted cloning of plants. It is also referred to as vegetative propagation. Some methods of vegetative propagation in plants include:

• Grafting: commonly used for fruit trees
• budding (includes T-budding and patch budding (e.g.in oranges),
• cuttings (depending on the species, cuttings can be taken from different parts of the stock plant such as stem, leaves, roots or buds),
• air-layering (In this method, roots are induced on the stem of a plant using soil media or sawdust)
• Division (e.g. pyrethrum),
• runners (e.g. strawberry),
• suckers (e.g. bananas and sugar cane),
• Corms (g. in flowers like gladiolus),
• crown (e.g. pineapples).

The method used depends on the type of plant being multiplied. A more detailed article on vegetative propagation for forestry can be accessed here http://www.environmentalpollution.in/forestry/vegetative-propagation/vegetative-propagation-of-forest-trees-forestry/4766 and here https://agritrop.cirad.fr/582175/1/Pages%20425-440%20de%20vegetative-propagation-of-forest-trees-3.pdf

Wildlings

A wildling refers to a young seedling that is growing naturally in the wild. It is possible for a person to collect a seedling wildling and transfer it to a nursery for care. The use of wildling is common in establishing indigenous tree nurseries. Some indigenous tree species are notoriously difficult to grow from seeds. Yet, their seedlings are readily available in the wild. Nursery managers could collect such species.

Collection of wildlings:

Ideally, a wildling should be 15 centimeters or less. Additionally, you should only take seedlings that have no chance of surviving in the wild. These can include seedlings that are concentrated in one place and seedlings that are growing in the wrong place (e.g. the roof of your house). It is somehow counterproductive to pick seedlings that have a chance of growing into trees naturally.

The best time to collect them is after the rains. The preparation of planting area should be completed before the actual commencing of wildling collection. Wildlings should be temporarily placed in a bucket of water if they are collected from a far area.

The alternative to seeds give people who want to establish a nursery an additional option of stocking the nursery. The alternatives are especially good if you want quick gains in your nursery. It takes time for most indigenous tree species in Africa to grow. However, you can establish a tree nursery pretty fast by collecting wildlings.