There are several methods for propagating plants which require both care and rigour.
Seed production is always to be preferred over other methods because it enables plants to be adapted to local conditions.
Seeds supplied by the Houses of Artemisia network always show some variability. The genetic and phenotypic diversity of these seeds gives a great heterogeneity of plants in the field: depending on their genes and the environment, some plants will be more suitable than others. Only seeds from plants adapted to local growing conditions should be harvested in order to obtain plants that are better suited to these conditions. The aim is to allow each House of Artemisia to select one or more varieties¹ adapted to its environment and to become autonomous in seed production.
In spite of the wide diversity of seeds and growing conditions within the network, no reports of inefficacy have been reported since 2012.
Reminder : Artemisia annua and Artemisia afra are two different species of the genus Artemisia. Consequently, there are subcategories of Artemisia annua which have different characteristics due to their different genetic material.
Cuttings and layering only propagate clones². These methods are to be preferred when seed propagation is difficult. These two techniques mainly concern the multiplication of Artemisia afra, whose seed viability is extremely low within the network.
Layering has a better success rate but depends on the number of stems that fall or can be bent to the ground.
Plants grown from cuttings do not have a good root system and are therefore more vulnerable to wind and drought in the first year.
[1] A plant clone is an individual or a group of individuals from a single individual (“mother plant”) made by vegetative propagation, therefore not by sexual means: the processes of cuttings, layering, splitting clumps, grafting and in vitro cell multiplication produce clones.
Definition by Etienne Cuenot, Synthesis Tela Botanica network: https://www.tela-botanica.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/clone.pdf
¹ Variety: sub-classification within the same species.
Reminder : Artemisia annua and Artemisia afra are two different species of the genus Artemisia. Consequently, there are subcategories of Artemisia annua which have different characteristics due to their different genetic material.
² A plant clone is an individual or a group of individuals from a single individual (“mother plant”) made by vegetative propagation, therefore not by sexual means: the processes of cuttings, layering, splitting clumps, grafting, in vitro cell multiplication produce clones.
Definition by Etienne Cuenot, Synthesis Tela Botanica network: https://www.tela-botanica.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/clone.pdf