Alfalfa is an outcrossing species, cultivars consist of populations rather than individual homozygous or inbred lines. After only two cycles of self-pollination, severe inbreeding depression eliminates selfed individuals from populations. To obtain sufficient plant material of relative genetically uniformity (these plants will still necessarily be heterozygous) for experimental purposes, it may be necessary to propagate a single individual or clone.

Protocol: Vegetative Propagation of Alfalfa by Stem Cuttings