not the most scientific of tools...the potato peeler

 

Scarification
"Ok, so whats with the potato peeler", I hear you ask.

 

As mentioned earlier, the structure around where the roots will actually form, changes.

 

Instead of routing nutrients through an internal, vascular distribution system, the duties this distribution network undertakes have changed dramatically.

 

Now, instead of piping nutrients around the plants, they are expected to actually forage, in a pioneering quest for nutrients.

 

It can happen fast too.  With a plant which will readily root cuttings it can be as quick as two or three days, but the norm would be 10-14 days and if it happens sooner..bonus!

 

In order to assist the cells changing, scarification actually destroys the existing outer cell walls, leaving a torn and shredded end to the stem.

 

Its thought this speeds up the changeover, as the plant doesn't have to first change the cells as they're damaged anyway.  So they just need to be repaired.

 

Whther its faster or not, I'll let you make your own mind up.  But I do think scarification helps, certainly to a degree.