Ingardening andagronomic terminology, avolunteer is a plant that grows on its own, rather than being deliberately planted by afarmer orgardener.[1] The action of such plants — to sprout or grow in this fashion — may also be described asvolunteering.[2]
Volunteers often grow fromseeds that float in on thewind, are dropped bybirds, or are inadvertently mixed intocompost. Some volunteers may be encouraged by gardeners once they appear, being watered, fertilized, or otherwise cared for, unlikeweeds, which are unwanted volunteers.
Volunteers that grow from the seeds of specificcultivars are not reliably identical or similar to their parent and often differ significantly from it. Suchopen pollinated plants, if they show desirable characteristics, may be selected to become new cultivars.
Inagricultural rotations, self-set plants from the previous year's crop may become established as weeds in the current crop. For example, volunteerwinter wheat will germinate to quite high levels in a followingoilseed rape crop, usually requiring chemical control measures.
In agricultural research, the high purity of a harvested crop is often desirable. To achieve this, typically a group of temporary workers will walk the crop rows looking for volunteer plants, or "rogue" plants in an exercise typically referred to as "roguing".
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