Wintersweet propagation: cutting and seedlings
forever_a_newbie_VA8
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forever_a_newbie_VA8
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propagate fruit trees from cuttings?? not grafts
Comments (25)For the ultimate in geekiness for propagating from cuttings, the cutting edge (no pun intended) is tissue culture, growing plants out from meristem cuttings in sterile laboratory conditions. Because you're taking the cutting from the tip of the plant growth, any virus or disease has not had time to travel to that part of the plant yet, and you get a clean start. It used to be the domain of laboratories only, requiring laminar flow hoods and autoclaves, meaning growers had to send out their mother plants for propagation. But guess the one industry that doesn't want to send out their mother plants? That's right, the pot industry! So industrious (and stoned) minds spurred on the development of plant preservatives that help make up for the non-laboratory conditions and now home tissue culture kits are widely available. The plantlets are started in a gelatin-type medium with plant food,hormones, and sugars. Since this medium grows bacteria and fungus much better than it does plants, everything still has to be sterile with lots of alcohol and bunsen burners; a pressure cooker sterilizes your tools. A rubbermaid tub serves as your clean hood and baby food jars holds the medium. Since the sugar is feeding the plants, low light is needed as opposed to the high light needed for hydroponics. It is a way to propagate clean plants quickly, especially on difficult to propagate plants like blueberry and orchids. WSU has been investigating tissue culture of the G series rootstocks since they do not root well in the layer bed. You'd still have to graft to appropriate rootstock, but it would be a way to cheaply clean up viruses in both. Kits run about $250. Here is a link that might be useful: Home Tissue Culture Group...See MoreLooking to trade for snowball viburnum and wintersweet
Comments (4)I wished I had seen this post earlier. I just took out a large Snowball bush with starts all over where the branches had rooted where they touched the ground. I'll look around in the morning when it gets light and see if there are any starts left.(3:45 am now) I cut a lot of it up for firewood. It was a big plant! The trouble was that is was leaning over the fence into my neighbor's cow pasture. Just a messy place in the garden that needed to be revamped. I'll take a picture. Mike...See MorePropagate trees by stem cuttings???
Comments (16)Yes, it seems to have been a poorly selected plant. It maybe could have been corrected with careful initial planting, removal of one leader, and rigorous removal of early suckers, but with the v/y shape you did have a challenging task. Now you do have a major problem there, and I think my inclination would be to just get rid of the plant and start with a new one. There is no reason why a single plant should be a "lifelong" job for you. Dig it up, discard it. Alternatively, you could dig it up totally, see what is rootstock and what is grafted on, cut what is growing from the rootstock, cut off one trunk, and replant with the best leader heading upwards, and keep it tied straight until it is the height you want. This is the perfect time of year to do that. But honestly, I would say it is not worth it, not for that plant. It's common enough to easily replace if you really want one. I've bought my suckering shrubs from reputable nurseries; some plants just do that. Suckering is always annoying, and only some plants are worth the hassle. But if the main plant does not even grow upward, no plant is worth the trouble. Karin L...See MorePropagation of Michelias by Stem Cuttings
Comments (6)Hi Savy4, Thank you, Savy4. I will try your method. I will soak some stem cuttings of different lengths & sizes and observe for possible roots development. Regarding transplanting Michelia x alba, I do not have a good learning experience. I had my first M. x alba in the mid-90s and it was contained in a ceramic pot. The plant was ~20-25 inches tall and healthy. With no experience about caring plants, I transplanted it without breaking the pot and just removed the whole soil & plant out of the pot. After transplanting it to a 100-liter half-drum container, the plant slowly deteriorated in appearance - dropping leaves, gradual rotting of twig ends, etc - the plant never made it. Since then, I have had other failures & some successes in transplanting M. x albas. esp. during the removal of the air-layered twigs from the tree and then putting them into the primary pots, then again transferring them to bigger pots. In few cases, I transferred the m. x albas from one ground location to another then back into a container pot, & then back again to a ground location. I believe, Savy4, that m. x albas are vulnerable to transplant shocks. Even a very healthy looking air-layered twig while still on the tree does not guarantee success after tranplanting it unto the pot. In your last transplant you said you started to see new growth but then after that, you noticed no further improvement. Maybe, Savy4, your plant is at present on a root development stage and prefers to ease on developing its leaves until the roots are well-developed to sustain leaf growths. This is just based from observation I had when propagating Night Blooming Jasmine (Cestrum nocturnum) through stem cutting method. Newly planted stem cuttings with many newly developed leaf growths that looks growing better than the others of its batch sometimes died out while the less healthy looking ones keep on thriving. When I removed the dead cutting, I saw less developed roots. I then removed the still thriving cutting and inspected the roots and noticed it had much better root development than that of the cutting that died. This must be what plant experts say growth balancing of parts of the plant. Let's just hope, Savy4, your plant in few days after having a well-developed roots already, will start growing new leaves. This post was edited by simounagta on Thu, Sep 4, 14 at 2:34...See Moreforever_a_newbie_VA8
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