If you've been spraying glyphosate right next to it that tends to knock down ability of plants to root considerably. Also there has been a tendency in the past for upright junipers to not root readily from cuttings - even without herbicide exposure - you should do a web search on the subject before putting much into this.

Thanks Embo. I've actually quit Glyophosate applications around my trees since last season. I am using some Broad leaf herbicide to keep the weeds and foxtail down, with the intent of letting the grass creep back towards the trees, eventually abandoning the mulch circles. Will any herbicide have this effect on rooting?

I have heard this species is difficult to root but I'm a bit confused about the term 'last years wood', is it the new growth from this summer that hardens off by fall?

second pic .... nice arching branch at the top ... can you not see the color of the branch change from brown to green.. right where this years growth started ..????

the brown bark is last years growth ...

and if you take the time to look close.. you can see bark maturation even further back.. showing you growth from 2 years back ...

if you cut a 6 inch piece of brand new growth ... i would bet my shiny penny.. it will rot.. long before it would root ... sooooo .... you need mature wood ... which being cedar in this case .... will .. hopefully.. not rot.. before it roots ...

cant you find ANY OTHER juniper to play with ... sheesh... lol

ken

C'mon ken, give Bill a break -- that particular specimen is handsome. Offhand, Bill, there was nothing in the Silvics manual about propagation of VA juniper, tho w/all the juniper cultivars, there must be some reliable method....

"the brown bark is last years growth ..."

I realize that, ken, but next February, after new years and all that, will the bark that's brown now, be two year old wood by then?

"cant you find ANY OTHER juniper to play with ... sheesh... lol"

ha ha! I know how you love those trees. ;o)

The truth of the matter is, according to what I've read, there's a shortage of root stock for grafting cultivars onto this species.

And it's more of an experiment than anything. I plan on using the blue LED's and elevated CO2 levels which is supposed to enhance the 'rootability' (is that word? lol) of conifer cuttings or at least speed them up.

So if all goes well next winter, I'll be getting Thuja o. cuttings as well as a donor branch, already flagged, on my Tsuga c., so the J.v. will be 'filler', should be interesting all the same.

Beng, as with everything, there is so much conflicting information on the www but many research papers make vegetative propagation seem entirely practical. But I'll give you that there's a difference between greenhouse conditions and an old farmer working out of his basement. lol

cant think of a better plant to cut into a thousand pieces .... lol

anyway .... its a good plant to experiment with .. and learn ... much easier to do it with a 5 dollar plant.. than say.. a hundred dollar plant ... besides the fact that you probably couldnt kill it if you wanted to ...

ken

" laterals from further down the branches & from the lower portion of the tree."

Thank you for that information.

So 'laterals' and taking all of them off of one branch, you're talking material that was green and actually on the tree from last year, correct?

Errr yes....the laterals & lower growth sometimes shaded, can be made up of growths from several years, I'm not sure why this works with Junipers most likely a growth factor thing like how with flowering plants cuttings taken while in flower or heavy flower bud are less likely to root. I'm sure the analysts could quantify it in some way. . . .I just know it works. If I have the energy & time I'll post some photos later to show what I mean, I may even be able to shake the mix off some roots of a Juniper cutting to illustrate it more clearly. Unlike some conifers cuttings from any part of a Juniper will grow into a normally orientated plant.

Thanks peter,

I thought laterals along a branch would contain several years growth. Nice you confirmed that. It's night here otherwise I would've went outside and looked at the tree. :)

I'm not a scientist, at least not a professional one but what you say lines up with some research papers I've been reading. The only thing that puzzles me is, the paper says that 15cm long cuttings did better than the 5cm ones. 15cm seems very long to me. I'll have to go out and look at the tree tomorrow to see how long they are.

Photos would be great but don't go to too much trouble or mess anything up.

I've heard the laterals will grow vertical no problem.

Checked the tree, I can see there will be no 15 cm long laterals on the lower branches. Looks like 5 cm to 10 cm range us the norm and some of them will have some new growth on them. Will these be okay?

if you are interested in an experiment ...

why not moisten some media in a pot.. and take a few new growth cuttings ... put it all in a plastic bag ... in full bright shade .. i would probably not close the bag ... just leave the top open.. but it does increase humidity while removing wind that might dry ...

and lets see how long it takes them to rot ...

the experiment is not whether they will root.. as much as if they will rot ...

and by golly.. if they root.. who knew.. lol ....

ken

Or I could 'Cloud prune' one and create a new market that nobody thought of before! lol

Busy time of year, so probably won't be fooling with this anymore until mid winter.

I wouldn't use 150mm cuttings except to prove an experiment, I think the reference you found to such cuttings is a bit unusual . . . . smaller cuttings normally root better. It is only logical that the larger the cutting the harder it is to keep it alive until rooting. The sizes you mention are more normal. As many conifers callus before rooting (& produce roots from this callus) they can take ages & the smaller the cutting the better the chances. The extreme of this is when individual Pinus or Cedrus needle fascicles are rooted, a pretty fascinating (& satisfying) process!

Thanks pete!

I understand what you say about keeping the cutting alive, some of my longer Tsuga cuttings had needles or tips browning. The only ones that still look good are the ones that stayed green all the way through. The thicker terminal branches look the best with the thinner inner cuttings looking a little on the weak side.

I don't think there are any laterals over 9 cm long on my Juniper anyways and I have a feeling my Tsuga and Thuja cuttings will somehow come in shorter this time around also. :)

----------------------

If the laterals have newer straight shoots on the tips, should I trim them off?

----------------------

Well, that's why I thought I'd ask, this changes the plan, where on the tree the cuttings will come from, the length of cuttings and possibly what tree I use.

I've already purchased 4" square plastic pots (12), stockpiled Perlite and Peat, rooting hormone but I want enough cuttings to fill my 'chamber'. I won't have enough Tsuga and unless I can get an awfully lot of Thuja but either way, I'll make room for a 3 pot bag of Juniper v.

We'll see how many cuttings will go into one pot (20?).

I don't think I'm ready for needle fascicles.....yet....something to read about next winter though. :)