Propigate or seeds? Small Deciduous sidewalk trees

5 years ago

Wanting to plant about 6 small trees along sidewalk. I have a pdf from the town which shows the allowed species to be planted under powerlines about 25 feet up.

I can't go to a nursery and spend like $2,000 for 6 small trees. I asked something similar before about planting a giant maple or Oak in a different spot and people here told me that growing trees from saplings from acorns/maple pods which have fallen off neighbors' trees isn't the same quality tree as one from a nursery. but again I don't want to spend thousands on trees.

I'm thinking I might just go around the corner where there are already lots of different, small sidewalk trees and cut a branch and put some rooting hormone and trying to propigate like that. Or I will order seeds online and start them now. (this is for New Jersey zone 6-7).

Is propigating how they start the ~$300 2-foot trees in nurseries anyway and the best option to just propigate?thanks

Featured Answer

User

5 years ago

Yeah, I give you about 0% chance of success for your plan for cutting propagation. I would also suggest that you buy nursery stock for your project - it seems the most likely route for success for you.

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Comments (9)

barplants123 barplants123
Original Author
5 years ago
I also want to do the same (seed or propagate?) for 1 columnar Deciduous tree and another columnar evergreen tree (maybe a swiss stone pine) - these 2 can grow to any height is fine (no wires or anything in the way).

I'm thinking in a few weeks when Spring arrives, I'll be able to order these starter trees online for maybe $25 with shipping each is ok, but I'm not sure if those $25 mini (2-3 feet usually) are not the same quality as $350 nursery 6 footers.

I don't care about any of these being small trees for a couple years vs a 6 ft nursery tree BTW.
gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
6 small trees is not going to cost you anywhere close to $2000!! No nursery sells any 2' tree for $300 unless it is something very rare and highy unusual. Or a dwarf cultivar that takes years to get as tall as 2'. Many nurseries sell bare root whips or young, seedling trees now for $20-30 each. Your local Department of Natural Resources may have even better values. As will places like the box stores or Costco. And small 1 or 2 gallon sized pots of a various trees are often available for a modest outlay. Here, I could purchase all 6 different 1G Japanese maples for under $300!!

Growing trees from seed is an exercise in patience. It is usually decades before these will offer much of a presence. You will also be limited to species trees which may or may not be what you are looking for. And unless you have some basic horticultural knowledge, propagating trees from cuttings is not a simple or easy process. And will also take a significant amount of time before you have something to show for your efforts. You also cannot go around willy-nilly trimming 'sidewalk' trees for this purpose. That is considered theft or vandalism unless you have permission.

Post the pdf showing the suggested tree types. I'm sure someone will have some suitable local sources for you.
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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
5 years ago
most trees and conifers.. do not root .. short of some very professional equipment.. and a lot of experience .... if at all ... so you arent going to walk around and harvest stuff ... its possible.. but its not probable .... is what i mean ....

how about a pic of the spot ... one problem with starting small.. is blocking a sidewalk.. for the 5 years or so that it takes a small plant to get to some size ... over the heads of the sidewalk peeps ...

you can mail order anything you want.. in any size you want.. and if you cant find 4 to 6 smallish trees for under say... 50 bucks.. you arent trying very hard ...

trees grow in tree time ... which is years or decades... and that is why BIG ones are expensive ... and why smaller ones might be hard to grow if they need to be of a certain height ... to start with ...

also.. understand.. trees never really stop growing ... in your lifetime ... so just about any plant.. has the potential to exceed the 25 feet ... whether or not any of us will ba alive then.. is another question.. lol ...

to avoid such.. many peeps use shrubs ... pruned as trees... as they tend to have less height potential .... in tree time ...

i am also curious what the city suggests ...

ken
barplants123 barplants123
Original Author
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
hmm ok good, I was thinking ~4 ft starter trees would be at least $100 each. I will check local and online in a few weeks when Spring comes. Even if propigating is as simple as cut>hormone>plant>water, I prefer not to water daily especially in Spring to Summer instead of Fall when it's less likely to dry out and fail. So that alone is worth the cost of starter trees. I will need to water the starters on a timer but they should be a bit more forgiving than keeping propigated branches moist, in full sun.

Starting from seed, is also basically a %100 no now, but for the columnars which won't be sidewalk or Full sun, maybe maybe I'll consider seed for those two if it's something sort of exotic or whatever, but I should be able to find pretty easily what I want as a starter tree.

I've never seen shrubs near the sidewalk in my life, I'm talking about the strip of grass between the sidewalk and street, EDIT Actually I have seen shrubs and it was part of a very nice total install, in this same town, but is very rare.

some of the OK'd trees for under powerlines are :

cornelian cherry

flowering cherry

higan cherry

service berry

amur maple

crepe myrtle

english hawthorne

winter king hawthorne

dogwood

crabapple

paper bark maple

japanese maple

star/sweetbay magnolia

etc

I do want fragrant flowering or fruiting, and last time I looked into this was leaning towards Magnolia for scent, but am also planting korean spice viburnum for fragrance, so maybe get something like a serviceberry for street (something birds/squirrels/rabbits can enjoy without toxins which I have to look into).

thank you
dbarron
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Cornelian cherry (which is a dogwood in actuality), amur maple, service berry are quite easy from seed, imo. But you will always get several years jump by using at least gallon sized nursery grown stock.

And your point about watering and care, is quite correct.
gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
5 years ago
The crabapples are wonderful trees for your purpose!! They are uniformly compact so will likely never exceed your height limitation or interfer with power lines, they produce abundant spring flowers and then fruit that is appealing to wildlife (and most are persistant so no messy dropping) and usually good fall color. They grow to size and maturity relatively rapidly, there are many varieties that are highly disease resistant (recommend you look for this feature) and they tend to be pretty inexpensive as well - a 6-8' crab here goes for well under $100!!
indianagardengirl
5 years ago
Lots of choices available for much less than you might think. Here is just one example: https://www.coldstreamfarm.net/
Embothrium
5 years ago
Higan cherry is a particular type of flowering cherry. With flowering cherry not really being a very specific term - they should have specified which flowering cherries were acceptable. With these and any other trees in the Rose Family - including for instance hawthorns (no "e") and crab-apples - also being generally pest and disease prone. As mentioned previously you will want to identify crab-apple cultivars that have been found to be disease resistant in your region and choose from among those. Same goes for "English" hawthorns, with trees presented as 'Paul's Scarlet' (many of them on the US market aren't, because of reversion to the parent variety) being marred every year by leaf spot whereas Crimson Cloud is resistant.

Propigate or seeds? Small Deciduous sidewalk trees

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barplants123 barplants123
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Propigate or seeds? Small Deciduous sidewalk trees

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Comments (9)

barplants123 barplants123Original Author

gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)

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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

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