North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Lucky Pittman <lucky.pittman@murraystate.edu>]

At 07:49 AM 4/1/2005, Tanis wrote:
> Aren't the OFxHs produced in stooling beds ?

I think most are, but I sure *thought* I'd read somewhere that at least 
some of the OHxF series could be rooted from cuttings fairly easily, but 
I've not had any success doing it from dormant cuttings stuck in the 
nursery bed.  Maybe with bottom heat, they might work.
One strategy that might have some application is pre-callusing, using the 
old 'toothpick' trick.
In early to mid August, choose a spot at the base of a vigorous shoot - 
just above where the current year's growth commenced, make a stab incision 
completely through the stem with a penknife/grafting knife, and insert a 
toothpick(sometimes I just snip a thorn off the rootstock and shove it in 
there) into the wound to hold it open.  Callus tissue will form at the site 
of the wound, then sometime between Dec and budbreak, you can collect these 
cuttings, and this should give you a head start on rooting, as there's 
already a mass of meristematic tissue there that should give rise to roots 
fairly readily.
I'm trying this this spring, to see how/if it'll work.  I stuck a few 
cuttings of OHxF513, prepared in this manner, in the ground back in 
Jan/Feb, but  they look dead to me; unless they've rooted and will be 
putting out shoots from buds below the soil surface, I think my best bet is 
going to be in pots with some bottom heat, or at least above ground where 
they can warm up faster than my soil.

Lucky