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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] instructions for root-cutting propagation?

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  • From: "Donna &/or Kieran" <holycow@cookeville.com>
  • To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] instructions for root-cutting propagation?
  • Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2007 22:53:39 -0600

Tanis,
There have been a few varieties of apples that were known for rooting from cuttings. I think that people just cut a few branches and stuck them in the ground, probably pretty deeply with not much showing. You'd want some juvenile wood if you could get it, certainly from the lower parts of the tree. I'd think that water sprouts with some knobby bits at the base would do best. Scratch the bark up to at least an inch from the base and dip in rooting hormone. This part I'm copying from watching a professional nurseryman preparing rose cuttings.
Personally, the way I'd do it is the way the oldtimers used to graft. Dig some roots from the apple tree (commercially, there were people who just grew apple roots for this purpose) and cut them in peices 3-6" long. Split the "upper" end of the root and slide the prepared cutting into it. Tie with cotton string and plant. You can also split the middle of the root and stick the scion in at a 90 degree angle.
No, I haven't done any of this personally, or rather haven't done it successfully... oh, I take that back. Last winter I cut off a low branch from a seedling Micromalus, a tree about 4 years old, and stuck it in the ground. It was about as big around as my finger and about 18" long, I only put it about 8" into the ground I think. It rooted, to my surprise, and next year I"ll have to move the thing. I'll tell you, it had grown through a perforated tree guard, and I couldn't get the guard off without cutting the branch, itwas partly girdled. That's what really inspired me to stick it in the ground. I guess you could get the same effect by tying a wire around the base of a branch for a summer and then cut it off. But it just made it look like watersprouts do sometimes anyway. What I had planned to tell you to encourage you was that there is a local guy who kept trying to root an old pear. He'd stick short peices of branch in pots and about 1 in 20 would root. They'd usually die when he tried to transplant them, which I don't find surprising. I'd think the root system would be pretty inadequate, and that he'd have done better to have stuck them in the ground where he wanted them to grow.
Again, for success with iffy tree cuttings, look for the most juvenile wood, that is low branches that haven't fruited from young trees if possible. For older trees, low water sprouts coming from the lower trunk are probably your best bet. If you think the tree is on it's own roots, or was grafted back in the 50's or earlier, look for root sprouts. I do think that if you cut roots and planted them at about a 45 degree angle with the tree end upward, there'd be some chance of sprouts, but if you're gonna dig roots, I'd graft. If you admire the tree, you'll get the same combination of root and top that made the original so successful.
Good luck, and tell us how it turns out. Donna




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