I'm going to try some cuttings. There is so little information available out there I thought this may make a good thread. My interest in this piqued when I received a couple of rooted cuttings from Brent at Evergreen Gardenworks. One is "hachi gen" and the other is "mi nishiki". The cool thing with cutting grown p. thunbergii is that if the cultivar is a nishiki the corking will be present on the roots. My more advanced nishiki are grafted and they all have some sort of ugliness in the transition to the rootstock. There are workarounds but they are all weak solutions in my opinion.
I understand I need bottom heat and top mist. I have a handle on when I should do this in my area (perhaps February) and I have some stock on my benches that can provide me with some limited cutting material as well. I know I need a strong hormone to induce the roots. That's it - that's all I know.
Here are points I am pondering :
1. Bottom heat - I have been looking at heat pads for a while. My latest concept are some non commercial units roughly 20" x 48" typically used for seed starting. I have also looked at a thermostat unit with a temperature probe so I can keep these mats at the proper temperature. I would think somewhere in the 75 to 85 degree range would be good. But again - I have no idea.
2. Top mist - my mist system could use some refinement. It consists of a faucet timer, some plastic tubing and several hose end misters made by Dramm. The misters work well and do produce a nice mist but I will need to dial in the frequency of the misting so I will need to refine this system with a timer and valve approach. I should point out I don't have a mist house - it's all in the open in a shady area. I guess I need to consider building a small mist house area. More like a mist "box" as I have no room for a hoop house.
3. Sterile soil and pots - My plan would be to continue to use a soil that I already know and use. I know the pines I have love the akadama, pumice and sometimes lava mix I currently use. I know the akadama will go for a year or so before the breakdown begins. If I could just get a coarse sand I would be happy. I would think small pots in flats would be the way to go so the newly emerging roots don't begin to tangle over the first year in development.
4. Cutting size and needle amount - I am assuming I can go for much bigger cuttings than I have tried in the past. My prior cuttings were basically large scion size. Last years wood or newer. Having never seen this before I had no idea what to do. Then I saw one of Lindsay Farr's World of Bonsai, episode 8 that shows a grower in Japan, Toshifumi Obitsu. He was speaking in a greenhouse and points out his Kuromatsu cuttings from big plants. Bingo! (See attached screen shots). It appears to be a little bigger than what I tried and most seem to have terminal buds. Can't really see the diameter of the cuttings.
5. Hormone strength - the strongest hormone I have is Hormex #8 (.8% IBA) and I suspect this is not strong enough to induce roots on older wood. According to the Wikipedia IBA should be dissolved in alcohol and then diluted with distilled water for use. Good thing there is a chemical testing lab next door to my shop and they would be happy to help me mix to a proper dilution. So how strong should it be? Would a several second dip be better than the wet and dust method typically used with the powdered hormone?
6. Aftercare - common sense tells me to keep them under shade cloth to minimize the amount of direct sun on the needles and to minimize transpiration. I would assume that if a cutting takes they will need this care for up to a year before being slowly moved to a sunny environment.
Hopefully this will generate some good conversation - at least from those of us who enjoy the process of plant propagation.
Yes - I am possessed with JBP propagation. Could be worse. I figure I have 20 or so years before I won't want to do this anymore. I hope to be able to churn out material for some younger people to take to the next step over the next 50 years. Grand but somewhat noble dreams for sure.
Thanks in advance for the input.
I understand I need bottom heat and top mist. I have a handle on when I should do this in my area (perhaps February) and I have some stock on my benches that can provide me with some limited cutting material as well. I know I need a strong hormone to induce the roots. That's it - that's all I know.
Here are points I am pondering :
1. Bottom heat - I have been looking at heat pads for a while. My latest concept are some non commercial units roughly 20" x 48" typically used for seed starting. I have also looked at a thermostat unit with a temperature probe so I can keep these mats at the proper temperature. I would think somewhere in the 75 to 85 degree range would be good. But again - I have no idea.
2. Top mist - my mist system could use some refinement. It consists of a faucet timer, some plastic tubing and several hose end misters made by Dramm. The misters work well and do produce a nice mist but I will need to dial in the frequency of the misting so I will need to refine this system with a timer and valve approach. I should point out I don't have a mist house - it's all in the open in a shady area. I guess I need to consider building a small mist house area. More like a mist "box" as I have no room for a hoop house.
3. Sterile soil and pots - My plan would be to continue to use a soil that I already know and use. I know the pines I have love the akadama, pumice and sometimes lava mix I currently use. I know the akadama will go for a year or so before the breakdown begins. If I could just get a coarse sand I would be happy. I would think small pots in flats would be the way to go so the newly emerging roots don't begin to tangle over the first year in development.
4. Cutting size and needle amount - I am assuming I can go for much bigger cuttings than I have tried in the past. My prior cuttings were basically large scion size. Last years wood or newer. Having never seen this before I had no idea what to do. Then I saw one of Lindsay Farr's World of Bonsai, episode 8 that shows a grower in Japan, Toshifumi Obitsu. He was speaking in a greenhouse and points out his Kuromatsu cuttings from big plants. Bingo! (See attached screen shots). It appears to be a little bigger than what I tried and most seem to have terminal buds. Can't really see the diameter of the cuttings.
5. Hormone strength - the strongest hormone I have is Hormex #8 (.8% IBA) and I suspect this is not strong enough to induce roots on older wood. According to the Wikipedia IBA should be dissolved in alcohol and then diluted with distilled water for use. Good thing there is a chemical testing lab next door to my shop and they would be happy to help me mix to a proper dilution. So how strong should it be? Would a several second dip be better than the wet and dust method typically used with the powdered hormone?
6. Aftercare - common sense tells me to keep them under shade cloth to minimize the amount of direct sun on the needles and to minimize transpiration. I would assume that if a cutting takes they will need this care for up to a year before being slowly moved to a sunny environment.
Hopefully this will generate some good conversation - at least from those of us who enjoy the process of plant propagation.
Yes - I am possessed with JBP propagation. Could be worse. I figure I have 20 or so years before I won't want to do this anymore. I hope to be able to churn out material for some younger people to take to the next step over the next 50 years. Grand but somewhat noble dreams for sure.
Thanks in advance for the input.