Dav4's 6 year JBP contest thread.

Dav4

Drop Branch Murphy
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Seedling cutting day has come. I cut 20 seedlings this morning and potted them in 4 inch plastic nursery pots with clay king soil. I sifted the Clay king initially, took the fines, removed the dust, placed that in a depression in the soil surface and planted the cuttings into it. I’m planning on making more cuttings at the end of the month, depending on how these fair over the next few weeks.
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Aaron S.

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Are you pulling the trees out, cutting off the roots and planting them as cuttings? If that is so, I do not understand why
 

plant_dr

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Are you pulling the trees out, cutting off the roots and planting them as cuttings? If that is so, I do not understand why
It helps promote an even, radial rootbase and brings the level of the first branch lower to the soil surface.
 

Dav4

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Thank you, thats the experience that you don't get in a book
Actually, it depends on the book;). I first read about the cutting technique in Bonsai Today Magazine 15 years ago, and saw it again years later in the book Pines, by Stone Lantern. Never tried it until last year, but it's pretty cool.
 

Dav4

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Will you please report on these. Seems very further along than the optimal time for cutting.
Sure will. I won't have a large number to report on as I'm only filling the pots of cuttings that didn't make it... so far only 4 from the original batch and all in the last 7-10 days- moved them out in the sun right when the temps pushed 90 and the humidity dropped:mad:.
 

Dav4

Drop Branch Murphy
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Will you please report on these. Seems very further along than the optimal time for cutting.
Ultimately, all the late season cuttings have survived and are growing well. All in all, The only cuttings that died (5) were probably exposed to full sun too quickly. Anyway, since I have lots of extra seedlings, I decided to make 6 more cuttings today...
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River's Edge

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Ultimately, all the late season cuttings have survived and are growing well. All in all, The only cuttings that died (5) were probably exposed to full sun too quickly. Anyway, since I have lots of extra seedlings, I decided to make 6 more cuttings today...
View attachment 203211View attachment 203212View attachment 203213
I will be interested in the response, my findings are that waiting longer to do the radial stem cutting seems to create a faster root recovery. Having the longer growing season is a factor i am sure. However, i suspect the extra foliage and thus photosynthesis before the cut plays a large part. Because the stems are very short and carefully cut, the uptake of water and nutrients does not seem too compromised. My experience over the past decade seems to indicate that waiting a bit longer actually speeds the recovery and thus the overall lag time from this procedure. What appears to slow down the development actually speeds it up in the long term.
Question for you. What is the lighter colored substance around the seedlings in the last picture?
I am guessing silica sand to keep finer particles and moisture in contact with the cutting directly beside it within the clay king.
 
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Dav4

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I will be interested in the response, my findings are that waiting longer to do the radial stem cutting seems to create a faster root recovery. Having the longer growing season is a factor i am sure. However, i suspect the extra foliage and thus photosynthesis before the cut plays a large part. Because the stems are very short and carefully cut, the uptake of water and nutrients does not seem too compromised. My experience over the past decade seems to indicate that waiting a bit longer actually speeds the recovery and thus the overall lag time from this procedure. What appears to slow down the development actually speeds it up in the long term.
Question for you. What is the lighter colored substance around the seedlings in the last picture?
I am guessing silica sand to keep finer particles and moisture in contact with the cutting directly beside it within the clay king
.
You got it frank. I've seen some like Jonas use sand so I thought I'd give it a go. I'm mixing things up with each batch of cuttings, trying new things, including substrate. We'll see how these latest cuttings perform... there's one in the mix with 3-4" of floppy, new growth... I've been quite impressed with the resilience of these cuttings but if that one survives...:cool::eek:.
 

Dav4

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Ok, it's the end of October and the end of this year's growing season is here. Some bullet points to summarize what happened with my JBP trees this year_
- All my cuttings done before the end of June were successful and grew well- the cuttings in the pond baskets were cut in June over several weeks.
- None of the cuttings from July survived... a small sample size but still significant, I'd say
- The only cuttings to fail within 4-6 weeks of being cut were likely moved to quickly into the sun... lesson learned
- The only rooted cuttings to fail were eaten by local vermin... the empty pots in the pics HAD happily growing rooted cuttings just a month ago.

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The first cull will be next spring. I've got about 50 cuttings and another 50 regular seedlings to go through. Based on needle size, vigor, and low bud development, I think several have very good potential.
 

Dav4

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Than
Looking good.
Thanks. I hoped they'd be further along but they only received 3-4 hours of direct sun once they were moved out of the shade... gotta rethink my benches and perhaps build a few more where sunlight can be maximized, but that's the steepest part of my back yard... sigh.
 

RobertB

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I have the opposite problem. Hardly any shade in my yard, at least where my wife lets me put trees.
 

Dav4

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Repotting today. Rabbits continued to take their toll during the early winter. I probably lost half of the cuttings that I started last summer, and at least 3/4 of the seedlings that were not cut. Of the survivors I was pretty brutal with the culls... Honestly wasn’t impressed with most of the root spreads that I saw, but that’s life for you. Anyway, here’s to another growing season!
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