acer b. hardwood cutting ?'s

[biglou13]

took a bunch of hard wood cuttings.

they are in a domed tray, with bottom heat from propagation mat.

Do they need sun to help them bud and form roots? They are inside garage until no more cold snaps.

Is the dome necessary for hard wood cuttings?

 

[Alex DeRuiter]

If there's a dome on it, you'll want to keep it out of the sun. I plan on keeping mine in a spot with good indirect light.

From what I read, a dome will help a lot with success rates. Leaves lose water through a process called transpiration -- all of the water is essentially sweated out of the leaves. This is one of the causes for the death of cuttings. The dome helps keep in moisture so they don't dry out.

With the dome, however, in direct sun, the temperatures will easily reach into the hundreds, so you'll want to keep it in a shaded area.

 

[edprocoat]

By hardwood do you mean older branches? I was wondering as I thought that only the new shoots would take in cuttings.

ed

 

[Smoke]

Last years wood works best.

 

[biglou13]

yes old wood
no leaves

in the past i stuck a few cuttings in a 2 liter coke bottle "terrarium" and I had a few take. but that was on a patio with indirect light.

people do take cuttings and propagate from winter cuttings successfully. its different from taking cuttings with leaves, where the humidity from dome is a must.

yeah i understand about cooking them (been there) but other than bottom heat, do cuttings need light to get buds to break. cuttings have no leaves but have visible buds, in a garage with no windows, on top of freezer, with heating mat, and dome. I'm using straight napa 8222, rinsed then watered with dilute captan. some cuttings were dipped in rooting gel. which I'm sure is not appropriate IBA for them. ill try and take more cuttings and with proper strength rooting hormone tommorow.

ps i took a few cork oak acorns out of frig and they have signs of sprouting in less than 3 days.

 

[daygan]

I'm not sure about the other details, but I do know that bud-break occurs in reaction to air temperature, not light (which is why the cut branches from a Pyrus that I've stuck in water and placed inside are already starting to bloom, while the flower buds on the parent tree are still mostly closed). Light affects the growth of the plant after leaves have started appearing.

 

[biglou13]

one cutting breaking leaves.

sprayed with daconil and captan due to mold growth.

my cuttings included last years wood and previous year, since i was planning a trim for it anyway.

ps. few cork oaks taking off well.

 

[timhanson81]

Glad to hear the acorns are germinating.

Not sure what your plans are with them but I have had good success with trimming the tip of the emerging tap root once they emerge anywhere between .25 and 1 inch. I then replant them and they put out a nice set of radial roots at the cut point. It's pretty much the same idea as the seedling cutting technique used for black pines except the success rate is higher due to the energy reserves in the acorn. Today I transplanted 50 cork oaks which I started 3 years ago like this and most of them had nice radial roots.

Just a thought and I know you have lots of acorns to experiment with!

 

[biglou13]

im going make a post about the acorns thanks

i'm getting a considerable amount of mold growth, i did treat cuttings to a dilute bleach bath, and have been spraying with daconil and captan , but mold is still returning in the warm moist domed environment. should i worry? let it grow? keep spraying?

 

[Jason]

I'm trying a few hardwood cuttings from some Trident stumps I trimmed. I have no dome yet. I have no bottom heat. It's a crapshoot. They appear to have buds. I'll let everyone know what happens.