bare root Celtis occidentalis

[milehigh_7]

Who has experience bringing these things out of dormancy from bare root liners? I know you have to sweat them and I have tried to follow all the instructions available. They seem really stubborn, any pointers?

 

[rockm]

Don't know exactly what you mean by "sweat" but dormancy is not simple "heat the thing up until it wakes up." If the plants you have haven't fulfilled their dormancy "chilling hours," they will not "wake up" easily. Each species has genetically programmed dormancy requirements that have to be fulfilled before warmer root temps have any effect on them. You could wind up cooking your trees...

 

[milehigh_7]

Thanks for the reply,

I am pretty sure I get what you are saying. Of course I have no idea if these trees had the appropriate dormancy where they were. So I will just have to hope for the best.


What I mean by "sweating" can be read about here:
http://www.ca.uky.edu/HLA/Dunwell/LnrSweat.html

I was just wondering if anyone had some experience with this particular species in which they have learned to reliably overcome the deep dormancy they seem to exhibit.

 

[jk_lewis]

Dunno who you got these bare-root seedlings from, but they should have come to you with instructions. But don't overthink this. Plant them. They'll come out when they come out. Just don't overwater. Leafless trees need very little of it.

I've grown C. laevigata, which is very closely related, from bare root seedlings. They're always the very last tree to come out of dormancy, but they do it without "sweating." Plant them, then "no sweat" and they'll sprout when they want to. After all, Ma Nature doesn't "sweat" her trees.

That article you cite deals with plants that have been stored during dormancy in refrigerators -- uniformly cold for a long time. I doubt it has anything to do with your trees.