BRT Cutting propagation

[KillerButts]

I wanted to share the process I have found success with after seeing there is a demand for something with steady results.

Below is a photo and list of everything one might need. I am going to go step by step for beginners so anyone new to BRT should be able to pull off this off.

Sharp branch cutters, wire cutter, wire, sphagnum moss, cloneX, one 10”x10” piece of Saran wrap and tin foil, gloves, a fine mister (no tap water), a flat unfinished clay pot tray (very important), a cloche or a large mason jar, a nail or drill bit just smaller than your intended cutting, use screws for cuttings above 3/4”.

Your first step before starting is to mist the intended cutting while it’s still on the tree. Do not let it dry from this point till you are finished. Lay out your supplies so they ready for you.

Begin by soaking a large handful of sphagnum in a tray/bowl/strainer with water (no tap). Make sure to remove any sturdy or sharp twigs and break it up to ensure no dry patches. After roughly 15 minutes turn the tray to its side to drain, do not squeeze.
Next gather the moss and roll it in your hand but try not to squeeze. Once you have a decent ball shape place it on the Saran Wrap and roll it tight both ways into about a golf ball size. Then place it on the tin foil and repeat. Try to make a firm ball but don’t overly squeeze, you want saturation. The moss should not have the consistency of a air layer it should be saturated.



Now take the nail/bit/screw you have selected and depress it roughly an inch and leave it.
Next you want to prepare a small amount of cloneX and make sure everything is right in reach. When you make this cut the branch should be wet, you should immediately dip it into the cloneX and then give it a good roll on its side about an inch high.

Sorry I must break the post due to photo limit so please allow me to finish this in a second post.

 

[KillerButts]

Now remember we didn’t overly squeeze the moss and we left the hole an inch deep. So we will now push the cutting straight into the hole 1 1/2” to ensure compact contact without causing too much pressure vertically.

Next cut and wrap a pass of wire horizontally around the foil and squeeze until you see a bit of water brim from the hole and leave it right there.


Finally you want to spray the topside of the cloche or mason jar and then place the cutting on the clay and place your jar or cloche over it.


Place in a location where it will receive direct sunlight from 2-4pm and indirect light at other times.

On the following sunset check to see that there is a humidity line that stays a few inches above the clay. You want beads forming but not falling and a clear view of the first few inches.
In roughly 6 weeks you will be good to remove it from the cloche and pot it. No defoliation, no lag time.

The reason for not using a bag is that there just isn’t a good rotation of humidity and air in a bag. The clay will draw in fresh o2 while draining excess humidity a little bit. Just enough to be maintenance free for the duration of rooting if you added the right amount to start with.

I hope this brings you all great success and I wish you luck in propagating this great tree.

 

[Forsoothe!]

One bottle of Clonex, coming right up. Can I substitute an expanding seed starter growing pellet?

 

[KillerButts]

One bottle of Clonex, coming right up. Can I substitute an expanding seed starter growing pellet?

I wouldn’t suggest using other media as the results may be different.

 

[KillerButts]

Next morning placed in light to show 0 wilting or stress from the cut. Notice condensation the line.

The next photo will be to show results in a few months.

 

[BrazilianMoistWood]

What is the white around the bottom of the cloche?

 

[Clicio]

Very well described process, thank you, I am sure it will help many people around here.
Does it depend on the season? Did you do it in spring, or anytime will do?

 

[KillerButts]

What is the white around the bottom of the cloche?

Silicone to create a soft tight seal between the glass and clay. I laid a bead around the clay, then placed a sheet of Saran Wrap on top, then depressed the glass into the silicone and left it to dry. The next day I used a marker to make an alignment point on the glass and silicone and then removed the Saran Wrap.

 

[KillerButts]

Very well described process, thank you, I am sure it will help many people around here.
Does it depend on the season? Did you do it in spring, or anytime will do?

I tried to start this post at pretty much the worst time when the light is not at its lowest but getting there. We were also 5 days into a waning gibbous.

I think fails would occur in winter due to cold drafts causing poor temperatures. If members could cloche away from drafting windows under artificial light in the dead of winter, I think people will have success using this method.

Most of the cuts I have made on brt in the past few years have been in the fall when I had to bring them in, and it is at this time using this method that I have never failed.

That being said if one follows the steps I take, I see few scenarios where members could fail at any time of the year.

 

[LanceMac10]

How is the test cutting doing @KillerButts ?

 

[Millard B.]

Here in southern Palm Beach County BRT propagation works best for me by airlayering direct on the tree, Aug,Sept, Oct is fastest, sometimes less than 3weeks. For cuttings, defoliate, wait for dormant buds to swell, cut soak cut end in Dip-N-Grow $56/pint, put cuttings in ProMix w mycorrhizae $34/60lb 3.8 cuft. Both methods work well for me. Jim Moody's grandson Allan Carver, who operates Jupiter Bonsai has some nice 15 and 25 gallon specimens. For best results OVERPOT, more roots, more shoots!

 

[BrazilianMoistWood]

I didn’t want to jinx anything so I waited but following this technique (kinda) I finally got one to take!! Used a Starbucks cup instead of glass dome and different brand root hormone and it worked! Leaves open up during the day so i know it can’t be that stressed, on its third go of leaves and a root broke through the bottom of the tinfoil. Got my sis to not be cheap and get their biggest size so I can have a taller mini greenhouse

 

[leatherback]

Great! Congrats!

 

[BrazilianMoistWood]

How would you then remove said cutting from the “greenhouse” and remove tinfoil to put moss ball in soil without causing too much stress? I still have mine in the “greenhouse” and has good roots outside the ball even but I don’t want to bugger it up..

 

[KillerButts]

How is the test cutting doing @KillerButts ?

Not long after this post I collapsed on my kitchen floor and stopped breathing for roughly 40 seconds. That was the last day I ever felt right again. I spent a few weeks having a similar event without loss of breath every time I went up stairs or moved with any speed. When I woke from bed each day my head would rush from being flat.

A month or so into this I had another loss of breath event in front of others and was sent to mass general for cardiac testing after being rushed again to the hospital and been told it might be “transient arrhythmia”. I went up an elevator to my appointment and woke up in the ICU.

This is the short version that doesn’t involve all my negative test results and mistreatment. Lots of tests later we were told I had a 6mm brain aneurysm in the center of my brain within the communication artery spreading slightly to the left side of my brain.

I was told this is in the 0.03% of aneurysms found in the brain. Then I was told it was an “incidental finding” and that it had no correlation with my recent syncope and arrhythmia. I saw a brain surgeon and was scheduled for surgery and right about that time Covid hit. My governor Baker suspended elective surgeries and everything went to pot as we all know. Not sure why they called it elective.

I lost just about every delicate plant I had. I was only able to save a mogu and some jades by the time I was out of the hospital. Things have been pretty much the same ever since. I can’t go up stairs normally, I need to use both feet on each step or I collapse when I reach the top. I can’t go up an elevator standing or the same thing happens. If I try and sleep in a bed I wake with my forehead tingling and when I stand I get light headed. So since November 2020 I sleep in a chair. As long as I follow those rules I have no issue other than walking like I am another 40 years older.

The more time I had to look into the clipping of my communication artery the more I decided it was suicidal in that I might not walk or talk or be me again after. Sorry I was unable to respond sooner and as to the propagation technique described in my post I can promise great success when followed correctly.

 

[Carol 83]

Not long after this post I collapsed on my kitchen floor and stopped breathing for roughly 40 seconds. That was the last day I ever felt right again. I spent a few weeks having a similar event without loss of breath every time I went up stairs or moved with any speed. When I woke from bed each day my head would rush from being flat.

A month or so into this I had another loss of breath event in front of others and was sent to mass general for cardiac testing after being rushed again to the hospital and been told it might be “transient arrhythmia”. I went up an elevator to my appointment and woke up in the ICU.

This is the short version that doesn’t involve all my negative test results and mistreatment. Lots of tests later we were told I had a 6mm brain aneurysm in the center of my brain within the communication artery spreading slightly to the left side of my brain.

I was told this is in the 0.03% of aneurysms found in the brain. Then I was told it was an “incidental finding” and that it had no correlation with my recent syncope and arrhythmia. I saw a brain surgeon and was scheduled for surgery and right about that time Covid hit. My governor Baker suspended elective surgeries and everything went to pot as we all know. Not sure why they called it elective.

I lost just about every delicate plant I had. I was only able to save a mogu and some jades by the time I was out of the hospital. Things have been pretty much the same ever since. I can’t go up stairs normally, I need to use both feet on each step or I collapse when I reach the top. I can’t go up an elevator standing or the same thing happens. If I try and sleep in a bed I wake with my forehead tingling and when I stand I get light headed. So since November 2020 I sleep in a chair. As long as I follow those rules I have no issue other than walking like I am another 40 years older.

The more time I had to look into the clipping of my communication artery the more I decided it was suicidal in that I might not walk or talk or be me again after. Sorry I was unable to respond sooner and as to the propagation technique described in my post I can promise great success when followed correctly.

Oh my goodness, so sorry to hear that and how scary as well. I hope the Dr.'s can get this resolved.

 

[Zelrod]

Wishing you a speedy recovery KillerButts !

 

[KillerButts]

Oh my goodness, so sorry to hear that and how scary as well. I hope the Dr.'s can get this resolved.

Thanks I pretty much gave up after my third primary asked me “What would you like me to do next?”. They are determined my aneurysm has no correlation with my attacks and symptoms. The more I push the more it gets turned against me. I have unfortunately had two primary physicians with minimal encounters suggest it might be psychosomatic. Yet my labs in 2020 had me hospitalized for dangerously low levels of potassium, my white cell count was maintaining around 10,000 and one of my kidneys is bleeding. “Just not enough to warrant a biopsy” guess that was psychosomatic as well.

To explain when you come in with an big issue insurance companies give doctors a protocol list of tests to administer and they cannot order test #6 before test #1~#5. Even if they believe test 6 will net a diagnosis. Worse yet when you reach the end of that list you no longer have the support of your insurer and any further testing is based on you or your doctors advocacy. Beyond that you start getting push back. Like some bastard suggesting it might be in your head. Then you have to consider lawyers or patent advocates.

If you get a patient advocate you forfeit your ability to have another primary care physician. At least here anyway. I was unable to find a independent patient advocate so my only few choices are a hospital advocate closer to the insurance than me or try a 4th primary. My only last outlet with the primary would be another neurologist who might have a different opinion and I am working on that so I can also get imaging as was directed by my brain surgeon in 2020.

They said they wanted to look at it every year and they haven’t even reached out about a physical since 2021 never mind a MRI scan. A part of me doesn’t even want to know. Fam is up my butt to force the issue. So it looks like atm if I want to re-engage this monster I will need a 2nd referral to a neurologist from a 4th primary physician at Brigham and Women's hospital. As far as surgery unless things change for the worse I don’t see myself doing it.

Stay healthy and thanks for the response. I don’t mind sharing this because it might help someone else be more prepared for today’s hospitals. It’s cover your ass 101 and you must not trust anyone but yourself and your loved ones to ask the right questions unfortunately.
Most of the good doctors in my state are gone and have been replaced by good ball players or w/e is left from the old guard has been beaten into submission by Covid and the monster that is the bond of insurance and hospital groups.

The one doctor who I know I could tell gave a hoot and excelled at pain prevention was a Daniel A. Wollin. Unfortunately he was a urologist.
We all have our crosses, I hope if you or a loved one gets in trouble this might help you prepare. In the mean time let’s get back to growing something rewarding while we can.

 

[KillerButts]

How would you then remove said cutting from the “greenhouse” and remove tinfoil to put moss ball in soil without causing too much stress? I still have mine in the “greenhouse” and has good roots outside the ball even but I don’t want to bugger it up..

Late but next time.. Just unwrap the tin foil and tear away when flattish then cut the plastic wrap top to bottom with a scissor or blade and peal away gently. Treat the entirety of what remains as roots and just slip plant in 80% pumice 20% bark or pumice akadama and sphagnum 1-1-1. I also have used straight perlite but it’s not very stable. No matter the mix keep it dressed or watered like a willow for the first month out of the cloche especially if in the latter.

 

[JackHammer]

Just did this. Let's see how it goes. It looks a little bit droopy but I think it will warm up momentarily. If this doesn't work, maybe I will retry in the summer in the greenhouse.