JBP too late to take seedling cuttings?

[AshleyMammal]

Hi,

I’ve recently acquired 30 or so JBP seedlings and have been reading up on the seedling cutting technique, my question is are these seedlings too old to cut and secondly, is it too late in the season to take them (it’s early autumn/fall here in the uk which is pretty mild and I don’t have any facilities for winter protection really)

(I don’t know why my photos always flip!)

I plan to make a few cuttings for shohin/mame trees.

 

[JeffS73]

They look woody at the base, as they should at this time of year, but this, in my experience, means it's probably too late. You can of course try with a few!

An alternative strategy give what you've got is to wire them, and plant them in shallow containers like small pond baskets. With an open soil over one or two seasons you can get roots pushing out quite high up. You could also trim the tops now to force low budding for Spring.

I would try a few strategies from safe to risky and see what you get. When they're healthy they can take a lot of manipulation.

 

[AshleyMammal]

They look woody at the base, as they should at this time of year, but this, in my experience, means it's probably too late. You can of course try with a few!

An alternative strategy give what you've got is to wire them, and plant them in shallow containers like small pond baskets. With an open soil over one or two seasons you can get roots pushing out quite high up. You could also trim the tops now to force low budding for Spring.

I would try a few strategies from safe to risky and see what you get. When they're healthy they can take a lot of manipulation.

Cheers mate, experimentation is exactly what I'm planning - learning by doing!

 

[Shibui]

The top section where stems are still soft are still OK as cuttings. Any soft shoot with juvenile foliage will root well.
I regularly snip off the top sections as cuttings and leave a few needles on the bottom section so that will produce new buds - 2 for the price of 1! That could still be done now for you.

You can also elect to just do a hard root trim of the seedlings. I often get better nebari from hard root trim than from the seedling cuttings which don't always produce 360 deg roots.
I have not tried late summer root prune on pines so I would probably defer that until spring but there's a growing number of experienced bonsai people who repot at the end of summer.

 

[AshleyMammal]

The top section where stems are still soft are still OK as cuttings. Any soft shoot with juvenile foliage will root well.
I regularly snip off the top sections as cuttings and leave a few needles on the bottom section so that will produce new buds - 2 for the price of 1! That could still be done now for you.

You can also elect to just do a hard root trim of the seedlings. I often get better nebari from hard root trim than from the seedling cuttings which don't always produce 360 deg roots.
I have not tried late summer root prune on pines so I would probably defer that until spring but there's a growing number of experienced bonsai people who repot at the end of summer.

Brilliant, thank you for the reply, from lurking on this forum for a while I know you're a proper expert on this technique!

 

[AnacortesSteve]

I grow cuttings year round but I have grow lights and seedling warming mats, cuttings like to see 80 deg at the root level. Also you cut them maybe 1/4" from first needles.