Pacific Madrone Experiment # 1

[FlyingGazelle]

Been experimenting with trying to grow cuttings from some arbutus that grow on my property with no luck yet, its definitely inspiring me to see your success! I was surprised to see how well it took to repotting, I've heard that it is a near impossible task. Can't wait to see more updates as it grows

 

[CreekChalk]

It did fine. Put on new growth. Some leaf spot that these always seem to have. Wired it the end of summer then removed it last week as I didn’t want scarring. Will rewire then put it in the greenhouse for the winter.
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Very happy to see it survived and seems happy.

I have many Arbutus xalapensis on my property and have been dreaming of airlayering a branch off of one. Have you ever attempted this or do you have any insights or suggestions? I normally use rooting hormone and spagnum moss and have pretty decent success. In this instance I will probably throw in a handful of juniper litter to introduce native mycelium.

 

[Arcto]

Very happy to see it survived and seems happy.

I have many Arbutus xalapensis on my property and have been dreaming of airlayering a branch off of one. Have you ever attempted this or do you have any insights or suggestions? I normally use rooting hormone and spagnum moss and have pretty decent success. In this instance I will probably throw in a handful of juniper litter to introduce native mycelium.

I’ve tried taking cuttings from Madrone unsuccessfully. Typically the cuttings callous strongly then nothing more happens till they exhaust their reserves and dry up. Evidently this has been an issue still waiting to be solved. I read a paper where Univ. of Washington is doing an experiment trying to propagate Madrone cuttings with “Dirty Bacteria“. Early results were encouraging the experiment was still ongoing.

 

[AnacortesSteve]

So from this thread I am guessing to grow the Madrone in a shallow collander so that when later transplanted to a bonsai pot you won't have to do much root work. I gave it a try a year ago and now have about a dozen, the largest about 12+ inches