Rooting hardwood Podocarpus (thicker HW material, >1" thick) - possible?

[SU2]

I've just been in-love with Podocarpus and cannot find a yardadori I'm allowed to take and trunk-chop (right now feels like the perfect time, I'm not good with / knowledgeable about Podocarp's but I can see that spring-growth is strongly underway in them here and, far more exciting, *that they're budding spring-growth on old-wood*, I literally saw 5+ lil shoots coming from ~4' up the trunk of a ~20' podocarp yesterday, so rare to see new lil shoots growing from the trunk's thick hardwood like that and frankly it makes me suspect that it'd be just as easy for the thing to throw roots through such hardwood, provided the genetics are there at least! IBA may be sufficient for overcoming that though!!)

I can't find anything useful online sadly, will definitely "update the web" (ROFL) with what I find in my attempts, but can only find 2 references to hardwood propagation and both just mention you can do it (both were real generic / intro-type articles, nothing I'd place much faith in) I guess it's probably best to just bullet-point my main Q's here ;P

- If you can just root hardwood-cuttings like bougies/crapes allow, I'd love to hear any tips on how much foliage you leave on the specimen at rooting-time and any other tips (or if you even need foliage - with bougies you can literally just stick a 5" thick piece of branch into growing-media and it'll root&shoot!)

- If you cannot just stick thick hardwood into substrate to root them, how about aerial layerings? I imagine the best time to start would be about right-now, with spring-growth bursting? Is there an "upper limit" on how thick a layering I can make or can I just choose as large a piece as I want? If so I'd be choosing a 6" wide part of a limb, using a grocery-bag for the sphagnum and just have the ropes & chainsaw out for removal-time (and a 2nd set of hands with me of course), obviously it'd be 'risky' separating something so large but so far as the physical act of safely removing it w/o destroying the root-mass, I'm confident in being able to do that (I'd chainsaw like 6" below the bag and then use sawzall-->grinders-->concave cutters to get the bottom removed right-up-to-the-roots)

Thanks for any & all advice on propagating larger pieces of this awesome species, yesterady I actually sawed a branch off of that tree I referred to earlier and ended up making 4 good H.W.-cuttings from it (I cut in a way where the base of the cutting is a branch-collar, this gives me inherent flare at the base plus I strongly suspect the cells in the collar-area are more 'ripe' for rooting than a random spot on a branch would be), I put them in a pea-gravel & coconut-coir mixture and spaced them through my garden so the 4 of them get different light-levels and I can see what's what! I did use IBA on them, I mixed ~1/3tsp IBA with ~1oz water and, before potting a piece, I'd score the base of it to expose more cambium and then heavily applied the IBA suspension/fluid to it before packing it into a pot with coir/rocks (that were pre-wetted, meaning I didn't water-in so the IBA stays in-place better - unsure if that's smart or not, it's increasing IBA but decreasing humidity/moisture at the cambium//substrate interface as it's not water-soluble and is inherently a 'barrier' of sorts, however minor!)

 

[RobertB]

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[SU2]

*Anyone* have success rooting hardwood/thick Podocarpus cuttings? Tomorrow (and Sat, diff location) will have me taking a lot of Podo wood off mature specimen, *IF* it's possible to do this I intend to "go prepared" with appropriate tools/transport-containers/IBA/etc., but don't wanna bother if it's pointless yknow?

Would love to hear from anyone who has successfully rooted a hardwood Podo of at least 1" thick, or anyone who knows of it being done, am especially hoping to find that - if it can be done - what kinda rough % we may be talking here, as I *am* very much OK with preparing 10 of them if I expect a 1-in-5 rate(10 being double, to ensure at least 1 will root)

Not expecting specific tips on this but, hey, if anyone's got them I'd love to hear, whether it's a yes/no on the IBA, or whether I should be aiming for pieces that have growing-tips and taking all my cuttings based on that (obviously I wouldn't prune any vegetative-branching on any piece I took, what I mean is taking only cuttings that are, say, 2' long tree limb tips that are on the periphery of the canopy IE where there should be maximal auxins in the specimen....I've done an attempt like this before, unsuccessful of course, but did get some backbudding on hardwood before they died and suspect it can be done I just don't know whether it's even worth the time/effort so am primarily hoping to hear someone's done it & whether it took closer to 5, or 50, samples before one stuck roots!)

Thanks a TON for any advice on this, am in-love w/ this species and, like w/ Loropetalums, am close to just buying&growing-out nursery materials but for all I know I could have a 3" trunk tomorrow IF there's a 1-in-10 success rate for a skilled propagator['skilled' is obviously subjective & vague but I just mean knowing about direct/indirect light, proper mist-irrigation, mediums/substates/additives...]

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Not an option at this time sadly :/ However just for the sake of knowing, for when that time occurs-- how thick of a section of Podo limb have you known to be successfully layered? I was surprised at their retail-pricing so would very much enjoy propagating by aerial-layering (heck there's a specimen I may even be able to ground-layer, would need to set a wheelbarrow with substrate as "ground" but it could be done pretty simply), but if I've gotta stay under 2" or something then I'd sooner just buy & grow-out lil nursery specimen as they grow like weeds in FL (like most species here!! It still feels like cheating, in a way, to be developing bonsai in a semi-tropical 9a enviro w/ an understanding of irrigation/pH/fertilizing, can really get some surprising growth-rates )