I’ve always wanted to propagate Ume (prunus mume) as well!
I tried last year, during late-spring.. cut off two 4’ long shoots (green, current years', soft to semi-hard) from 2 of my garden/in-ground ume… cut them into 5-7 node-long cuttings and stuck in soil, 3 leaves on top of each cuttings (some leaves cut in half), hand misted, no greenhouse/cover. They browned faster than any other cuttings I have ever attempted! Browned in 1-2 Days lol. (usually, past failed cuttings browned after 1-2 Months).
Trying a few this month again.. one of my young garden ume had an overly long shoot… so I cut it off 1.5 weeks ago, and made 6 cuttings from it, this time they’re inside a new mini greenhouse I recently bought. I peeked inside and 1 is sprouting already (while the mother plant isn’t even yet, hmmm). Hope it works.
Off topic, but, I tried about 50 various softwood cuttings last year in spring too - various acers, azaleas and nanking. Zero out of 50 rooted. They all stayed green for a month or two; but all eventually died. Checked the failings, and no roots and only a 1/3 had weak callous. I think the main culprit was they were not covered in a humid bag/greenhouse (especially needed in dry dry hot SoCal). So, that's why I bought a mini-greenhouse recently.
Anyways.. I am attempting again with lots and lots of azaleas.
Oldest batch is 14 azalea air-layers I started last October. I cut them off 12 weeks later in mid-January to check for roots, and only one or two had short hair-thin roots; but all were well calloused (very similar to the ume air-layers in this thread). Of course, I wasn’t gonna throw them away, so I stuck them into soil/pots and also into my new greenhouse. 3-4 weeks later, they all are still green and also have new little growth.
Newest batch (started Jan 24)... after pruning and removing several branches/twigs from my older satsuki and kurume azaleas, I stuck all the trimmings into soil/pots and also into my new mini-greenhouse… countless cuttings, since it was from a bold pruning session, probably 100 cuttings.
I hope they root this time with my new greenhouse, and wont be an utter 0/50 complete-fail like last year. I think this time with my new greenhouse, it should help big-time with the humidity.
Anyways, I’ve noticed Satsuki and Kurume root very very slowly (for me at lease.. I know many will say "azalea is easy” lol)… way slower than San Jose juniper from my experience (I rooted SJ in 3-4 months and was 11/20 success my first try).
I read Peter Adams method… sounds like the usual hardwood technique (make cuttings right after leaf drop, stick into medium, wait).
One thing I haven't read anyone doing yet on bonsai forums, is doing what fruit farmers do - same hardwood cuttings technique as before, except tightly wrap the upper half of the hardwood cutting (the section above soil) with Parafilm grafting-tape. Then wait until buds/shoots break through the Parafilm.
It totally makes sense when I heard of this method, as it would keep the cutting from drying out and also protect it from fungus.
I also read you’re never ever supposed to water nor mist hardwood cuttings (because of fungus), and are only supposed to slightly moisten the growing-medium just once (then cover in a box, bag, greenhouse) at the very beginning and never again (because of fungus and rot, and also roots wont seek-water/elongate if too wet).
Has anyone ever tried this Parafilm method with hardwood cuttings???