Witches Broom

[just.wing.it]

"If you expose your children to the beauty and order in nature by simply studying a cone they will be less likely to become drug addicts and welfare recipients in the future. "

I love this guy!

Yeah, that is great!

 

[SouthernMaple]

Last september I bought a Mikawa with a Witches broom on it from Natures Way at the NC Expo. Are you saying I should go ahead and take cutting on it or can I leave it alone and have it be the featured part of the tree?

 

[Pitoon]

Last september I bought a Mikawa with a Witches broom on it from Natures Way at the NC Expo. Are you saying I should go ahead and take cutting on it or can I leave it alone and have it be the featured part of the tree?

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To be honest I don't think that's a witches broom. Mikawa yatsubusa already have very tight internodes as well as the fact that the leaves fold over themselves like shingles on a roof. I would say that looks like it's pushing out a flush of growth.

 

[SouthernMaple]

To be honest I don't think that's a witches broom. Mikawa yatsubusa already have very tight internodes as well as the fact that the leaves fold over themselves like shingles on a roof. I would say that looks like it's pushing out a flush of growth.

I really hope you are wrong, because I will lose all respect to the vendors and pros that told me to buy that one because it has a witches broom

 

[Pitoon]

I really hope you are wrong, because I will lose all respect to the vendors and pros that told me to buy that one because it has a witches broom

Think about it......if it really was a witches broom don't you think they would try to reproduce it to create a new cultivar. To my knowledge there is no witches broom from the mikawa yatsubusa cultivar. I know there are seedlings out there that have very similar characteristics like mikawa yatsubusa. Also leaves from witches brooms tend to be smaller not larger than the leaves on the same tree.

 

[Pitoon]

There's a pine tree on base that I found has a witches broom. The only thing is that it's about 70-80ft above the ground right over the road. I wish there was a way to somehow get a few scions to graft onto some root stock. I will try to snap a pic of it on Monday.

 

[penumbra]

If I remember corectly the original Dwarf Alberta Spruce was found in Alberta Canada by two botanists from the Arnold Arboretum in the very early 1900s. I remember something about these gentleman were taking a train from one location to another and when the train stopped for a break they went for a walk and found the tree growing wild. So no, it is not a witches broom, it was a wild growing mutation of the White Spruce.

 

[penumbra]

There's a pine tree on base that I found has a witches broom. The only thing is that it's about 70-80ft above the ground

I have seen a number of witches brooms and they usually were way up high. I remember finding one on an azalea at a garden center I worked at about 40+ years ago. Two of us tried to root it and neither succeeded.

 

[Pitoon]

I wish I could borrow a cherry picker to get up there to grab a few scions, but it's right smack over the road in front of a school. There's no way to get to it, and it's the only one I've ever seen on base.

 

[SouthernMaple]

Think about it......if it really was a witches broom don't you think they would try to reproduce it to create a new cultivar. To my knowledge there is no witches broom from the mikawa yatsubusa cultivar. I know there are seedlings out there that have very similar characteristics like mikawa yatsubusa. Also leaves from witches brooms tend to be smaller not larger than the leaves on the same tree.

damn well thats the last time I buy a tree from a vendor at a show, thats the third vendor that has lied to me about a tree.

 

[sorce]

damn well thats the last time I buy a tree from a vendor at a show, thats the third vendor that has lied to me about a tree.

Unfortunately, that is still part of that side of the game.

There are a lot of people who figured out how to propagate cuttings, and they propogate what people want. People want to hear that shit, so they "sell it".

Just buy without questions, and you won't get lied to!

Sorce

 

[Pitoon]

damn well thats the last time I buy a tree from a vendor at a show, thats the third vendor that has lied to me about a tree.

I'm sorry you were lied to. You really have to due your due diligence before you buy. Know what to look for and then buy it. Like @sorce said people will tell you what you want to hear to make a sale.

 

[Forsoothe!]

I am unclear on how anyone can say that witches broom do not grow not a specific Maple or any Maples. That is categorically wrong. Most Maple cultivars are intentional hybrids because that is effective and/or there are so many distinct cultivars that are available to work with and readily pass on distinct characteristics. It would seem logical to assume that any species that has DNA that is as varied as Acer would be exactly the gene pool that would produce spontaneous chimera even more often than Pine/Spruce/Fir. The differences in SPF are minuscule verses Acer. SPF shows very little color difference. Acer is all over the map. Leaf size same thing. Tree size same thing, too! Twig and bark, same, same.

Witches brooms are spontaneous chimera. A chimera is living tissue that is different than the rest of the plant. It is a change in DNA during cell division wherein the new cell has some change in DNA and it continues to grow thereafter with all subsequent cells replicating the new DNA configuration. These spontaneous changes can be due to radiation, stress, chemicals or something else that affects the cell during division such that the process is interfered with/damaged/interrupted at a critical point and cell division does occur, but the new cell with the new DNA lives instead of dying. It can be a broken link, a link that had been unexpressed, a link that inhibits expression of a characteristic, a novel cross-link, a duplicate link, or any other imaginable kind of change in how DNA operates.

Some species are more mutable than others and thank God for that. Orchids. Hosta. Roses. Rhododendron. Wonderfully variable. And the Queen of trees: Acer palmatum. Keep your eyes open for one near you to layer-off and name after your favorite person!

The witches broom in high trees are shot out of the tree at just the right season to grow cuttings. Easy enough to do with a box of shells in the country, but sometimes persnickety Sheriffs frown on that kind of collecting in the city.

 

[M. Frary]

There's a pine tree on base that I found has a witches broom. The only thing is that it's about 70-80ft above the ground right over the road. I wish there was a way to somehow get a few scions to graft onto some root stock. I will try to snap a pic of it on Monday.

I'll come cut it down for a fee.
I see witches brooms a lot in my line of work.
I have a Scots pine that wants to grow them every year.
I cut them off every year.
This one.

 

[KillerButts]

I have not seen anyone mention graft union chimeras/witches broom/hybrid growth. We have one now successfully rooted from cutting. It’s a 2 year old eastern weeping white pine/Nishiki black pine. I am sure it’s published elsewhere but I can specifically site Peter T.MacDonalds book The Manual of Plant Grafting page 29. I suppose this could fall under “stress” but it does get more specific.
I was hoping to see a larger specimen from the community here https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/witches-broom-question.45933/#post-787176

 

[baron]

I noticed this 'old' thread got brought back up...I believe the Acer Shaina I got a few months ago to be a witches broom.
Could be wrong tho...