JAPANESE LACE LEAF MAPLE CUTTINGS

Do cuttings grow true to tree. I have a few cuttings of the Lace leaf and have planted them with rooting hormone, hopefully to get several small trees started.
will this work?????????????

Yes it would be true to the original tree but I doubt you will have any luck .. a few Jm cultivars have been successfully rooted and this is something that many big growers have tried for years .. The scuttlebutt is that most are not long lived with this method even if successful which with 99% of culivars is is not successful period .... when they do "take" they tend to die after a year or so, why... I do not know .. Most retail nurseries will not take or sell rooted cultivars ... at least ther few tha can be rooted.. theyu have learned thru experince it is not safe for longevity. But it is unlikely yours will root anyway and if it does may eventually just die as stated.. Ask yourself... If rooting were doable why would anyone mess with grafting.but to my knowledge all major large growers graft.. it would be much more cost effective and less labor intensive to root 10,000 Jms than graft them so why??? It certainly ain't out of love of grafting or it's historic ritual ... these big wholesale nurseries are not pleasure palaces they are businesses run by business men. Air layering is a successful way to "root" a Jm and the trees do live .. it has been practiced in Japam for centureis but it is much more time consuming and takes much longer than grafting. No major grower would mess with that either .. There is a big market for actual non grafted bonsai material but what a grower would have to charge for air layered trees would not be accecptable to most bonsai folks who are looking for CHEAP trees .. they buy seed grown trees unethically marketed as named cultivars... or if they are smart just buy well grafted Jms from a reputable dealer .. but unfortunately most disdain grafts so they blind themselves to the the reality that they are buying counterfit trees and do so anyway. But I digress. Davidsan

This message was edited Jun 3, 2010 8:01 AM