plums?

Can it be done from dormant wood cuttings?

Hey Mitch,

I think most Plums are grafted in spring. Get a hold of a member named Lucky_P and he will probably know for sure what to do.

I don't think the type of Plum you want to propagate can be propagated from hard wood cuttings in winter but possibly softwood cuttings in late spring such as May for you?
Here's a neat site that I used on how to do it as well as how to create a dome out of 2 liter bottle of pop. I use 2 liter pop bottles all the time to increase the humidity around cuttings but last year I learned that pencils in the corners of trays with cellophane wrapped around them worked just fine too. .
http://www.actionvideo.freeserve.co.uk/cuttings.htm

I think that Huxley or maybe it was Dirr might have stated that some Prunus spp. can be propagated from cuttings of half-ripe wood with a heel in early summer. I haven't a clue as the species of Prunus I have propagated were done so from seed that was cold stratified for around 3 months then planted in 2-liter pop bottles and placed in trays. I was germinating Prunus serotina last time but I've done others. Let me know if Lucky is able to help answer your question otherwise I'll go dig out the Dirr for you.

Thanks - I love to try things... but too many cuttings died this year (pecans being the biggest flop with only one taking... )

I bought a RainForest Clone machine and for sure this spring I am going to be playing. I love to try new things too. Pecans are tough to root from cuttings. Did you dip them in IBA before you tried to root them?

Nope - dont dip anything, mist and humidity mostly... Just got told it could not be done and well I love to hear that! I do water will willow water only on the cuttings,

I never let something like that stop me from experimenting either. I have an entire windowsill of dead cuttings where I knew darn well it wasn't able to be done but tried anyway. One of these days...

Willow water is great.

Willow water is the life force of my garden. I have black willows - 12 or them here just to cut and make willow water.

You know, we have a few Willows in this area too. On a lark about 10 years ago before we even built a house here, I took a branch that had come down from a neighbor's tree in a storm and stuck it in the wetlands area. One branch and I kid you not... just one branch. The branch rooted and is now at least 15' tall.

Yep... I have been known to bring a branch to a house warming and just plop it in their ground... spreading willows everywhere..

Instead of Johnny Appleseed how about Mitchy Salixtwig?

Shhh! They might catch on and stop letting me come over if they knew...

Not that it would stop me... might be better just to plant and run.

Ha ha ha! Plant and run. Is that a gardner's version of "cut and run"? OK, it's our secret. Me and about 250k other DGers won't tell a soul. We promise ;)

lol - The last swap I went to you had to take a tree to get anything else on my table... I guess I need to find the next native tree to spread the love around on... poplars maybe?

I dunno, what's indigenous to your specific County that's being displaced?

Spread the love Mitchy Salixtwig!

That is it - everything is being moved out for the houseing developments... make everything flat and start over is their moto. So I have a really clean slate to work with, and anything to stop peole from planting Silver Maples - all maples hate it here but I just cannot stand Silvers...

You have a clean slate so to speak but do you have access to any records from a research station denoting what species were there say 100 years ago... 200 years ago?

Working on it... all I have found so far for sure is grass but there must be more here. I have records for Arlinton and Dallas that are both 30 or so miles but would rather have a local local so far no luck. I have been buying old photographs of the area to see what that had in their yard and farm areas then.. not easy to tell from black and whites not of the tree but people and such but I am working on it that way for now.

Mitch

Photographs can be an excellent tool.

Elderly members of a community, who are often overlooked, are frequently a wealth of information. Have you tapped into the nursing homes and inquired at the nursing stations to try to find out if there are any retired biologists or possibly even any naturlists who are residents? Share with the nurses why you are asking and they might have personal knowledge of a member who may have been active in a non related field who might be able to help you start putting together more pieces of the puzzle.

Are there any herbarium specimens for your County? If so, where are they?

You might want to consider taking out an ad in the local newspaper. Ask them to consider donating the ad given it is the public that would ultimately benefit from the fruits of the labor. Ask for anyone who has any information who may be in a position to share same with you.

I do all my peach and plum every Spring by air-layering at bud break. (just when the buds are about to start to break open, but are not fully bloomed. This is usually around Valentines day.

They root within two months.
-T

Do you think air layering at bud break might work on a Reliance Peach?

Yup!

I've done it on 'Ranger' peach, 'pink cascade' peach, 'Bruce' red plum, 'Methley' purple plum.

It also works really well on roses, and ornamental bushes like daphne, etc.
-T

Well, tricky but it would be a lot better than having dead twigs sitting on my windowsill. I have lots of dead twigs on my windowsill.

Do you use long figred sphagnum moss around the wound or something else?

There sure are, several of them out there.. not sure what ones - yet working on that.

Never dreamed about nursing homes will have to go out and find where go from here - we dont have one here local but I am sure they tend to go to the same place - right?

Air Layering... now that sounds like fun with plums... I have this Mexican Plum and the Scrub Plum - both hard to root .. this just might work - Thanks Mitch

Lauren-
Long fiber sphagnum moss. (be sure to wear rubber gloves when wetting and handling this moss).-many yucky things can be caught from it, if you skin is cut anywhere(mine always have rose pokes), or sensitive...

Thanks seedpicker, I have never heard of it that way.. should be fun to try this year.

You are welcome, Mithc.

google air-layering, and you'll find TONS of information and pictures on it. It really is fun, and has a very high success rate.
-T

Sounds like I have my winter reading now...

Ever tried this with RedBuds? I wonder if it would work ... just might... now see what you have started?

Equilibrium,

What's a "RainForest Clone machine"? I've never heard of one.

Donna

Hey sp_TX, Yes! LFS can be pretty nasty. After having read a little bit about it years ago, I had the urge to suit up to include a face mask for airborn particles. I've got loads of New Zealand LFS on hand because I use it in Nepenthes mixes as well as for Pinguicula. I love the stuff but I'm with you on cuts and scrapes. Great entry point.

Hey Donna, here's a link to the brand but I bought a much larger 318 clone propagator machine. I'm ready to play!
http://www.hhydro.com/cgi-bin/hhydro/XHH0044.html?id=PwoJ5gdu

Wow... hard to really tell exactly what it does... but with a price tag like that it must be good....

Donna

Actually, this is an entry level clone machine but I'm very happy to have it. I found a few that were in the thousands and I sort of had a problem with buying a clone machine that was worth more than a car... well, there would have been the issue of coming up with the money to buy that kind of a clone machine too. I don't think I paid all that much more for the 318 model than what was listed for the 66 pictured above. Maybe another $100 or so? I can't remember. I do know that the 318 had the availability of a humidity dome which was important to me and a few other options that I ended up getting from another supplier. We'll see how well I do with it next June. Most of the cuttings I am interested in attempting to root are best taken as soft wood cuttings. I'm really hoping to get a few successes. I got tired of having dead twigs on my window sill. Here's hoping I get some sort of a return on this unit even if it is only a window sill devoid of dead twigs.

But the dead twigs are the sign of a good gardener - that is my story and I am sticking to it...

Then I must be a much better gardener than I give myself credit for because there sure are a helluvalot of dead twigs around here. Come to think of it, there are a lot of dead leaf pulls and other dead cuttings around here too. Yes, these dead things around here surely must be signs of a good gardener!

MitchF,

HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!

That is just the way I think of them... and my family started thinking of them, that way too...

Besides if all my cuttings grew do you know how many plants that would be???

Enough to share with me... and with DonnaA2Z, and with seedpicker_TX!

and then some!