Japanese Black Pine Seedling Cuttings

[Scott Roxburgh]

Most people have probably seen/used this technique, but I recently had a go and documented the process on my Bonsai blog.

Here are a few snippets:

One of the hardest things to find in the Australian bonsai world are small Japanese Black Pines with good roots, and branches low on the trunk.

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An excellent way to get what is often so desired, is to make cuttings of newly sprouted Japanese Black Pine seedlings. The following is a description of this technique. One of the best detailed descriptions of the process can be found here.

Due to import restrictions, most pine nursery material cannot be imported into Australia including seeds. Over the last few years, finding seed locally has proven to be quite a challenge. During winter 2011, I found a local source of JBP seeds. I managed to get 20 seeds, not the amount that I was after but better than none.

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With no real guide, I ended up cutting the roots off about where the violet part of the stem stopped, the part that was above the soil line.

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The cuttings potted up. I trialled some with upside down drink bottles to increase humidity. I’ll let you know how they go!

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Read more here http://aijoubonsai.wordpress.com/2011/1 ... -cuttings/

[daiviet_nguyen]

Hi Scott,

Thank you for the post. I am looking forward to the results.

What kind of rooting powder did you use please?

My father bought a rather large (and old) and very straight black pine a few years ago, and gave it to me. I grounded it in the Winter of 2007. It has proper corn now. I think we have to plant them ourselves since the importation is hard. I have a 540 m2 block. I planted in my front yard.

Best regards.

[63pmp]

Thanks for the post Scott, I enjoyed reading the detail on your blog.

Good luck with the cutings, black pine seed is so scarce it must be a bit scary chopping the roots off the few that you have.

Paul

[Scott Roxburgh]

It's better to do it now than to waste time on them wishing I had done it in 20 years time!

This way, if they die, all I have lost is the 30mins that it took to do them, not years of further refinement.

[Woody11]

Hi Scott

Thought I'd just add my own experiences with seedling cuttings.

This year, with 19 viable seeds, I managed to get 17 seedlings after direct sowing without any pre-treatment i.e. stratification. I should add that the weather was rather warm during germination - average min-max 20-32 degrees. (This success rate I feel reflects the lack of need to stratify JBP despite what is widely incorrectly reported on the Internet). I subsequently lost 2 seedlings to some hungry caterpillars.

I decided to take the plunge and make some seedling cuttings. The seedlings were allowed grow until their stems started in lignify slightly - about 6 weeks post-germination. This was not intentional. I had wanted to make my seedling cuttings sooner i.e. when the stems turned violet. Instead was too busy to get them at their supposed prime time but I took a risk anyway.

With 8 of the seedlings (a balanced mixture of stronger and weaker seedlings) I basically followed what Scott has previously described with a few differences. The seedling cuttings were allowed to float for 10-15 mins in a liquid rooting hormone called Auxinone before planting. Auxinone was also used to water the pots prior to planting as well. The seedlings were then dipped in a standard cutting rooting powder before being planted in a diatomite dominant mix with a central plug of sand. Watering the pots prior to inserting the cuttings prevents the cutting powder being washed away after immediately planting.

The remaining 7 seedlings had their tap roots cut, were soaked in Auxinone, and then planted in straight in a diatomite-dominant mix.

During the first week or so after planting, all the seedlings were misted several times a day and watered with Auxinone whenever the potting mix was on the dry side. Auxinone was subsequently continued on a weekly basis. No fungicide was used. The seedlings were initially kept in shade and gradually moved to more sun as they demonstrated some growth.

It's now about 4-5 weeks post-treatment and no seedlings appear to have died. There are new growth extensions present which means fertilising can begin.

So in conclusion, I've been lucky so far and appear to have 8 out of 8 seedling cuttings survive. I'm not sure what is the usual success rate as other sources which describe this technique rarely discuss their success rate. I'd be interested in hearing other people's experiences. I vaguely recall seeing one website state their success rate year on year is approximately 70%. So if this is true, then I'm pretty happy about my rate. Mind you, I may have got lucky with such a small number. Things might be different if I was working with a larger pool of seedlings. I'm wondering if the use of Auxinone has helped. It has also been very humid as the build up for the Wet approaches. Perhaps the warm weather here in Townsville makes a difference. Notably, our night-time temps aren't falling below the low 20s. I wonder if this is the difference. After all, people use heating pads to increase their cutting strike rate.

[Luke308]

Can anyone explain why you would make a cutting of a seedling when it already has roots? Im confused

[Bretts]

Nice Scott there will be lots of fun in the future with these.

Can anyone explain why you would make a cutting of a seedling when it already has roots? Im confused

The idea Luke is to get rid of the tap root shorten the stem and have the best chance of great radial roots right from the start so the tree can then have minimal root disturbance in the years to come to speed the growth rate of the trunk.

I have a thread on an older one from a guy that gave me a little one a few years ago that may help explain the goal.
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