JBP Candle Cuttings - Worth It?

[BirchMan]

Hi All,

I'm about to candle cut a couple of Japanese Black Pines, and have heard that it's possible but difficult to propagate from candle cuttings. By that i mean this year's growth (the green stuff).

Is it worth attempting a few of these, without a bottom heated propagation unit? Has anyone managed to get one of these to live?

Cheers.

[mtarros]

Everything is worth it as you will learn something from it.

I have tried before with no luck, you could try a couple of different methods to see if any work better.

[treeman]

Not candles. Fully mature shoots from a young tree. You might get some to strike if you plant deeply in sand and place in full sun after a week. If you soak the cut end in a weak rooting hormone solution (rootex) overnight, it will help. Not easy but if you have the time.......

[shibui]

I have never been able to strike green fresh shoots of pines, except the ones showing juvenile leaves and they occur mostly on young seedlings but occasionally after candle cutting on older trees.
I have occasionally managed to strike cuttings of hardened wood like Treeman but best results from juvenile shoots taken from very young seedlings.

By all means try some candles. Who knows what might happen? Also post your results, good or bad to keep fresh info coming through.

[Mojo Moyogi]

Candles, probably not. Woody shoots after candling at this time of year can be done. Don't leave too many needles. At this time of year you won't need bottom heat, but a decent propagator unit with timed or balance arm misting or even better, fogging, would be a definite advantage as will using a sharp sand or 0.5-2mm diatomite as your media. For summer cuttings, ventilation of any enclosure is crucial and this can be difficult to get right. High rates of attrition are the norm. Lets say you put in 100 and 20 have a decent quantity of roots on them 6 months from now, maybe only 2 or 3 of these have a radial distribution of roots ideal for bonsai. Maybe air layering JBP is better way to go?

see here:http://muranakabonsainursery.blogspot.com.au

Cheers,
Mojo

[BirchMan]

Thanks for the link Mojo, hadn't seen that one yet. And thanks everyone else for their feedback.

I might try some woody stem cuttings but will take a few opportunities to layer off an escape branch I've let run for a couple years.

[shibui]

Here are a few photos of my latest batch of pine cuttings to produce roots. These are Red pine cuttings.

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Interesting to note that the saddest looking cuttings have produced the roots. Only 3 have rooted out of about 20 cuttings. I've potted up the ones with roots and put all the others back under the mist to try again.

[shibui]

Found more roots showing from the drain holes of the pots holding red pine cuttings. That means some more are ready to pot up.

red pine cuttings 1.JPG

These were immature shoots taken from seedlings germinated spring 2013.

red pine cuttings 2.JPG

5 successful from 6 cuttings. That's pretty good for pines. Cuttings taken Nov 2014 so about 2 months to produce these roots.

Not so good with this lot - only 1 from 9 in this batch. These were slightly more mature shoots, some with mature needles.

red pine cuttings 3.JPG

And finally some cuttings taken from an older red pine. These were hardened shoots taken when I pruned the tree back hard in December 2013 so they have taken just over 12 months to produce these roots.

red pine cuttings 4.JPG

5 from 15. Not a great strike rate but still worth the time and effort I think and all the successful ones have produced a great array of roots all round the stem. Should make good nebari when they grow a bit. The roots on these were cut shorter before potting into 11 cm pots to grow on.

[BirchMan]

That's a good enough strike rate for material that might otherwise be destined for the bin. Did I see a bit of sphagnum moss in your cutting mix?

I'm going to try to strike a few from my mature JBP when I thin it out later this month. Thanks for the pics!

[shibui]

The cutting mix is just 50/50 coir peat and coarse perlite. That 'spagnum' is probably just some of the moss that grows on the cutting pots if they are under the mist for more than a few months.
Note that not all my attempts have managed this success rate. Plenty of tries have had 0 strikes but also occasionally better than this. So far I have not worked out whether it is timing or method or something else but still worth trying. Keep us informed of your results.