AusBonsai

I am posting here as it does not apply exclusively to Australian natives sorry if it is in the wrong spot.

I have been seeing some very cool trees lately that were started by root cuttings.

What I don't know is exactly how to do this.

Does anyone know of a decent guide somewhere online for doing this? What species are/are not suitable.

Any input by those who have experience doing this would be great!

Thanks.

I don't know about native Australian species, but I've tried with different species of elms with almost 100% success. You must have Chinese elms around.
I've also had success with apple and pear-trees, and beech, but I'm not sure beech are many where you are.
But I had no success with trident or Japanese maples.
The best period here is at the end of (our) winter, before new buds swell.

When you say 'root cuttings' do you mean that you take a cutting of the root and plant that?

Or a cutting off the plant? For general plant cuttings i do the following, snip most leaves off (or at least cut them in half) and then make the cutting on an angle with a sharp implement. Dip in a rooting solution and then pot into a loose potting mix. Keep it in very filtered light for 2 - 4 weeks with plenty of water.

cheers
mike

Root cuttings consist in taking off a root, and planting it with the top above the level of the soil.

These photos are about a pear-tree :

February :




May :


And this one is an apple tree I'm still working on, from a cutting taken in 2002 :

Dutch Elm Disease just about wiped out all our mature Ulmus trees around fourteen years ago. My own potted Ulmus procera are propagated from the remains of a tree below ground. I had 100% success with growing those. No special procedure or incantations were necessary. The disease is easily controlled on the small stuff and I have never had any trouble with it on Ulmus parvifolia.

It looks like this will be a fine exposed root composition once it is refined AlainK

That really is a very interesting technique. I would never have thought to try it but once seen it seems so simple and obvious. DOH!

Come winter time.... when i neeed to repot a number of things i'll give it a shot and see what species respond well to it.

mike

Good information and nice work AlainK! This is exactly the process I am talking about. One of the trees that is inspiring me to try this was recently posted on Bonsai Talk on this thread:
http://forum.bonsaitalk.com/f15/beautif ... 32715.html

Just to restate what I know so far (please correct me if I am wrong)

1) Cut a portion of the root (angled on the bottom and straight on the top).
2) Bury it with a bit of the top exposed (any tips on how much of the top to expose?)

Does anyone have any recommendations regarding length or thickness of the roots to use or species that do especially well?

Thanks again!

I have only been succesful with seiju elm. But I will try more this year too.
I believe the square cut at top and angle cut at bottom is only so when doing a number of cuttings you know wich way is up and down
I was told the top should be just above the surface. But reading Daves Ramblings this morning he seems to leave much more out of the soil.

Some suitable trees for root cuttings are Elm of all kinds, Crab apple, Ginkgo.
You can take cuttings form the root easily because some of the fine feeder roots are already there.
You could easily have about one third of the cutting above ground, but bury enough mostly for stability of the cutting.
I have done corky bark chinese elm root cuttings uo to about 50mm and once even did a root cutting over rock.
Leigh, do you still have that Elm? If so you could put a photo here.

Grant

Yes Grant - I still have the tree. Here is an old pic of the tree taken with my phone - thus not very good quality. When I finish setting up my photo area (after PeterH's great tips) I will get a new shot.

Cheers,
Leigh.

Oh wow! That is an excellent tree! Can't wait to see more pics of that. I think this is a technique that is underused from what I have been seeing. Thanks everyone.

Grant Bowie wrote:Some suitable trees for root cuttings are Elm of all kinds, Crab apple, Ginkgo.
(...)
Grant

Ginkgo! I didn't know that. I'm just about to repot one that I kept in a large pot and put on my terrace. The caliper is still rather thin (about 3.5 cm at the base, but it's almost 2 m. high. I tried to airlayer it, and it produced some roots, but yesterday when removing the airlayer, I saw that the roots had rotten



Apparently, it isn't dead though : the buds are green inside, and there's green under the bark too. So I cut the rotten roots and placed it overnight in a "hormone soup" in my garage, I will see if it takes as a cutting.

But thank you very much indeed for the information Grant, I might be able to propagate my ginkgo after all.

Sorry everyone I have very busy. The history of the Elm that Leigh posted is briefly that it was a root over rock cutting. That is a Corky Bark Elm was dug out of the ground and a large, cot off root with four or five roots attached was draped over a rock and tied on with (I have forgotten) and the new growth emerged at the place where the first branch is. The branching and apex was then trained from the new buds.
I also did a similar one with a Crab apple and it also worked fine.

Grant

I just did a Crape Myrtle last night. If it works I will post a progression. Thanks again!