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Fruit trees from cuttings...some questions
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Posted by Raymondo Armidale, NSW (My Page) on Wed, Sep 7, 05 at 3:59
I've got cuttings for a few fruit trees (peach, plum, quince and white mulberry). They were potted up in the last month or so.
I have two questions:
1. Should they be left in their respective pots and planted out next winter?
and
2. Should I remove flower buds to encourage energy expenditure in root formation?
I ask because last year I tried some white mulberry cuttings and after some months they were covered in leaf and even had a fruit or two so I decided to plant them out. When I took the first out its pot there were no roots. After puzzling for some time I realised what it had been doing was living off whatever was in the wood of the cutting. I put it back, but all subsequently died.
Anyone out there with any experience in this? |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Fruit trees from cuttings...some questions
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| Hi Ray,yes to both questions, and using a weak solution of Maxicrop "Plant Starter" + Seasol together on a regular basis may help ensure root formation. Rosewater. |
RE: Fruit trees from cuttings...some questions
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| Thanks Rosewater. I suspected as much. And thanks for the tip about Plant Starter and Seasol, good idea. I've used Plant Starter before. Don't know why it didn't occur to me! |
RE: Fruit trees from cuttings...some questions
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| Thanks also from me, I've taken cuttings from my trees to take them with me when I move. I have taken off all the buds and was planning to pot them up when they seem to be established. |
RE: Fruit trees from cuttings...some questions
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| What's the advantage of putting cuttings straight into the ground (or a pot) as opposed to growing from seed and grafting your cuttings onto the seedling? I grew my grape vines from cuttings, but didn't realise it was common practice to do it with other fruit. Is it because you can save time (don't have to grow a seedling in advance), are there other advantages, or is it an experiment? When moving, taking a cutting from existing trees is certainly an easy way to go. |
RE: Fruit trees from cuttings...some questions
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Hello Ray,
Most plums will grow from cutting easily, as will most quinces and white mulberries, peaches a bit harder. European plums mign't have the drought tolerance of standard plum rootstocks. With plums and quinces I find it easier to graft plum on to commercial plum rootstocks and quince on to one of either Quince A or Quince C quince rootstocks and strike these as per cutting. Peaches graft on to peach or nectarine cutting. Most peaches, plums, almonds, nectarines are all graftable onto each other, European plums not expected to graft on to Japanese plums-
Neil |
RE: Fruit trees from cuttings...some questions
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| Thanks for that Neil. DJ, some of the cuttings were given to me, others I took from neighbours' trees. There two advantages to growing from cutting.
The first is that you know you'll get the same fruit as the parent. This isn't always the case if you grow from seed. I know that apples do not necessarily produce fruit like the parent, because in fact, often times, there are two parents of the seed. That doesn't stop me of course. You might get something even better, who knows. I'm currently growing some orange and lemon trees from seed.
The second reason is time to fruit production. From seed is slowest, cutting is faster and grafting, I think, faster still. |
RE: Fruit trees from cuttings...some questions
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| Budding/grafting makes most effective use of available material. You can expect to make a new plant from each bud, but cuttings 'waste' all the extra buds present on the cutting. that is the reason given by the commercial growers, who want the maximum number of new plants from the material they have. |
RE: Fruit trees from cuttings...some questions
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| Thanks Penny. I might try grafting next season, after I've found some suitable root stock. |
RE: Fruit trees from cuttings...some questions
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| Ray, Apricot seeds are very easy to grow if you bust the shell off them carefully without smashing the kernel and your common cherry plum makes a good rootstock, it's much easier to graft a plum onto a seedling than grow one from a cutting if you ask me, must be doing something wrong : ). Also seedling prunus only take a very short time to fruit from Germination to fruit set is spot on 3 years for a Peach/Nectarine, 5-6 foot the first year 2 or 3 more the second then flowers. Try grow a rootstock, graft and grow your graft out till fruit in the same time is impossible, I doubt a cutting could make it on time either because the root system wont be as strong. I could go on and on about how good seedling peaches are compared to a grafted one but I wont : ). Oh yeah about your cuttings from last year, most trees that go dormant have enough energy left in them to flower and grow a bit before they die but some are very difficult to get roots growing before they run out of energy |
RE: Fruit trees from cuttings...some questions
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| So, are self-seeded apricot trees good as rootstock? And what could I graft on to them? I've got a few self-seeded ones around. They are very healthy and I don't know what to do with them. If I can practice some grafting on them, I'd be delighted. Any advice? Please? :) |
RE: Fruit trees from cuttings...some questions
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| Well you can graft Apricots onto your Apricot seedlings with no problems and you would make excellent big healthy trees. Sometimes when you buy Apricot trees from the nurseries they are grafted onto a shonky suckering plum. You should be able to put Plum's, Cherry Plums, Almonds and Peaches on there too. I haven't used Apricot seedlings for anything except Apricots but I've put Apricots onto Plums before and it works so it should work the other way around. Commercialy they sometimes put Apricots onto Peaches so that should work upside down too (and Almonds). Sometimes you will get grafts of other species growing well for a few years and then die from being incompatable, but you have to experiment with these things to find out what works and what doesn't. But you will be safe with Apricot on Apricot :) |
RE: Fruit trees from cuttings...some questions
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| So are seedling or grafted peaches faster to fruit? |
RE: Fruit trees from cuttings...some questions
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| I think Plant Starter and Seasol is a good option for every one who is a newbie. I would also like to raise a question. Where should we grow a walnuts tree? Whether inside the house or in the garden? Please help.. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Tree Removal Sydney
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