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RobinM
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Joined: Mon Feb 24, 2014 2:03 pm
Location: South Carolina Zone 8

Japanese Maple Cutting help

Hi all! I have a weird question. I have a co-worker who brought me a handful of JM "sticks" and asked me to try to root them. He took off all the leaves lol but I figured what the heck...ill try anyway. So I did....and they did (take root ) so I started reading online and I kept seeing that a JM from a cutting will only live about 2 years. Is this true? Attaching a pic of the new leaves on one of them. (I can't believe it rooted and grew leaves from a bare stick!!)
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tomc
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Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2011 2:52 am
Location: SE-OH USA Zone 6-A

I've never tried a cutting. Airlayers will live in perpetuity.

Grafting a cool top to JM rootstock is done by nurseries, because it lets the nursery turn the numbers up with fewer staff hours.

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RobinM
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Posts: 43
Joined: Mon Feb 24, 2014 2:03 pm
Location: South Carolina Zone 8

Thanks Tomc. Any suggestions for helping the root system on this one? I don't have a rootstock and I'm not really sure how to go about getting that. This little project was kind of unexpected and I don't currently have a JM growing in my landscape. I'd like to at least try to give this one a shot. Any ideas for helping this one develop a good root system? Would growing it in a container be better than trying to grow it in the landscape?

tomc
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Posts: 2661
Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2011 2:52 am
Location: SE-OH USA Zone 6-A

The stages of roots forming in every propagating system has bumps (callus) form first, and roots form off of those bumps.

Where most novices fall down is they want to pot up their tree in very dry (interior) conditions, and in soil mostly made up of peat-moss or garden soil. "Potting" or soiless mix has too fine particle size and not enough air in the soil. Trees drown.

I think you are starting awfully late in the year. This is an April or May project. For what ever my opinion is worth, I'd go for seeds from that maple and plant them...



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