Freakish snow conditions caught me off guard. First a lot of snow followed by brief very mild and then very cold weather with strong winds. Made chunks of icy snow stick to my branches in stormy weather. fortunately this was a branch I was planning to remove anyway, but was going to try to air layer it. Also since it is a very twiggy Hoshi Kuzu, I was going to make a lot of cuttings since Hoshi Kuzus grows good on their own roots. My first panicked thought was if I could just duct tape it (or something) back together. I’m guessing that’s ridiculous and laughable. But the break seems quite clean with a lot of potential for support. Then I could still air layer it later if successful. Is there any chance I could get decent result with cuttings from this broken branch? What should I do with the remaining part of the branch? I’m thinking I should remove it close to the stem. It won’t be getting much light being on shady side and inside the tree.
Hi @Fjordland Firstly I would cut it back to the closest you can to the main trunk. And definatly clean up the wound. Don't add paste as it looks dry, so it won't need protection. Re the broken branch for grafting, I'm afraid it looks too dry to carry this out and tbh grafting is better done in the late Spring to early Summer from fresh gaft cuttings to ideally take.
Very weird way to break! I would try to make cuttings of this broken branch. But I won't expect high success rate. Max 20% of cuttings would likely succeed, or probably even less. But still worth of trying!
It could work, but winter cuttings are much harder to take than summer cuttings, the rate of success is very low. You could try with twigs with 2 or 3 pairs of buds, using hormones.
I will make small cuttings and cut back the remaining branch. Hormones are very difficult to get in Norway due to restrictions. Nurseries might have some but it would be illegal to sell me the good stuff, so I won’t bother. What I can get is Dyna-gro K-L-N. Which is a Indol 3 Butyric (0,03%) and Naphthaleneacetic Acid (0,1%) mix. Found very cheap expired products (7 months over). Using a higher dose could compensate for expiration date. Can’t find anything on how much higher dose. Can also get some kind of myco mix. I see some people recommend cinnamon and baking soda instead of growth hormones. Perhaps I could mix these and the myco? Also being recommended dyna-gro pro-tekt 0-0-3 silica mix for protection. Could make growth hormone from new growth of salix type trees I read. Will have to wait a couple of months though. I’m unsure of the timing. When do I put them in growth medium. Thinking peat, sand, gravel and some soil mix in a small greenhouse. Transplanting to regular soil when small roots appear. Late march would be considered early spring where I live. I’m on the west coast where it’s almost never below -5C and usually on the plus side after February. This is what I’ve found in my research of this topic. It’s a headache every time I try to figure this out. Always ended up with just sticking them in some soil and giving up. For some plants it works but not for maples in my experience. Sorry for the lengthy and probably boring post. These special conditions of mine might not be very interesting for anyone else.
Hi Fjordland, Actually I have pretty good success "grafting back on" branches, it does need to be done immediately though. This past year I idiotically hit a young A. shenkanense with the edge of a tractor mower, and broke it completely just above the graft. There was a thin string of bark, maybe 2mm, still attached to top and bottom, but like your break, a fairly long clean angle cut, almost like a side veneer graft but longer. I tightly wrapped it back together with Buddy Tape, as I would a graft, then used wooden match sticks to splint, rewrapped, then again with thin bamboo splints, rotated from the earlier splints. Finally I gave it a tight 3 point staking both above and below the break, to prevent wind from torquing the break. There is another A. shenkanense a few meters away from the broken one, which grew well this year, and the broken one hung in, with leaves a little curly but alive, until the second growth phase, when it put on very good growth from the lower part of the tree. This lower growth indicates to me that the "graft" has taken and the growth is not just using up residual sugars in the stems. I haven't undone the splinting, and probably wont this year, but as the trunk enlarges I may eventually bolt it together for strength, since even though the cambium is joined, the area of break will still be very weak for many years. I have a 30 year old Higasa yama that was repaired and bolted after being broken by a deer, long ago. It's still doing fine, the only issue is a small gap where the join didn't quite work, that may eventually cause rot. On the other subject, I have never heard that mycorrhizae will help rooting a cutting. You can't get any simple IBA rooting powder? You can indeed make hormone from some Salix bark, IIRC there's a specific one to use, and to make anything of decent strength is, as you say, likely to take a long time. But since you've got the material, you could certainly try rooting (bottom heat recommended in winter), why not? Or graft some up, if you have any plain stock palmatum hanging around. Best, -E
Hi Acerholic, Sulev, Alain k and Emery! (Forgot to say hi in my last post) I appreciate your answers. Very interesting Emery. I’ll know what to do next time. I waited too long this time since I kind of thought it wouldn’t work somehow. 0,03% IBA seems to be the strongest sold legally in Norway. We got a lot of strict laws regarding production and importing of plants. Much of which make little sense. I guess the mycorrhizae is something they try to sell instead of regular rooting hormone. I will look into options for bottom heating. Thanks. I’ll buy and try some different things and see what works best. Well, that’s the plan anyway. I’ll give an update.
