does anyone...

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bmilla35

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Aug 29, 2007
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does anyone have experience with the tree cutting technique? im looking to "clone" some apple trees on my farm for deer hunting but am too cheap to go out and buy new ones that are big enough for the animals not to eat. ive read a lot about plant hormones, especially auxins and Indole-3-butyric acid in specific, which i actually used in my AP Bio class with some results. i was wondering if anyone else had any input or other techniques that i could use. thanks for looking
 
oh come on no gardeners or farmers? or did i accidentally put this is the wrong forum...as far as i was concerned this was the closest forum to the topic
 
Speak english not Pittsburgh !! You do mean tree "grafting" not tree "cutting " ?? Grafting involves splicing together related trees such as apple/apple or apple/pear. It's been done for a long time .They even make special grafting knives .Yes there are things you can put on the graft for better success but I don't have details.
 
thanks midwest..and sorry mete lol. pittsburgheese is like a disease...seriously. but as far as im concerned i thought it really was called slicing or cutting, and you simply add the hormone which stimulates root growth
 
I call it cloning. Its sounds like youve got the basics of it already... although I would take clones in the spring.

wait... are you talking about taking small clones to grow to full size or are you wanting to clone fruit bearing sized branches?

cause im not sure that can be done.
 
i was hoping they would eventually become full grown apple trees, and are there any specific brands that stand out or is it all the same?
 
and thanks ottoshot...i also planned to start during the spring. but if this warm weather keeps up i might decide just to try it now
 
A friend of mine uses Vitamin B12? to grow roots out of a cutting immediately, and then uses VF-11 on the leaves for a while until the plant can take in nutrition from the roots. Not sure if any of this helps.
 
Most "modern" apple trees are branch cuttings grafted onto specific root stock depending on the desired size of the tree. Many of the more fragile varieties are grafted onto crab-apple root stock since the crabs are very vigorous rooters and will keep the main tree healthier.

That said, you can take cuttings from apple branches and have them root. It takes time, work and more than a fair amount of luck for the amateur to get good results, I'd plan on no more than a 25% success rate your first few tries.

If you're looking for apple trees as a deer attractant, find an old orchard or farmstead with a couple of ancient apple trees growing. Ask the owner for permission to take some branch cuttings in the spring just after the leaves come out. Bring a bucket of water and cut the twigs about 4"-6" long on the NEW green growth and with 4-8 leaves. Don't fall to the temptation that bigger is better. A short start will actually grow more quickly than a longer start since there's less "tree" to support and the energy can go into roots. When you get home, use a razor knife to slice the ends of the stems just below a bud and dip in a root initiation hormone and set in vermiculite. Keep the cuttings moist and warm and watch carefully for a few weeks. After a month or so, you should see new growth on some of the cuttings, these will be the ones that have set root! Transplant to soil and indirect sunlight to encourage more growth. Take the remainder of the summer to get the seedlings acclimated to direct sunlight and before autumn, you can put them out in a nursery garden for the remainder of the season. Mulch well with leaves for the winter and you should have good returns the next year.

Keep the young trees in the nursery garden until you are ready to move them to the final site. Use a spade around the base of the trees to keep the root ball local and they'll be easier to transplant when you're ready.

Search apple tree propagation on the internet for more ideas.

J-
 
well what I am saying is that cloning can only be done on sappling like branches. If you are thinking you can clone an apple tree and have a fruit bearing tree an a couple years i wouldnt hold your breath. Also, I believe that the return on apple trees is very long... im talking at least 5-10 years before you start seeing fruit of any quantity.

Its still a good idea tho, to plant trees of any kind. In twenty years every time you look at that tree you will admire it... and remember how old you were when you planted it.

If I wanted to clone an apple tree, (which I have never done before so im not sure if this would work) I would get a 10 gallon bucket and fill it with an inert medium such as pro mix bx which is peat based. For gods sake dont use any potting soil with nutes already in it. Then I would find a small sapling branch with the diameter of an inch or so with a few nodes (forks) on it, say two or three. cut it off with a really sharp knife on an angle and dip it immediatly into your rooting compound. then push it into your moist medium.

Then, get some clear plastic wrap it around the sapling, tying it off around the bucket to create a humid atmosphere around the plant. you may want to stake out the plastic with four sticks in the bucket. leave the plastic on for a week or until the clone takes root and new foliage appears. dont feed it anything but reverse osmosis water for a few weeks, then go to a mild organic fert such as a 5-1-1 or similar.

I would then plant the clone when you could lift the clone out by the stem and see a well developed root ball.

Like I said dont expect apples anytime soon, but I have read you can speed up the process and maximize fruit yield by some kind of apple tree pruning technique.
 
thanks A LOT homebru and ottoshot! if it helps, i would be using trees from an old orchard actually present on our property already that are welllll over 75 years(maybe way more) and possibly even one behind my grandmothers house. we took apples from both orchards and showed them too a local expert and they said that they never saw them before...so who knows. either way, thanks again for all the advice guys. ill let you know how everythign goes
 
Hey Guys..

As I understand it,, you can graft several different varieties onto the same tree and have one tree with different apples..

All those ornamental trees are all grafts as well...

Seems pretty simple to do..

Cut the branch on somewhat of a 45, make a slice in the tree, insert branch and wrap with something..

Tree should heal itself and take the new branch as it's own after a certain amount of time...

Victorinox makes a Grafting blade onone of their SAKS I'm sure..

ttyle

Eric
O/ST
 
Ottoshot's post reminded me of another method I've used on peach trees, AIR LAYERING. It's much less labor intensive and since you've got access to your own orchard you can pull it off. What's especially nice is that you can start with a much larger branch.

Get some plastic, some moss, water, aluminum foil, tape, your favorite knife and your growth medium and head out to the orchard. Find some nice straight whips about 2'-3' long with few side branches and pluck all the blossoms off, just leave leaves. Carefully strip the outer bark layer around a side bud so you have a 1" strip of stem exposed and brush it with your growth hormone. Soak the moss in water and wrap a softball-sized lump around the wound with the plastic. Cover it with the foil to keep it dark (Don't use black plastic or it'll get too hot in the sun!) and wait a few months keeping the moss nice and damp. The stem will sprout roots, but the main tree will also help keep it alive! You get bigger starts this way and a better success rate.

Lee Valley sells some neat air layering "pods" as well if you want to check them out. Search the net.

J-
 
those are also interesting ideas guys...maybe ill try all of them. i first have to figure out where to even buy growth hormones
 
It is easy to find rooting hormones online. E-mail them and ask which one or if they will work for apple trees.
 
i actually just got a reply back ottoshot...i asked them about the gel rooting system and they said unfortunately it wasnt on the manufacturers list and to check local nurseries to see how they do it
 
So you're trying to 'root a cutting' ? That's not the same as grafting. I tried to root a rose bush but not a cutting , just stick a branch into the ground and it may root . Research showed that SOME roses will do this . Unfortunately mine wasn't one of them !!
 
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