100 ROD bare roots in one cage

Ever consider shading the spot? Put some spruce branches, or putting somewhere partially shaded from the hot sun? Might help out in drought areas.

MY tree nursery is made out of trampoline fabric. I temporarily moved some plum shrubs just south of my dogwwod spot to keep it shaded.

You could also tuck a spot just north of a shrub, then cut the shrub down next year. The pallet caging helps shade the planting all by itself.

As a kid my mom got fustrated with cucumber transplants dying. So I put the lawn chairs ontop of them for the 1st 2 weeks while the roots started to take over.

I always wondered if there was something that could slowly water a spot. Like a drum with a drain tube with a piece of sponge or fabric in it. Dribble out a gallon a day or so. Even a small pressure relief, the sun's heat of the day pushes out a bit of water each day.
 
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Big fan of ROD but I'm not following the strategy of planting that many plants in that small of space.
Gets to bush status faster. Buy the thick, just need the height then.
 
Ever consider shading the spot? Put some spruce branches, or putting somewhere partially shaded from the hot sun? Might help out in drought aras.

MY tree nursery is made out of trampoline fabric. I temporarily moved some plum shrubs just south of my dogwwod spot to keep it shaded.

I always wondered if there was something that could slowly water a spot. Like a drum with a drain tube with a piece of sponge or fabric in it. Dribble out a gallon a day or so. Even a small pressure relief, the sun's heat of the day pushes out a bit of water each day.
I've always mulched my cuttings. But that only buys time. It still needs to rain eventually or it's just gonna be cool dust under that mulch. That's where I've been the past three years.

Here's the @Kooch bush. Was loaded this year.

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Loaded

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Then the rain never came, and the entire berry crop turned black and was aborted.

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I think you are really overdoing it with 100 cuttings in a single planting, but if you absolutely must to a clump of 100 I would at least increase the area they occupy. Any higher than a foot or two, they are bound to shade each other out if they are only planted a few inches apart. I'm also a bit worried about competition for water and nutrients if planted that close together. I think the tight spacing also provides cover only for pest species like mice and voles.

Are you planning to go back and graft branches together to make one big superbush, or do you want them to remain 100 individual plants?
 
I think you are really overdoing it with 100 cuttings in a single planting, but if you absolutely must to a clump of 100 I would at least increase the area they occupy. Any higher than a foot or two, they are bound to shade each other out if they are only planted a few inches apart. I'm also a bit worried about competition for water and nutrients if planted that close together. I think the tight spacing also provides cover only for pest species like mice and voles.

Are you planning to go back and graft branches together to make one big superbush, or do you want them to remain 100 individual plants?

I just want to plant it well and walk away. I suspect it could thrive and be huge, just because of the colony-like growing habits ROD has. I’d expect the outer plants to lean outward and the middle ones to push upward. I think they’d graft themselves together underground. I’m reaching with that assumption, but I think it could work and enormous in 3 years.


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ROD sends up shoots eventually. I’d put those 100 in the entire 5x7, not just the 1x3.
 
You could put less in one cage, then add some cuttings to make it more. You never know, it might be a wet year in 2024.
 
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