Rooting Apple Trees from Cuttings?

[PrairieShadow]

I pruned up a handful of apple trees yesterday and have all the cuttings sitting in cold storage right now. Has anyone had success rooting the cuttings? I know they wont root like willows or ROD but I hate to just toss them. I do have a couple containers of rooting hormone sitting idle.

 

[Merle Hawggard]

I shove all my tops into the same bed I plant my newly grafted trees in. Have several takes every year.
There is a thread about it somewhere if I can find it.

Sent from my SM-G960U1 using Tapatalk

 

[Merle Hawggard]

Rootstock top experimentation time!

If you want a few free rootstocks remember to shove the cut off tops in a place easy to keep damp. Last year I had no b118 takes, but Chuck and I both had several antaktova takes. He used rooting hormone, I didn't with about the same outcome in our admittedly small test sample. This is g890 I...

r.tapatalk.com

Rootstock top experimentation time!

Sent from my SM-G960U1 using Tapatalk

 

[PrairieShadow]

Thank you! anything special you're doing to them prior to sticking them in the soil?

 

[bigboreblr]

Tried that with toringo crabapple last year. Clipped in feb, stored in a moist vermiculite jar in my frige 2 months or so. Forgot if I put them in with rooting hormone before or after the fridge. Planted them in pots, kept watered in a shady area. Almost all buds opened, a few made it through most of summer. 0 for 25. If I recall right I put 3 or 4 shoots per pot ontop of the 25 pots.

I read a month ago to do this while they're leafed in early summer. Strip most of the leaves except the last set, scrap a bit of bark, rooting hormone, then plant. Will give it a try this year. I delayed on pruning until early summer on several trees to play around with this.

However, I am making a small raised bed mixed in with sand and peat moss, and have some screen mesh for shading. Making a permanent frame for small seedlings. Got some blue spruce seeds going. trying apple.

folks have tried them on here, but success rate is not high.

 

[Merle Hawggard]

Thank you! anything special you're doing to them prior to sticking them in the soil?

I've tried without rooting hormone and with, but really no difference in takes. Have had much better luck with antanovka vs any other rootstock. Had a p18 and a g80 root, but zero out of many b118.

Sent from my SM-G960U1 using Tapatalk

 

[Treefrog]

I'm just starting to experiment with trying to root apple cuttings. I am trying 2 different ways. First is a bottom heat growing box that I made, It holds 36- 3" pots. The sand medium in the pots is held at 65 degrees F, the air temperature is held at 50 degrees F. The idea is to keep the cutting dormant with the cooler air, while keeping the root area warmer to help it form a callus, which helps with root formation. The other method I'm trying is using one of the bottom misting cloner that is designed for rooting houseplants with a grow light mounted above it.

 

[bigboreblr]

After my post in april, I did some pruning on the crabapples. Put the shoots in my nursery outdorors and water more or less daily. A few held on for awhile. But, when I went away for 4th of july for 2 or 3 days, the folks who watered them either missed them or didnt give them enough. Out of 30 or so I did, only about 7 or 8 were holding into june. I had 3 or 4 right before the 4th of july, then those died. I did this with the water sprouts on my old apple trees too, maybe 2 or 3 out of 20 held on for the month of may and thats it.

Wanna do a bunch of rootstocks cheap..... Well for the time, effort, and other supplies involved, a 3 or 4 dollar roostock is pretty darn cheap already in my book.

But, I did see a youtube video of a guy who took a B118, grew it to about 6ft tall or so, then put it on it's side into the soil. He buried it in woodchips and sprouts would shoot off of them. He would dig down into the chips until he has some decent bit of roots, then clipped a roostock off.