Home Ropagation Ornamental Trees Hrubs

v^ (xAa.Ä..x..^ ...„,, ß^xCX, /sTfc? L Î/B R HOME \<^ ::E'.vro ROPAGATION \ ORNAMENTAL TREES m. HRUBS \tN} Home and Garden Bulletin No. 80 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE CONTENTS Page Layers 4 Simple layering 4 Air layering 5 Care after rooting 6 Cuttings 8 Rooting period 8 Care after rooting 9 Grafts 10 Bud grafts 10 Cleft grafts 11 Growth Through Agricultural Progress Prepared by Crops Research Division, Agricultural Research Service This bulletin supersedes Farmers' Bulletin 1567, "Propagation of Trees and Shrubs.' Washington, D.C. Issued February 1962 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents,, U.S. Government Printing OflBce Washington 25, D.C. ' Price 10 cents ■v nuMt PROPAGATION ORNAMENTAL TRÍES > SHRUBS Many kinds of ornamental trees, bud grafting. Or you can get large new flowering shrubs, roses, and evergreens plants soon after propagating by cleft are easy to propagate by home methods- grafting. Bud grafting and cleft grafting These home methods utili2;e inexpensive, demand more skill and specialised knowl- easily available materials and equipment. edge than the other methods of propa- Plants propagated by layers, cuttings, gation. or grafts have characteristics exactly For greatest success in propagating— the same as the parent plants. Plants • Use only healthy plants. propagated by seeds often have char- • Propagate in the proper season. acteristics different from those of their • Protect propagating material from parents. drying. Many ornamental trees and shrubs • Give newly propagated plants extra can be propagated by layering. Because care until they are well established in a branch of the parent plant is needed their permanent location. to form each new plant, this method is practical only for propagating a small number of plants. Many kinds of trees and shrubs can Plants Dijficult to be propagated from cuttings. One Propagate parent plant yields enough propagating material to start a large number of new Some ornamental trees and shrubs are plants. The new plants are small, difficult or impossible to propagate by however, and must be tended carefully layers or cuttings. Among these plants for several years. are fir, pine, hemlock, locust, redcedar, Some trees and shrubs can be propa- mimosa, redbud, ginkgo, mountain-laurel, gated by grafting. You can propagate goldenrain-tree, blue spruce, myrica, a large number of new plants from a and andromeda. small amount of propagating material by LAYERS soil. This is called simple layering. If the branch cannot be bent to the ground, If a branch of an ornamental plant is layer it by wrapping the wound with wounded and the wound is covered with moistened sphagnum moss. This is air a rooting medium—soil or sphagnum layering. moss—the branch usually will strike Simple Layering roots while it is still attached to the parent plant. It then can be severed Professional propagators use many vari- from the parent and set out as a new ations of the layering-in'soil method of plant. This method of propagation is propagation. The easiest for the home layering. It is successful with more propagator is simple layering—burying a species of trees and shrubs than is any single branch in the soil with only its other method of vegetative propagation. tip protruding. Layering usually is most successful if Before making a simple layer, work done in spring or in late summer; rooting leafinold or peat and sand into the soil is most vigorous in cool weather. where the branch will be layered. If a branch is low and sweeping and Begin the layering operation by can be bent to the ground easily, layer wounding the branch. Make a slanting it by burying the wounded part in cut 2 inches long on the upper side of SIMPLE LAYERING Upper left: Wounding the branch. Lower left: Bending the tip of the branch upright. Right: Rooted branch cut free from parent plant. the branch about 12 inches from the This will give it time to recover from tip. Dust the cut with rooting stimu' the shock of being cut. Then transplant lant. it to a nursery bed, where it should be Then fasten the branch to the soil. tended carefriUy for a year. Pin it down between the trunk and the cut with a wooden peg or wire wicket, Air Layering or weight it with a stone. After the branch is pinned to the Kits containing all the materials soil, bend the tip upright. As you do needed for air layering are available at this, twist the branch as if you were garden-supply stores. If you do not turning a screwdriver one^half a turn. buy a kit, you will need the following: This will open the cut. • A sharp knife. Next, place a second peg or pin over • Rooting stimulant. the branch directly at the point of the • Sphagnum moss. cut. • Polythene plastic sheeting. Cover the pegged branch with several • Plastic electrical tape. inches of son into which leafinold or peat and sand have been worked. One-yearold branches are best for Mound the soil around the upturned air layering. Older branches may form stem so the wound is 3 or 4 inches roots, but take longer to do so than underground. Pack the covering soil branches that are 1 year old. firmly. Make the layer 12 to 18 inches from Mulch the soil over the layered branch the tip of the branch. If there are any with straw or leaves. Water frequently ; leaves within 6 inches of the point keep the covering soil moist. where the layer is to be made, remove When the layer has formed roots— them. the following spring for spring'layered Begin air layering by wounding the branches, or the seccmd spring for fall' branch. Make a shallow, slanting cut layered branches—cut the rooted branch about 2 inches long in the branch. Dust free from the parent plant. rooting stimulant into the cut and place Leave the new plant in place for 2 or 3 a small sliver of wood in the cut to keep weeks after it is severed from the parent. it open. Next, dampen a fist'siie ball of sphagnum moss and squee2;e it as tightly Rooting StirnulcCnts as possible to remove excess water. Wrap the sphagnum around the branch, Several organic chemicals stimulate covering the wound. the formation of roots on layers and Then, cover the ball of moss with cuttings. Preparations containing these plastic sheeting—^an 8^ by lOinch sheet chemicals are available from garden- is big enough. Wrap the plastic around supply stores. the moss-covered branch so the sheet Some brands of rooting stimulant are overlaps itself. sold in several strengths. Finally, twist the ends of the plastic Follow directions on the container sheeting around the branch and fasten label when using rooting stimulants. them securely with plastic electrical tape. BN-1895 Taping plastic sheeting around an air-layered branch to make a tight package. Watch for collection of rain water in If roots have not formed by the third the plastic package. If water seeps in spring, remove the wrappings from the the ends of the package, punch a small branch. Neither the parent plant nor hole in the plastic to allow the water to the branch will be seriously harmed if drain out. the layer is unsuccessful. Try layering Leave the air layer undisturbed for another branch; you may be successful one full growing season. Branches this time, even though your first that are layered in the spring should attempt failed. root by the following spring. Branches layered in the fall should root by the second spring. When roots have formed, they usually are visible through the Care After Rooting plastic covering. In spring, after the roots have formed, The root systems of newly rooted remove the plastic and cut off the branch layers are small in relation to the tops. below the roots. Set the new plant in You can reduce loss of water through the the nursery bed. leaves of these new plants—and lessen SHADING A, Burlap screen attached to stakes; B, cylindrical screen of bamboo or reed matting; C , wire screening supported by corner stakes for shading a nursery bed. danger of wilting and plant death—by made of snow fencing, lath, reed matting, pruning and shading. or burlap attached to wood framing. As soon as you plant new rooted After the first winter remove the layers in the nursery bed, prune all screens. The roots should be large side branches; remove one-third of their enough by the end of the season to original length. absorb all water needed by the plants. Erect screens around the new plants The plants then can be safely trans- to shade them. Suitable screens can be planted to their permanent location. CUTTINGS you get the mixture too wet, add dry -sand and peat to it. Cuttings, «■ slips, made of newly Fill the flower pot with this rooting formed wood are easiest to root. medium. Take cuttings from roses and spring' Now make the cuttings. Make a flowering shrubs in midsummer when slanting cut through the stem 2 to 6 the new stems are no longer succulent inches from the tip of the cutting. but have not yet become hard. Strip the leaves off the lower half of Cuttings of some evergreens—holly, each cutting and dip the base of the yew, arborvitae, and juniper—root best cutting in rooting stimulant. Insert the if they are taken from the plants in late cutting to about half its length in the fall or early winter, after they have rooting medium. been subjected to several heavy frosts. Put the cuttings close together; a Boxwood cuttings can be taken at any ó-inch flower pot will hold 10 or 12 season.

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