Propagate Honeyberry / Haskap cuttings? Follow along

Stuck some hardwood honeyberry cuttings this weekend.

They were placed in 50/50 coarse washed sand and coir. Dipped in rooting hormone diluted to semi-hardwood strength which is 50% weaker than recommended hardwood dilution. Ive had success rooting honeyberry using softwood cuttings with no hormone so Im not sure if was even needed. No bottom heat being used because from my experience, haskap dont it.

Cuttings are all 4-6 inches long. A few contain a bit of 2 year old wood at the ends, but most are just 1 year wood from last summer.

I had some extra cuttings that I put in a jar with 200ml of distilled water, 1 drop of rooting hormone which I will be aerating via a bubble stone for one week. Then they will be rinsed off and bubbled with plain water until roots show (hopefully).

All these will be kept in a cool location, under my aquarium until something happens!

Ive never tried hardwood cuttings of this species, but read that it works. If you have any other ways of doing this or pictures to share I encourage you to do so.

Currently Im rooting Aurora, Indigo Gem and Honey Bee… Will try to post weekly pictures showing progress.


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Getting some growth on these, no roots showing yet in bottom of container… I had container covered with some breathing holes but there was fungus growing on cuttings so I sprayed with fungicide and left cover off for last couple days, no more fungus is noticable. Next time Ill spray with fungicide immediately when sticking these. Also replaced hormone water in bubble jar with regular water, some slime growth on bottom of stems was sprayed off. No pics of that.

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I propagate my Honey berry the easy way by placing a pile of dirt about 8 inches height on the base of the bush, The following Spring just use the garden hose and blast the pile of dirt of the base of the bush away and collect all the branches with roots.

Tony

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Ive got something like that going also tony. I took a plastic pot and cut the bottom off of it, put it upside down over one of my honeyberry plants and filled it will no nutrient potting mix. Cut the branches off about 1-2 inches above the pot. This was done last fall, going to let it grow through the summer and take the pot off once it goes dormant this fall. Ill post a picture of this also, just to illustrate how I did it.

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What is the advantage of cutting the branches off, versus Tony’s method?

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Just to encourage side shoots to take off and end up with new plants that are hopefully more uniform and get more equal amounts of light. After putting the pot over the plant, some branches stuck up nearly a foot above it and some were barely above the soil line. Figured Id give them all an even start. Im sure its not necessary, but shouldnt hurt anything either.

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You are both describing airlayers. Some strange ways to do it, but looks like it works. No need to cut branches off, with figs you don’t, and even any fruit on them will ripen before or after removal from the plant.

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This is true Dr Drew… While effective, layering probably isnt the best method for creating large numbers of plants from a limited source, thats why Im playing around with hardwood cuttings. Im just messing around as I currently dont have much room for more plants…

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I’m doing the same thing with mulberries, and some look to be taking. I’ll know more in about 2 weeks. Leafed out about 30 days now. At 45 I would say they must have roots. I have been feeding the leaves too. Using kelp and Foliage Pro in a spray bottle, and misting every other day. Most are not taking, but a few are hanging in there. I have some outside too, in root pouches. I’ll leave till July and see at that time if good. I have them in quart pots, with freezer bags over them for humidity.
Dwarf everbearing on the left, Silk Hope on the right. The yellow color is from my lights, these leaves have no yellow. The camera is doing it.

I think this one is Wacissa

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I just did mulberries this weekend, along with some ninebark. I dipped them and stuck them in some of that optisorb crap, watered down good and stuck outside in a sheltered location didnt put anything over them tho, didnt think it was necessary with hardwood cuttings… Do you think its important? I did Illinois Everbearing, 1 year wood… Maybe I should seal the ends with melted wax at least, couldnt hurt anything.

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I don’t know? It is with fig hard cuttings. Outside I didn’t do it. The buds are starting to swell outside. I also heard don’t give up if leaves die. That they can still root. So I’m trying till they rot! Some the leaves died, and I put the cuttings outside for long term rooting. See if it works?
Some say the wood needs to be high humidity, and parafilm works too. Wax should work, but I really don’t know if we need to do this or not? With humidity you have to ween the plants off of it, often you can kill them if you don’t.

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Here is a pic of my honeyberry plant I layered last fall using a cut out pot. Ill let it grow through the summer and pull the pot off this fall after it goes dormant.

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I did some air layers of figs today. First air layers I ever did. A thousands ways to do it. It was easy and only took a few minutes. I used containers and made cuts in the then to get the branch through. I used coir with perlite (Black Magic potting soil). I wet it, and ringed it out as much as possible. Duck taped the openings. Covered with foil to keep it cool. Wow was that easy! With figs you only need 5 weeks and you have roots! Yes! I’m going to do blueberries, and other things too. I want to try Alcedo’s method on stone fruit, If I ever move I can then take my trees with me, well clones, and they will be small, but what the hey! Cheaper than buying new ones.

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I think what you are doing is really cool! I have some haskap myself that I would like to propagate.

Could you please describe the method you used successfully to take softwood cuttings?

I hope your cuttings are rooting well!

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Some of them rooted but most of them died. They were in pretty high humidity and I think fungus was an issue, at least there was some on the above ground portion of the cuttings, despite my spraying them with some anti fungal stuff. I had much better luck doing semi-hardwood cuttings last summer a little after berries were picked. I will post some pics when I do this again this year. I pulled the pot from my aurora plant pictured above, but left most of the soil mix around the branches, watered it down with a hose so it knocked it down to cover about the bottom 1/3 of the branches in the picture. Ill check for some roots this fall to see if anything happens. Its growing ok and even has a few small berries on it right now.

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Thanks! So you didn’t bother to use any hormones with the softwood cuttings? What about with the semi-hardwood cuttings?

I’ll be looking forward to watching the progress as you post updates!

I have an air layer on mine, let you know if it works. I’m still new to doing air layers, but it should work well. I do need to get my technique down though. So we will see how it goes.

I did use hormone diluted to ‘softwood’ strength. I cant remember the brand I have, but its 1:5 for hardwood, 1:10 for semi hardwood and 1:20 for softwood. It seems a little strong tho so I usually dilute it more than suggested for whatever Im rooting. I know these will layer without hormone tho cuz a few Ive purchased were buried a little too deep in their pots and had roots growing out of the branches above where the normal root mass is. Good opportunity to divide them into a few different plants when that happens :slight_smile:

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I planted five bushes last year and have one berry turned blue. They are still small bushes but have been growing fast! They have about a dozen or less berries each. I want to spread these around and grow more. I’ll try some cuttings and see how well they root.

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I will also be trying a variety of propagation techniques with my Haskap.

I have Tundra, Borealis, Czech 17, Eisbar, Kalinka, Maxie, Solo, Sugar Pie, and Honey Bunch.

My biggest bushes are Czech 17, Tundra, and Borealis. All the others I got this year and are too small to take cuttings from yet.

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