I took some hardwood cuttings of my Triple Crown BB’s over the weekend and want to try to root them. I have read that by burying them in soil with bottom heat they may root? Anybody have any experience with this and have tips? I dipped them on some IBA and then set them in moist potting soil. Should I put a timer on the heating mat or keep the heat on 24/7? I also threw in some Serviceberry cuttings just for grins to see what’ll happen.
They’ll enjoy 75F 24/7.
However, the best way to propagate Rubus is by tip-rooting in your early Fall. Stick the tip(s) of cane(s) growing from the mother plant into 1-2 gallon pots and bury them in soil. Water and feed if necessary. In the late Spring when they start sprouting vigorous shoots upwards cut them loose from the mother plant.
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You can also propagate with sections of roots. This is a good time of the year to plant sections of the root about 1" deep. Pencil diameter roots about 10" long seem to sprout fast when the temperatures start going up.
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Yup I did about two dozen tips last fall. I need something this winter to keep me from going stir crazy till spring arrives in 60 or some odd days from now. still to early for starting veggies. It’s just something for me to pass the dreary winter days by a little quicker.
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I have already started doing some grafting not because it is the best time for doing so. Love my quality time in the orchard. It has been around 70 degrees here for a few days.
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Was -13F a few days ago. I checked on some of my grafts from 2016 and some of the BB tips I buried. Still froze in solid.
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Now that is some cold temps. The frozen soil would make it difficult to take root cuttings. We almost never go below 10-15 degrees. The trade off is that we have about 2 months of hot and humid weather in the summer. During our summer weather you will be soaked in sweat in about 5 minutes.
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I have had good results using a cloner.
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I too am curious about blackberry propagation. I know they can be tip rooted and grown from root cuttings but I’m looking for more info on propagating from tip cuttings. I’ve watched videos from Texas Prepper and many others and there seems to be different ways of doing it all with decent results. It sounds like many people will pinch the growing tips of primocanes at around 3-4 ft to encourage side shoots to develop. These tips that get pinched are what I’m interested in learning how to propagate. The videos I’ve watch seem to say you should remove most of the leaves and stick in a moist mixture of peat, sand, perlite, etc and then spritz the cutting multiple times per day to make sure they don’t dry out. Seems pretty high maintenance so wondering what is the best way to keep them humidified while also providing ventilation.
I have no idea how to keep conditions perfect unless you have a cloner or something. I can’t see ever getting one myself. I don’t have room for the stuff i already have. I just put a 2 liter pop bottle or a freezer bag over the plant to keep humidity. Removing once a day for fresh air, if I remember to do it. It works.
I’m trying to root mulberry cuttings, and dwarf cherry
Someone sent me some cuttings in this giant plastic bag, about 3 gallons, I have to get some of these!
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I find it easiest to go with the plants natural way of increasing . The trailing thornless tip root . They are basically dewberries . As they trace back to dewberry . I find just letting them tip root is enough plants for me . They actually burrow the tip into the ground . The Eastern thorny types increase from the root . I find these mist systems to look like a lot of trouble . I have a cloner but I would not recommend one . They are not magic . Easy stuff roots faster and difficult stuff still fails . You could probably do ok in a cloner but I would only use tips and tip down in the cloner as this is how they root on the plant . You looking for 50 or thousands ?
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Cloners are a good way and you get to watch the progress of the roots growing.
They are very cheap to make and can be used to clone lots of different things.
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I don’t even have room for the plants, they are rotated in and out of light. My grow room is full, I can’t add a cloner, let alone more plants. Absolutely no room for anymore stuff, the wife would tell me to get rid of it. Yeah I tip root blackberries, I get about a gallon of roots off a tip root in a pot. I threw 10 away they did naturally. Also you can air layer these too, and make a clone on every cane if you wished.
If I added anything it would be a misting system. As that will root any hard to root plant like blueberries for example. Again though, not in this lifetime.
I’m going to try some air layers on various plants this year.
since starting my blackberry journey last summer, i’ve successfully rooted stem cuttings in coco coir. i couldn’t tip root at the time, because none of my plants was big enough; i also couldn’t take root cuttings, because none of my plants was established enough. but i was eager to try propagation in some form early on.
i kept the cutting + coir in tall plastic cups with the lid on; this kept the inside environment humid. then, a few weeks later, i’d see roots poking out from the coir sac, after which i’d cut open the sac and transfer the stem cutting into soil.
i’ve had more than 50% of these cuttings take root. i made a few mistakes early on, such as overwatering. . . which was unnecessary, since coir retains water really well. the excess water led to death at least twice.
time after cutting to notice visible roots: 16 days was the briefest duration, when the weather was warm. 39 days during the cold months, and it doesn’t get that cold in zone 10.
here are some pics i previously posted at the other site:
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