What’s the ambient temp?
mid 30s during the winter, but this time of year is starting to warm up a bit during the day…
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I’ve got a small batch of haskaps – I planted 10 but 2 died. The rest are doing well. FWIW, I have Boreal Beast (2), Boreal Beauty (2), Boreal Blizzard (2), Tana (1) and Solo (1). The two that died are Boreal Beauty (1) and Maxie (1).
At this point, I don’t have huge aspirations. I’d just like to propagate replacements for the two dead bushes.
I appreciate all the work summarized above. I’m familiar with techniques for propagating cuttings and layers, which I’ve used extensively with figs. Could someone please briefly summarize what we’ve learned about propagating haskap? In particular, what are the most successful methods? I could easily do (1) dormant hardwood cuttings, (2) green cuttings, (3) ground layers, (4) air layers. If layers work well enough, I could set them tomorrow.
If I want just 2 new plants, what’s my best approach?
And, what if I get ambitious and want to produce a couple dozen new plants?
This doesn’t have to be complicated. Thanks!
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the easiest isnt the most successful but you will still get more plants than you need. i just stick cuttings in a nursey bed in the fall, after scratching the cambium then bury with mulch up to the last bud. been averaging 50-60% takes. let them establish for a season before digging and planting out. if you want better takes do what TheDerek is doing. romance sour cherries have similar amount of takes as well.
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I’m gonna try some green cuttings later on.
Today I set 5 air layers. Fingers crossed.
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Most of my softwood cuttings from last year survived the winter. Id say about 70% if I had to guess just by looking at them. Instead of potting them I think Im going to dig a trench and grow them in my garden through the summer and then transplant them this fall. The soil they are in now is about 3 inches wide by 5 inches deep, so the containers are pretty small. What do you think would be good spacing in the garden to get them get established without wasting a ton of space. As you can see, Ive got a few to plant… I was thinking maybe 6 inches between plants.
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6 inches seems fine…for one season
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At home, part of the land and the house were flooded.
Aurora’s rooted cuttings were also underwater. it doesn’t look like it’s doing them any harm. They got an impulse and started to give me new shoots. I don’t see anything dying yet.
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Sucks your house was flooded! Too much rain or did a dam break? hopefully you didnt lose too much…
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getting good growth in my 2nd year rooted cuttings… in the garden this year and will be moved to the orchard this fall…
these are first year hardwood cuttings, the ones i calloused over bottom heat before sticking in the garden had a much higher success rate than those i didn’t…
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I pruned a couple of branches off of one of mine in April and just stuck them in with a potted fig and forgot about them. Here we are July 10 and they’re growing more than the fig is.
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After 1:30am, I woke up and watched the radar to track a storm that had formed nearby. It wasn’t even raining much, so I fell asleep.
Well, my wife woke me up, so I managed to park the car and throw some things upstairs. I already have experience from the previous flood, so I didn’t waste time stopping the water.
It didn’t affect the planting of Haskaps, because I put it higher, but the rooted cuttings and young seedlings in the containers were under water, but I didn’t wash them away, because they were protected all around in the cover.
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That sucks, i was flooded one time and it was horrible, now I make a point to not live in low areas…
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The Haskap harvest is coming to an end and the harvest has been the largest I have ever had.
On the other hand, I have chaos at home now, because everything flooded has to dry out. And to top it all off, the wife slipped on the mud and broke her leg. Well, what if something is pouring, then properly. Well, that’s life too.
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sorry to hear that… hope it heals quickly.
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Someone liked this post so I’ll update. All 5 air layers rooted. Unfortunately only 2 have survived, including the one pictured. The reason is simple and stupid – as I removed the air layers, some of the branches moved relative to the soil, which sheared the young roots.
One lesson is to not set the container too close to the ground, where it can be difficult to insert pruning shears to make a separating cut. That was my biggest problem. A second lesson may be to use a larger container so there is no immediate need to transplant the air layer after removal. A third lesson may be to wait longer before removing the air layer so roots can grow more and toughen up. A final lesson might be to start with a smaller branch – the size and weight of the branches that I air layered increased the odds of a mishap. This is obviously a risk-reward tradeoff as the benefit of setting a large air layer is that if it succeeds, I have a large bush.
The good news is (1) I created the two replacement plants that I needed; and (2) I proved to myself that air layers are possible with honey berries. Next year I will try 5-10 more and populate a new bed.
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I go to look at this year’s rooted cuttings and I was surprised by the fruits. Specifically Vostorg and Aurora. And on top of that, pallets with rooted cuttings were under water during the flood. Interesting.
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ive seen that before also, I think it has to do with how old the new buds are when you take the cuttings maybe? How is the flood recovery going?
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