Pulled my CJ cuttings and gave them a 1 hour nutrient soak and dipped them in mosquito dunk water (starting to see some fungus gnats inside the hoods) and restuck them. Some leaves yellowing and falling, I continue to spray occasionally with fertilizer water also @ 1.5 grams / gallon.
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Thederek, those first year suckers didn’t have any of their own roots? I have some romeo and juliet suckers that came up this summer that I would like to transplant this fall or next spring and was hoping they’d have some roots of their own already. I have no experince rooting plants, wonder if the suckers were left in the ground another year if they’d have some of their own roots?
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The suckers have roots just make sure you get a big chunk of roots when you dig them up.
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I didnt try to dig them, I just pulled them right out, they came up pretty easy… Im thinking its probably easier to pull them small than let them grow, if they will reroot themselves.
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I didn’t get enough root when I dug up my Juliet sucker, and it died on me. I was surprised. I had four inches of root and four inches of plant. It went into shock.
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I dug up 3 Juliet suckers this spring. I got a few inches of root with each. The largest one had come up last year and was at least 18 inches tall with some branching. I cut it way back to about 6 inches and thought it would be fine since it had the most root. That started growing well, but suddenly wilted and died during a week of high heat. The two smaller ones that had only come up this year sulked for a while but have since put on a few inches of growth and seem fine. A small sample, but I wonder if getting them when they’ve first emerged is better than letting them grow for a year.
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Some days I think Im better at killing plants than growing them! Luck for me there are no plant abuse laws…
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The CJ cuttings that I watered with 2g of megacrop had roots showing 2 weekends ago on some of the cuttings. I tossed the ones that were dying and repotted the living ones using 3g megacrop/gallon of water in the coir this time… I think I should probably start giving them light nutes sooner, maybe after 50% or so of them are showing good callus growth.
The seedlings I transplanted arent doing great, I should have kept them under a humidity tent or something as they lost most of their roots during the transplant. Now they have lost most of their leaves but some are starting to push buds slowly… Next time I need to remember to transplant only when dormant!
The suckers I pulled out and put into soil werent doing anything and some looked rotted, so I threw those and pulled new suckers, washed all dirt off well and stuck them in plain coir instead of organic soil. One batch has 0 nutes and the other I used 2g megacrop/gal to soak the coir and then squeezed it out by hand, so its got a light nutrient load.
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tried something new a month ago. instead of digging up cj suckers, when they had about 1.5 ft of growth above ground i pulled them out. they come up easily but have no roots with them. i cut most of the top off, leaving a few leaves and planted them in coir which had dilute nutes applied and squeezed out. checked today and over half had rooted.
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So here is a problem I had last year. All of my newly rooted cuttings died over winter. I planted them out in my garden in the fall, next spring they never woke up. Im guessing the young cuttings are just more sensitive to temperature extremes than more established plants.
I have an idea I think Im going to try this year, I really dont want to keep my cuttings inside all winter, growing under lights. So i put them outside to transition to dormancy. Once dormant I have a 8" hole auger and Im planning to dig some holes, 1-2ft deep, put the cuttings at the bottom of the holes in ziplock bags with damp coir and pack the holes with dead leaves. Cover the holes with a board or something to keep water from running in in the spring when melt happens. They will still freeze, but temperatures should be much more stable down a foot or two than near the surface, also they wouldnt be exposed to dessicating winds, etc.
Will this allow them to sleep soundly and help increase their survival?
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Sounds good, just don’t make it too cozy for rodents, they like cambium!
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I would get them in a large underground structure eg. root cellar, basement etc. . Small plants may have a six inch root system which you know will freeze. I’ve done this and like you lost all plants. In Kansas we need to get plants below the frost line or inside a structure. Getting them underground keeps them from freezing and warms the plants at least 20 degrees. They also need to breathe so a large structure is better than burying the entire plant but I have buried a small plant up to the top and had it live in the soil
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As Jesse mentioned, I’d worry about rodents, especially in that nice cozy bed of leaves. I know someone that used moth balls in a dresser in the cabin to keep mice out when they are away and I’ve also heard of putting mothballs into chipmunk holes to try to get them to move out, so maybe dropping a single moth ball in each hole might help if you went with this approach.
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man if half of them make it you’re going to have CJ seedlings en masse! you planning to set them all out? if i had more room, id offer to buy some from you.
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Not sure what Ill do with them actually, Ive got about 12 months to figure it out!
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@TheDerek
Cherries are highly sought after here. Would love to see you breed the next new cherry bush variety!
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same here. n.w cherries get $5/lb when they are available. can’t wait for my carmine jewel, montmorency and 2 juilets to start to produce!
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