Unfortunately I found a way to ruin my nice start with currants – rooted 8/8 cuttings in 4 weeks, but accidentally left them in a spot that gets strong afternoon sun the first day of hardening them off and fried 5 of them! So it goes. Hopefully an underground bud pokes up a new shoot nonetheless.
Started on 03/15 I think I’ve rooted something like 8/8 currants, 4/6 Jostas, 5/7 pomegranates, 2/4 hardy kiwi…and 0/8 gooseberries. It seems currants and gooseberries both have the reputation of easy rooters but from my limited experience and reading this forum it sure seems like gooses are just getting lumped with the genuinely easy rooting currants.
They are best propagated by rooting tips of branches still attached to the bush. 100% success. I have to make sure to trim mine above ground and mulch if I don’t want new gooseberries. So best let them propagate themselves (if you have the mother plant).
Here they are in the company of black currant, garlic chives, Duet haskap and a rogue potato. I think some of them are actually thinner than a pencil.
As for the seed, I just keep them moist. They are supposed to be invasive in England on neglected bare land, so that’s all I’m providing. We’ll see later in the year. But considering how much effort it took to keep sea buckthorn seedlings alive last year, I am not very optimistic.
And a bunch of deep pink very fragrant remonant multiflora roses that are planted in the front yards of many houses around our village, including ours. Can’t find them in any catalogue.
I’ve taken cuttings of golden currant while dormant and four weeks ago while in full bloom (non-blooming branches). The latter are miles ahead of the former ones, having put on 8cm of new growth while the earlier ones are struggling. So I’ve taken some more two weeks ago…
Looks like 100% success with the male che scionwood (Hwang Kum #3) that I cut in half and stuck in soil in February, they recently started pushing strong growth:
I’ll be waiting a couple months to separate and confirm roots, but it’s promising. Interesting they have more of a purplish color than any of the female cultivars I’m starting.
Nice job. Have you had experience rooting che before? I failed multiple times and ended up just grafting to osage orange instead. Was like 8/8 on the grafts, though.
I’ve got this compulsion to stick clippings into my veg patches as I prune. And this year around the end of February/beginning of March I did this with some 15-20 sticks (mostly tips) of nigra mullberries. Lo and behold, they are budding!
They will spend the rest of the season among garlic and if they survive a couple will serve as rootstock for grafts from the neighbouring villages. And I guess I’ll ask the mayor if we should not plant a mullberry alley behind the village so that we have a tourist attraction…
Not before this spring, but I have read that they root easily and are only grafted to prevent the thorny root suckers they have on their own roots. I have dozens of cuttings of three female cultivars and one male that look like nearly 100% success based on the new growth, but I won’t be checking for roots for a few months probably.
I did also graft a few on osage orange. Looks like 2 out of 4 succeeded, the other two might still succeed too but haven’t grown yet in 2 months.
I had read the same thing so was surprised at my many failures lol. Mine did not last more than 2 months before failure, though. Looking forward to your results!
What cultivars of che did you try? I wonder if maybe some selections root more easily than others, similar to their cousins the mulberries.
EDIT: Decided to show the current stage of each of the cultivars I’m trying to root (not including the male HK3 above). They have all been out in the sun for the last few weeks and getting sprayed every day or two.
First, these are Chul Ri from Cliff England, which have been in soil now since mid-March:
Those have been in soil since early January, more than half that time on a heating pad with a humidity dome, and most of the rest of the time in the greenhouse, but for the last few weeks outside in direct sun. They have hardly grown compared to the others, despite being in soil for a lot longer, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they end up failing to root.
Today I removed one branch on one of my goumi seedlings because it was growing horizontally directly toward a nearby persimmon tree to the south, and decided to prepare essentially the entire branch for rooting. This is mostly as a test, but I’ll give away any successes in the local “little free plant library” later this summer.
I prepared them to try rooting similarly to how I prepare avocado cuttings, where I take a mostly-hardened recent flush, remove most of the leaves, and then soak in water for a few days to hydrate and callus before going in soil with a humidity dome.
I only tried rooting Norris. All cuttings from the same person who also said they root pretty easily . Maybe its just me lol. Yours looking like they are doing very well!
. Maybe its just me lol. Yours looking like they are doing very well!