I found that K1 roots easily. Last autumn, I stuck dormant trimmings in a can with damp moss. I put the can in a cellarway that stays just above freezing in the winter. I recently noticed they leafed out so I check for roots.
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I took the rootstock cuttings and cut them up and waxed the tops and dipped the bottoms in rooting hormone. Then planted them in sand in a pot on the north wall of the house. St Julian A is supposed to root easy too. I I’m trying to root the big stalks so they can be grafted onto next year. You want to make a 45 deg cut below the bud nodes to promote roots.
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I did mine in late early spring when it’s still cold. If you look at the video I posted on Propagating Carmine Jewel. You leave them right out in the weather shaded from the sun, but not the rain and snow. They grow roots slowly by the time the leaves come out in spring. I’m on second leaf formation now but still not sure if this is working yet. This still could be stored energy in the scion cutting I took. Oops, sorry I was thinking you said Jewel for some reason. My bad, yes take some cuttings now and put them in course sand out of the sun and put them on the north side of your house. Let the rain fall right on them when it rains. It’s okay to get the top of the sand dry but not too dry. you may have to water at those times. Don’t over water or roots will rot. I just did my St Julians the other day after grafting to the rootstocks. They looked just like yours.
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@lordkiwi This is the best way to do hardwood cuttings that I have tried. I have failed at all the other ways, but have not tried a heat mat yet. I think this way works with the hard to root ones also.
If your cutting the tops of to bench graft anyway what do you have to loose? I did mine anyway.
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I clipped 4 lateral branches from my rootstock and there sitting in water with rooting hormone. I will mix paving sand and seed starting soil tomorrow. Think they will be fine in the water over night ?
They will probably be fine. I soaked mine for about three hours. They have little white spots that swell up like figs where they breath from. Sometimes they root from those. You need to make your bottom cuts on a 45 deg angle just below the leaf node. That’s the best place to get the roots.
Those Hollywood plum cuttings from the start of this thread are bearing this year. I tnink that means 3 years from cutting to first fruit. Might be 4 years. Not bad, I think.
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Great news. Nice to hear from you, friend.
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Thank you Matt. If I can take a photo tomorrow, I can show what it looks like. The other plum sticks that I used for fence posts are growing too, but in a bad location so Im ignoring them.
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So I did plant the branch cuttings in peat and sand. Here are the results so far.
Thanks to my 2 year old playing musical sticks. I had to guess which is which.
I am preaty sure these three are the St. Julian A. All three still look basically alive.
You can clearly see the callus and root formation on these two.
I believe this is the OHx87 plum. The white chalk is the rooting hormone but the wood its self looks necrotized. I think that downward pointing but is a leaf but I am replanting it at the bud to hopefully get a root.
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I forgot to ask my question. Now that I have primordial root growth what sort of growth medium should I move them too? Should I keep them in the sand mix or go to a potting mix or top soil.
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I think you can just use a good potting soil or top soil. Either one should work OK. I’ve done both.
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Thank you for the Hollywood cuttings. I put some in sphagnum moss inside over a heat mat. Some with rooting hormone and some without. Those all leafed out, then withered. I also stabbed several in the ground in a vegetable garden raised bed. Those took longer to leaf out, have 1/2 - 1" of growth from the several buds I left above the ground, and don’t seem to be wilting in our 75 degree sunny weather. From just the growth, I’d say its not certain they’ve rooted. But the fact that they can tolerate some heat and full sun makes me think I may be in good shape. We’ll know this week.
I’ve also reserved a couple in the fridge that I can graft if the cuttings don’t take.
I’m looking forward to some Hollywood plums in a few years.
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Jafar, thank you for the update. I hope they grow. If not, I can try again this winter. Looking back at my notes, I think I started them midwinter and did pretty much the same thing you are doing. This warm weather is messing with some of my grafts, too. A few of them are stalling after growing a few small leaves.
This is still my favorite plum.
Is that an artichoke behind the beautiful leaved plum? Or perhaps a cardoon?
Or is it just a particularly vigorous thistle?
Scott
Maybe I need a new thread on how to deal with thistle in the vegetable garden. All efforts so far seem to be helping them spread.
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Pick the young green and cook it
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Let me amend that to “how to get rid of thistle in the vegetable garden”. 
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