Secrets of successful propagation of conifers by cuttings. Reproduction of conifers by cuttings Growing coniferous plants

Junipers, whose branches grow along the ground, are very easy to propagate by bending and pinning such a branch to the ground. It is better to do this in spring or early summer. Loosen the soil in the place where you will root the juniper. Dig a small ditch and place a branch there. Pin it to the ground with wire or anything else suitable. Sprinkle soil on top. In dry summers, be sure to water both the juniper itself and the rooted branch.

It is possible to cut off such a branch and replant it in a new place only after two years. If you can't stand it and do it earlier, you may lose the plant. A signal that the roots of the industry will be the appearance of young needles at the tip, that is, growth has appeared.

If you want to root thuja, yew, Canadian spruce, cypress, it is more convenient to do this by cuttings. The best time to start rooting is April, but in summer and even early autumn it is quite possible.

In the first year, the cutting barely has time to grow a root system; it would be more accurate to say that it is just beginning. Therefore, the cuttings will most likely have to be buried in the garden in the fall, with insulation on top. Or place it in your home or basement in a cool, bright place. If you took a cutting in the fall, you can try to root it at home, and in the spring you will take the cutting into the garden, placing it in a cool, shady place, for example, under the crown of fruit trees.

GENERAL RULES FOR ROOTING CONFERES.

It is better to take cuttings from young plants, then the probability of success is much higher.
Carry out cuttings in cloudy weather or in the evening.
Important! Take freshly harvested cuttings.
The length of the cutting is desirable no more than 10-12 cm.
For cuttings, young green one-year shoots with a lignified biennial part, the so-called “heel,” are selected.
The cutting is not cut off, but is torn from the branch with a sharp movement of the hand.
Remove the needles from the bottom of the cutting.
Sprinkle the substrate with water; it should be moist when planting the cuttings, and then there is no need to water them.
Powder the cutting with a root formation stimulator and bury it in the ground at an angle of 45-60* by a third of the length of the cutting. Lightly compact the soil.
Be sure to cover the cuttings with transparent polyethylene. The air humidity in it should be high - from 90 to 100%. If the soil dries out, moisten it by spraying.
From time to time, to prevent fungal diseases and rotting, ventilate the cuttings.
The temperature for successful rooting is 15-18 degrees in the first month, then 18-22*C.
If in the summer months the temperature outside is too high (more than 22-25 * C), move the cuttings to the coolest place.

In general, rooting of coniferous cuttings is never 100% guaranteed; be prepared for the fact that some of them will not take root. This depends on many reasons and is approximately 60-70%.

A LITTLE ABOUT THE SUBSTRATE FOR ROOTING.

The substrate is laid out in three layers: drainage, nutrient soil, sand or perlite.

Now about this in more detail.

Be sure to add a 2-3 cm layer of drainage to the bottom of the cuttings. It will not allow water to stagnate, and, therefore, will prevent the appearance of mold and rotting of the cuttings.
The next layer is nutritious soil, but it must be well-drained, water- and air-permeable.

It is very good if you take the land from a spruce or pine forest. To do this, rake the top layer a little and dig to a depth of 5-10 cm.

From ready-made mixtures, you can take a universal substrate, add a little perlite to it, after washing it in a sieve to remove dust, which will only clog the soil. Sprinkle this mixture onto the drainage in a layer of 3-5 cm.

Sprinkle washed perlite or coarse sand onto this soil mixture in a layer of 5 to 7 cm. First, spill it with boiling water or a solution of potassium permanganate.

It is into this top layer that the cutting is buried. A layer of sand or perlite dries well and the cuttings will not rot in it.

And when the roots grow, they will reach the lower layer, from which they will receive nutrition. And, since the cutting will grow for at least another six months, the nutritional value of this layer is naturally very important.

Important! If you started rooting in the spring, then do not touch the plant this year.

The appearance of growth next year will indicate that the root system has begun to emerge. But she is still very weak. Therefore, do not rush to plant the plant. You can gradually harden it by opening the greenhouse. Increase the time every day. Be careful with watering at this time. Do not allow the soil to dry out, but also do not overwater, so as not to ruin the rooted plant. Around May, you can transplant young conifers from a common container into a separate container.

Important! Be careful not to destroy the substrate around its roots. This is important at any stage of transplantation!

TRANSPLANT TO A PERMANENT PLACE.

They take cuttings well in early summer. Shoots that are green at the top and woody at the bottom are suitable for cuttings.

Coniferous plants from cuttings sometimes turn out great, but sometimes they grow crooked and weak. The trick is to take the cuttings correctly. Try to choose young plants with an even, symmetrical crown that retains its density right down to the ground as queen cells. If there are no other options, you can use old specimens, but in any case, take cuttings from the upper part of the crown - this way you will have a better chance of getting planting material with characteristics typical for the variety.

Plants obtained from cuttings from old lateral branches often behave like lateral branches all their lives: they bend, unevenly overgrow with young branches and do not have a spectacular appearance.

Usually the first roots on coniferous cuttings appear towards the end of the season, and on some only after winter freezing. In the fall, the container will need to be buried, for example, in a greenhouse, and do not forget to shade the plantings in the spring if they are exposed to the sun. In late spring, transplant the rooted cuttings for growing. To determine whether roots have appeared, just carefully remove the cutting from the sand - there is nothing wrong with that.

Step 1

With a sharp movement to the side and downwards, tear the cutting away from the branch so that a “heel” is formed in its lower part: a piece of wood with bark.

Step 2

Having previously cleared the lower third of the cutting from the needles, dust it with a root formation stimulator.

Step 3

Fill the container with wet sand (pre-spill it with a dark pink solution of potassium permanganate) and make holes in the sand. Use a peg for this, immersing it in the substrate at an angle of 45 degrees.

Five years ago I retired and began living in the country in the summer. I started propagating shrubs (spirea and hydrangea), as well as clematis from cuttings taken from the plants of gardening friends. The entire range of these plants in my garden was grown by cuttings. A separate conversation about rooting coniferous cuttings. Today I have more than a hundred rooted conifers: western and eastern thujas; common junipers, Cossack, Chinese, horizontal, medium, rocky and scaly; Lawson cypress, pea-bearing, obtuse; yews; Tueviks.

Junipers and thujas take root quite easily; cypress and yew trees, spruce and pine trees are worse. When to take cuttings.

Cuttings can be taken from spring to late autumn. But the best time is April-May, when the energy of growth intensifies. Winter cuttings are in a preserved state and begin to take root only in the spring.

Which cuttings to take?

You need to select small branches from the middle part of the plant so that the stem is almost all yellow, and only its base is brownish (the beginning of lignification). The best cutting is with a heel, i.e. torn from the branch with the base, but it can also be cut. The heel should be shortened so that the end of the handle takes on a rounded shape. From the bottom of the cutting it is necessary to remove twigs and needles to a planting depth of approximately 3-4 cm. Stimulating root formation.

I consider the best stimulator of root formation to be a 5% solution of regular sugar (about a teaspoon per 100 ml of water).

To stimulate, you can use any preparations intended for this purpose: heteroauxin, succinic acid, kornevin, humate, NB 101, etc. It is necessary to carefully read the instructions and observe the concentration and holding time in the stimulator. Violations of these parameters often have a negative impact on the results.

The sugar solution does not have these disadvantages.

With a 5% sugar solution everything is very simple. Place the prepared cuttings in a sugar solution as quickly as possible. They can be kept there until planting. Let's say, if you brought cuttings in the afternoon or evening, then it is better to plant in the morning. If it doesn’t work out in the morning, it doesn’t matter, they will last until you have time to plant them. There is no need to rinse off sugar. Where and how to plant.

It is best to plant directly into the ground; in all sorts of bowls and cups it is very difficult to maintain optimal soil moisture. It should not be too wet or dry. You can plant it in a greenhouse or outside, but the place should be light and shaded, without direct sunlight.

The soil must be moisture- and breathable. It's good to add peat and sand. Do not add ash or other deoxidizing agents; conifers grow in acidic soil.

Plant the cuttings, press the soil tightly around the stem and water normally so that the soil sits tightly around the cuttings. But keep in mind that this is the only normal watering for the next month, or even 2.

Caring for cuttings.

Those who live in the country in the summer and are ready to jump around the cuttings may not cover them with jars, etc.

It is necessary to spray the cuttings several times a day with a sprayer or simply with your hand from a bucket. Moisten the soil very sparingly, but do not let it dry out.

Those who visit the dacha on weekends can choose a more shaded place for planting and cover the cuttings with cut-off parts of plastic bottles, preferably with a cork, so that you can open the caps for ventilation, and then open them completely. Finally remove the jars when growth begins to appear on the cuttings. But this does not mean that they already have roots; often the cuttings begin to grow when they have just formed callus.

Spray constantly in the first couple of weeks, then you can spray less often, but it all depends on the weather. In such heat as last summer, I even had to spray them with a watering can, otherwise the ground would dry out and they would dry out.

I prefer to plant without cans and bottles, but in this case there is more work to care for. Rooted plants are hardened and more viable. There are greenhouse conditions under the banks; in our climate this is fraught. I do not recommend replanting them immediately after rooting; the newly formed roots are very fragile and very brittle. Fertilizing can be carefully started immediately after planting the cuttings in the form of spraying with complex fertilizer. For foliar feeding I use Kemira Lux, the concentration is a slightly pink solution by eye.

I feed already growing plants with Kemira for evergreens in the spring.

The number of rooted cuttings depends on many factors. The main ones are planting timing, proper care and experience. I have rooted up to 90% since spring planting. You have to try, it doesn’t always work out right away, this is fun for the persistent and patient. For beginners, 20-30% is a normal result.

Before winter, plant cuttings as usual. Before the onset of cold weather, the care is the same, only you have to spray less often - there is already enough dampness. For the winter, I mulch the soil in cuttings with peat or humus. I don’t do anything else, they are small and winter under the snow quite normally. During the first winter, the main thing is to preserve the roots - they will get wet if planted in a low place. Be sure to mulch the ground. All transplants from autumn should be postponed until spring; young seedlings will not have time to cling to the ground, it will shrink over the winter and they will fall out.

I try to plant rooted cuttings with already matured ones. It seems to me that they feel better in the company of their brothers. When such a communal apartment becomes clearly crowded, someone has to be evicted. Therefore, transplants are inevitable. Author: Natalia Sokolova, Vsevolozhsk

It is impossible to imagine a modern estate without coniferous plants. If earlier it was not possible to see a lonely “New Year tree” at every dacha, today, thanks to the widest range offered by garden centers, conifers have become an indispensable component of the garden mixborder and an invariable decoration of any site. True, many are faced with the fact that the price of planting material for conifers, compared to deciduous shrubs and trees, is slightly higher and is not always affordable for ordinary summer residents. Having mastered the simple techniques of propagating coniferous plants, everyone can add new varieties to their collection and decorate their plot with them.

In this way, you can get a large number of plants to create coniferous tracts or strengthen slopes.

In addition to seed (generative) propagation, which, as is known, is not used for varietal plants because it does not fully retain the parental properties, conifers are propagated using cuttings and grafting (propagation by grafting is practiced if cuttings are difficult and to obtain standard forms). The simplest method that gives quick results is cuttings with semi-lignified and lignified cuttings.

What types of conifers can be propagated by cuttings?

It is useful to know that different species and even varieties of the same species can take cuttings with greater or less success. The easiest to take cuttings from are representatives of the Cypress family (Cupressaceae) - thuja, microbiota, cypress, thuevik and yew (Tachaseae). Representatives of pine trees (Pináceae) are very difficult to take cuttings: spruce, hemlock, pseudo-hemlock. It is almost impossible to propagate fir and larch trees by cuttings; seed propagation and grafting are used for them.

How to choose a queen cell?

For a good result, it is also necessary to take into account a number of factors, since violation of only one of them can negate all previous work.

First you need to choose the right mother plant - an adult plant from which you are going to take cuttings. Shoots taken from young, actively growing specimens 4-8 years old take root best. In plants older than 10 years, the ability to root is reduced.

It is useful to know that the location on the crown of the mother plant of the shoots intended for cutting into cuttings matters. In creeping and bush conifers, the place where the cutting is taken does not matter; you can choose the most developed part, well illuminated by the sun (especially in variegated varieties). In pyramidal plants, shoots of the first or third order are taken for cuttings in the center of the crown. Seedlings from such cuttings will be guaranteed to retain the crown shape of the parent variety. On the other hand, knowing this property, you can get spreading or almost creeping specimens of spruce or yew by using lateral branches growing horizontally for cuttings.

Cutting time

It is also important to choose the right time for cutting cuttings. The beginning of spring is considered the most successful. After winter cooling and relative rest at the very beginning of sap flow, it is better in cloudy weather and early in the morning, when it is not yet hot and there are no drying winds. Cuttings prepared in early spring will take root this year. During summer cuttings, at the beginning of lignification and hardening of the young, only callus is formed in the first year, and roots are formed in the next year. You can also carry out cuttings after the end of active growth and the beginning of lignification of shoots in August or with lignified shoots in September-November, then their rooting will occur only the next year.

Cutting technology

Not all cuttings are suitable for rooting. Since the formation of callus and roots of conifers lasts from several months to a year or more, cuttings that are too thin and weak will become exhausted and die long before rooting. Depending on the type of plant, annual side shoots about 5-15 cm in length are taken for cuttings. In vigorous forms of thuja and cypress trees, cuttings can be 20-30 cm, and in junipers a little more. Shoots with a “heel” (part of the wood of the previous year) take root well, which are not cut off from the mother branch, but are torn off with a sharp downward movement, capturing part of last year’s wood (the “tail” of the bark that is too long can then be cut off with a knife).

More often, cuttings are cut with a knife or sharp pruning shears, making a cut 0.5-1 cm below the beginning of the lignification site, which is visible by the transition from green to brown. All needles and small side branches are removed from the lower part of the cutting (2.5-4 cm from the base or approximately 2/3). The wounds formed on the shoot when they are torn off also stimulate root formation. Try not to damage the apical growth point of the cuttings, otherwise in the future the seedling will bush a lot, especially in golden forms.

In prostrate and creeping junipers, 2-3 year old shoots can be used for propagation, digging them in sand or loose, breathable soil to 2/3 of their length. They take root quite quickly (1.5-2 months) and by the end of the season you can get a small bush.

Pre-landing preparation

Cut coniferous cuttings should be planted in the ground as quickly as possible. They are usually not placed in water to avoid clogging of the vessels with the released resin. If you need to store the cuttings for some time, it is better to sprinkle them with water, wrap them in a damp cloth and place them in a bag in a cool place.

The prepared cuttings can be dipped into a solution of a root formation stimulator for several hours; it is even better to powder the cut with the stimulator powder before planting in the ground. Various preparations containing salts of beta-indolyl acetic acid (IAA), heteroauxin, Kornevin (salts of beta-indolyl butyric acid), salts of succinic acid (SA), Ukorenit, Ribav + micrassa, etc. are used as root formation stimulators. There is evidence that long-term aging of conifers in aqueous solutions provokes peeling of the bark, so the use of dusting powders is recommended.

There is also one interesting technique: at the end of the cutting, longitudinal cuts are made with the sharp end of a knife or the base is split to a depth of 1 cm to expose a large surface of the cambium, the cells of which form roots more easily.

Where and how does rooting occur?

Rooting of cuttings can take from several months to a year, so it is important to select and carefully prepare a place for planting harvested cuttings. Better results can be achieved by planting the cuttings in boxes with loose, air-intensive soil, for example, in a mixture of sand, coniferous soil and high-moor deoxidized peat in a 1:1:1 ratio, which are placed in a greenhouse. The best conditions are considered to be an air and substrate temperature of 21-24°C and a relative air humidity of 95-100%. The soil temperature for medium- and difficult-to-root species (thuja, cypress, yew, spruce, hemlock, pseudo-hemlock) should be 3-5 °C higher than the air temperature. Low temperature and high humidity can lead to rotting of cuttings. In warm rack greenhouses with electric heating and fog-forming installations, the rooting rate and quality of planting material is 15-25% higher than in cold greenhouses.

The greenhouse or greenhouse is kept perfectly clean, preventing the formation of moss, ventilated, and removed plant debris and dead cuttings. Plantings are periodically treated with a fungicide solution to prevent rotting.

If there are few cuttings, at home you can use a mini-greenhouse or cover the containers with glass jars, film or plastic bottles cut in half. Also, cuttings are planted in prepared beds in a protected, semi-shaded place.

For successful rooting, cuttings need diffused light, intense enough for photosynthesis and the formation in the needles of a special phytohormone necessary for root formation.

Planting cuttings of conifers

First you need to make a hole with a wooden peg, and then insert the cutting vertically or at an angle of 45-50° depending on the type of mother plant, morphologically with the upper side of the shoot up, tightly squeezing the soil around the cutting. Planting depth depends on the size of the cutting and the species. More often they are planted to a depth of 1-1.5 cm to 2.5-5 cm. The distance between cuttings in rows is 4-7 cm, between rows 5-10 cm. After planting, the bed is carefully watered through a fine sieve, trying to wet all layers of soil , covered with a frame and shaded.

Caring for cuttings

Planted cuttings require constant care before rooting. Plantings are watered regularly, but avoiding overwatering and stagnation of moisture. The soil should be moderately moist and airy. The greenhouse or greenhouse needs to be ventilated, and in warm weather the plantings are sprayed with water, avoiding overheating above 30°C. Periodically, the bed is watered with solutions of fungicide and epin.

Some time after planting, callus begins to appear in the lower part of the cutting (from the Latin callus - callus) - a tissue neoplasm on wound surfaces (cracks, cuts, at the base of cuttings, etc.), promoting wound healing, consisting of parenchyma cells, having the shape influx (sometimes in the form of a thin layer or “curd”). Then the roots appear. However, even with strong callus, cuttings may fail to develop roots and eventually die. Rooting begins after 3-4 months, but the timing varies for different breeds. After the cuttings have rooted and growths have formed, the greenhouses begin to be gradually opened slightly to harden off the young plants. In summer, root formation may slow down, but continue again in September.

In junipers, roots form before shoots, in pine trees both shoots and roots form at the same time, and in spruce and larch, first shoots and then only roots. Callus in spruce and pine trees appears in the first year, and roots only in the second.

Landing at a permanent place

It is clear that rooting conditions differ from the requirements of adult plants. Therefore, cuttings are rooted and young plants are grown in a special protected place, then, if desired, they can be placed in containers and only the next year planted in a permanent place according to the requirements and habit of the species and variety. Also, young plants can be left to grow for another 2-3 years, since it is after transplanting that the greatest number of attacks often occur.

We hope our tips will be useful to all beginning gardeners and will help make your homestead even more beautiful and comfortable.

Victoria Roy
landscape designer
especially for the Internet portal
garden center "Your Garden"

There are three methods of plant propagation available to the average gardener. Reproduction of coniferous trees can be by seed, cuttings and grafting. Sowing is practiced for growing species forms. Sowing seeds collected from varieties can give both the desired and completely unexpected results. For example, among the seedlings obtained from the blue form of prickly spruce, there will be both green and blue of all shades. When grown from seeds, they also obtain material that is more resistant to local conditions, since all seedlings with low viability fall out.

For better seed germination, you should resort to the stratification method. Stratification of conifers, like stratification in conifers, is a long-term holding of plant seeds at a certain temperature.

When propagating conifers by seeds, cones should be collected from the beginning of autumn. Closed cones can be kept in a warm, dry place, for example, on a radiator, until fully opened, and then pour out the seeds. If possible, it is better to sow the seeds immediately, imitating the natural situation.

Propagation of conifers by seeds

Spruce. Seeds of many species do not have dormancy (common, spiny, Sitka), but cold (+1°C - +4°C) stratification for 1 to 3 months in any case improves germination.

Cypress. 3 months of stratification improves germination, although you can do without it. For Nootkan cypress, 2 months of warm (about +20°C) and 1 month of cold stratification are recommended.

Larch, pseudotsuga. 0.5-2 months of stratification improves germination. Daurian and European larches germinate well without it.

Juniper. The seeds are washed for about 1 week. For unripe seeds, stratification for 4 months or sowing before winter is sufficient. Seeds from overripe cones require a preliminary warm period of three months.

Fir. Stratification of coniferous seeds for one month improves germination in all species, although germination is possible without it. When propagating coniferous plants, it is better not to plant seeds in the soil, since light promotes germination.

Pine. Many species do not need stratification if the seeds are fresh. In addition to pine pines, Weymouth pines, Scotch pines, Roumeli pines, Banks pines. After dry storage, it is needed for 1-3 months. When reproducing conifers, the duration of stratification depends not only on the species, but also on reproduction and seed storage conditions.

For Siberian and Korean pine, a good result is obtained by keeping it for 1.5 months at 2°C, 1.5 months at 25°C and again 2 months at 2°C, after which, with an increase in temperature, spontaneous germination occurs.

Yew. When propagating coniferous plants of the yew family, it is better to sow seeds before winter. According to some sources, stratification is two-stage: 3-7 months warm, 2-4 months cold.

Hemlock. 3 months of cold stratification.

Tuevik. The seeds of this type of coniferous tree are difficult to germinate even after preliminary certification.

Thuja. The instructions are very varied. There is evidence that stratification is not necessary, but it is better to keep it at a low temperature for 1-2 months. According to other sources, a long-term cold stratification of 3-7 months or even a preliminary warm period of 3-7 months is needed.

As a sowing substrate, acidic compost from turf soil with rotted remains of coniferous forest litter is optimal. Coniferous seedlings, except for , grow slowly in the first years, so transplanting and picking can be postponed for two years.

Propagation of conifers by cuttings

Cuttings are the easiest and most common method for many varieties. But to take cuttings of coniferous plants, you need to have a greenhouse with soil made of coarse sand and peat and the possibility of constant supervision for watering, shade and ventilation. Typically, semi-lignified cuttings collected in mid-summer take root best.

In principle, cuttings of coniferous plants are also possible using lignified shoots. This should be done starting in May and throughout the season until late autumn, but then the autumn cuttings will have to be rooted indoors. The cuttings can be cut with pruning shears or the shoot with the “heel” can be torn off with a piece of wood. What will give the best result is not always clear; perhaps it depends on the type of plant.

The main thing when propagating conifers by cuttings is not to forget about the safety of the queen cell and not to take all the growth from it. Although it rarely goes to extremes, as with the Engelmann spruce variety ‘Snake’: when the cutting is cut, the entire branch often dies off. The size of the cutting is determined by common sense: with dwarf varieties it can be 2-3 cm long, with large and fast-growing specimens it can be up to 20 cm.

Before planting, to be safe, it is better to treat the bases of the branches with a growth substance like Kornevin. Most coniferous trees take root in the fall and are suitable for planting next year. In the first season, yew forms only a shapeless thickening - callus, and its roots grow the next year. Pine trees practically do not take cuttings.

Grafting of coniferous trees

To propagate coniferous plants, you can resort to grafting. However, this method requires some professionalism. This propagation method is especially common in commercial nurseries. Grafting of coniferous plants is used mainly for those varieties that do not take cuttings well or grow worse on their own roots, and also for obtaining special forms. Grafting coniferous trees of creeping or prostrate varieties onto a trunk will help to obtain a weeping or umbrella-shaped shape; miniature ball varieties on a trunk are better visible and will not get lost.

By grafting several mini-varieties onto one tree, you can create something like a bonsai. Another reason is that a grafted cutting grows faster than a rooted cutting.

But this method also has disadvantages that both beginners and experienced experimenters will encounter. If the selection of a rootstock is unsuccessful, with age the scion may outgrow it and fall off, as happens when grafting Siberian pine onto Scots pine. Physiological incompatibility may occur, even several years after the operation, and the graft will wither.

There are many subtleties in this matter related to the species and variety of the material; mastering it requires familiarity with special literature.