Cut a branch and stick it in the ground

We were given a barn for dismantling recently..... and while there I discovered that  that some lovely climbing garden plants had been pulled down during their house renovations.

So while hubby took down the barn I rummaged through rubble for bits of living root or rootable side shoots.  I think much of what I took will take. (Clematis and something else...) 

I took my teeshirt off from under my sweater and soaked it to wrap round my pickings til I got them home.  They are now in soil in a nursery area.....

If they take I can give some back to the owner as well.....

I could swear that I managed to get limbs off a crab apple to root. This was 6 or 7 years ago at another house, but I'm pretty sure that some spring pruned branches rooted after I stuck them in the ground.

Not my idea but get two clear totes the same size with lids
one on top of the other
put aquarium heater and aerator in bottom one full of water cut holes for these through lid of bottom one and through bottom of top one .
then holes for cuttings to go through put something to hold them in holes suspended in to water that is heated and aerated top being in top tote that has a lid to keep humid and grow light.
suppose to even root the hardest to root.

Anonymous wrote:I would highly rec... The Reference Manual of Woody Plant Propagation: From Seed to Tissue Culture : A Practical Working Guide to the Propagation of over 1100 Species, Va... or a book like it.

I use this book. I can't praise it highly enough. Available at Powell's, here. Pricey, but worth every penny.

Has anyone used a SIP, ( sub irrigated planter) to root cuttings?

I was pleased to learn alder seems to root well from cuttings, at least the leaves have emerged, i hope they've rooted. also poplar. I'm not sure about poplar but my tree book has alder as a nitrogen fixer.

Surely someone else mentioned grapes also? 2-3 bud cuttings of last years growth, just make sure the butt end goes down!

Our apartment has some sweet scented shrub called "sweet box(?)" which i took cuttings of this winter and they seem to still be alive. also a hawthorne twig that the landscaper dropped.

it could have been bad timing but I tried cutting and rooting acacia dealbata (silver wattle) and failed. I took small branches ~1/2inch diameter with all the leaves and twigs and stuck the cut ends in pots but they just shriveled up and died. however, the seeds germinate well after a hot water bath and a little patience.

oh i should add, i have a lot of willow going too. some of the branches i gathered had been broken off for longer than others and they aren't really making it, but the fresh ones are doing great. its been a wet winter/spring so far so that helps too, haven't watered the willow, alder or poplar at all, they are in the field
great thread thanks!

another tidbit, i bought some peach rootstock at the Humboldt Permaculture Guild's annual scion exchange and it was super tall and thin, so i lopped off the tops of the rootstock and tried to root them (with a little dip in gel) its been about two months, i try to mist them every day (manually) and they're in the greenhouse and its still hard to tell but i think they're surviving, they have tiny buds that still look green...

Here are some really cool ideas for making living fences out of willow sticks. There are other trees that lend themsleves to this type of culture as well, but willows are legendary.  http://www.goodshomedesign.com/23-amazing-examples-of-living-willow-fences/

When I search permies for livestaking, only a single post comes up. Livestaking is also called the truncheon method. (french word meaning 'trunk')

It's a well known practice to use with willow (Sepp Holzer does it well), but extremely underused (under-tried?) on other plants.

Here is a how-to from the Permaculture Research Institute:
Live staking

I heard Bill Mollison talk about livestaking with mulberries on one of his PDCs.
Seems like a great way to help a system reach maturity and abundance in short time, especially if you've got a few trees already established on your site.
Also the kind of job you can do and then walk away for a year.

I have taken long cuttings of rosemary and wedged them into wet compacted clay with success.
I've made clones of cassava very quickly, using metre long cuttings in wet weather.
I hope to try the method with tamarillos, just because its cuttings take quite easily. Also with pomegranate, when my tree gets thicker and straggly.
Given it's hardiness and moisture-tolerance, guava could be a good candidate too.

It would be great if there was a species of nut tree that could be livestaked, providing protein for animals.
In lieu of that, mulberry and guava have reasonable protein levels.

Would love to see people try out livestaking with other plants.
There are probably many more people who would like growing plants if they knew they could do it with a chainsaw and a mallet, rather than fiddling about with soil tilth and seed-raising.

This winter I wanted to see if tree collards I planted last spring would overwinter in my zone. I decided to try rooting a few branches to keep indoors as an insurance policy. I stripped all leaves off the branches except at the ones at the tip, and stuck them in a bucket of finished compost for a couple of weeks until I had time to pot them (and just used basic seed-starting mix for them). I took 9 branches and all still appear to be alive. At least two are growing vigorously.

I've also gotten the tops I've cut off pineapples to produce roots, but haven't managed to sprout a new plant from one yet.

Kale and collards don't set seed in my climate, so that is great news to hear.
Can I ask how long the branches were?

jesse tack wrote:Rooting a cutting. Got it. Thanks.

Did it work for you. I'm interested in doing the same. Thanks.

I believe the person that started this thread said that they tried this with willow.

We have done this hybrid poplar and it worked well.

This technique may not work with just any tree, it may be just certain varieties.

If you are using a limb you prune off a tree it doesn't hurt to stick the limb in the ground, keep it watered and see what happens.