Favourite tree branch (Ylang Ylang) broken off, trying to save it

Hi, I am new to this forum, thank you for being here, I joined because I found a thread about planting willow trees from branches and you folks seemed very knowledgeable.
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We live in Nicaragua, and up to tonight had the most beautiful fragrant smelling Ylang Yang tree in our yard, branches hanging low to the ground almost like a willow, and bunches of deep yellow blossoms flowering and giving off the most tropical scent. No wonder they use this flower to make so many classy scents.
This one branch hung down and had most of the blossoms of it. I made a bad mistake in hanging some tomato plants to grow upside down from a wire, which I attached to the ylang ylang branch. Tonight there was a crash, and we went outside to see the big branch had snapped off the tree. This larger branch was about 1.5 inch diameter and 6ft , with 5 smaller branches the same size as the one I am holding in the photo I have attached. We really would love to be able to save these branches and grow new trees from them, please can you advise me on the best way to go about it? Should I keep them in water until they grow roots, or put them in soil straight away?

Thanks for any help,
Joe.

Hi Joe, welcome to permies.com; sorry to hear of your tree-woes.

I don't know anything whatsoever about this tree, never heard of it before, but letting your branch dry out would be problematic, best to get it into something asap. Water if nothing else.

I did find a post on gardenweb talking about propagation of this tree, which suggests it requires great care to keep moist/humid, and greatly benefits from bottom heat in well-draining but moist medium. http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/1934214/ylang-ylang-trees-propogate-cuttings-or-buy#

You could consider stripping off the leaves to help keep transpiration down. You should have enough pieces to try quite a few different variations, as you shouldn't need a very long piece for each attempt. So, some variety in potting medium could be good to see what works best. For example, I only succeeded with elderberries when I used peat-moss on top of vermiculite.

Good luck!

Very helpful reply, thank you Dillon. It's very humid here in rainy season so that shouldn't be a problem. Not sure about 'bottom heating', we have hot sun here during the day so I am hoping warm ground will be ok. It seems quite a robust tree, so finger's crossed. I wasn't able to get hold of any rooting hormone though, so the odds maybe against us. Let's see. Everything else grows very well here. I nipped the leaves off as you said, is this standard practice when planting a tree cutting? We did the same with a crouton and grew back quickly. Is it possible to plant any variety of tree branch and basically grow a new tree from it? We have guava and mango trees so it would be nice to try. I'll keep you posted, thanks again, Joe.

No problem, hope it works out.

As far as removing the leaves goes, this is commonly but not always done. The majority of the time the existing leaves die anyhow, and the cutting will lose more moisture from them until they do.

For bottom heat, an electric heating pad or heat-tape underneath containers is the norm around here, but if you can't find rooting hormone locally then this is probably just as problematic...

Many trees can be propagated this way, but not all, and the difficulty/success rate varies substantially. I've heard that guava is possible but tricky from cuttings, no idea about mango... though I'd certainly love to be able to grow those!

Joe, if you have willows in your area, you have access to rooting hormone. See this post cloning woody trees for how to make your own rooting solution. I would do as Dillon suggested with the removal of most of the leaves.

For the branches you have, make some cuts at the base of each branch (equally spacing three or four will make for symmetrical roots) then wrap with moist spaghnum peat moss then wrap that with heavy plastic and fasten with twist ties at top and bottom, this holds the moisture where the branch needs it.


If you need more help with propagating these branches, let me know.

" Is it possible to plant any variety of tree branch and basically grow a new tree from it? We have guava and mango trees so it would be nice to try."

No, only some trees will work. Mango requires starting from seed, then grafting onto the seedling when it's big enough. I've tried air-layering and cuttings. It just doesn't work. Guavas will root from cuttings sometimes; however, they usually don't make very good root systems.

This is a very good book on propagation: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0706370791/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0706370791&linkCode=as2&tag=florisurvigar-20&linkId=ZYG3D6FUKTW7RFGT

Used copies are cheap and the information inside will literally allow you to grow thousands of dollars worth of trees.

Bryant RedHawk wrote:Joe, if you have willows in your area, you have access to rooting hormone. See this post cloning woody trees for how to make your own rooting solution. I would do as Dillon suggested with the removal of most of the leaves.

For the branches you have, make some cuts at the base of each branch (equally spacing three or four will make for symmetrical roots) then wrap with moist spaghnum peat moss then wrap that with heavy plastic and fasten with twist ties at top and bottom, this holds the moisture where the branch needs it.


If you need more help with propagating these branches, let me know.

Thanks again Bryant,
No willows here as far as I know but I will ask. I removed most of the leaves.
no sphagnum moss either sadly but as it's rainy season here is very humid anyway.
Best, Joe.

David Goodman wrote:" Is it possible to plant any variety of tree branch and basically grow a new tree from it? We have guava and mango trees so it would be nice to try."

No, only some trees will work. Mango requires starting from seed, then grafting onto the seedling when it's big enough. I've tried air-layering and cuttings. It just doesn't work. Guavas will root from cuttings sometimes; however, they usually don't make very good root systems.

This is a very good book on propagation: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0706370791/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0706370791&linkCode=as2&tag=florisurvigar-20&linkId=ZYG3D6FUKTW7RFGT

Used copies are cheap and the information inside will literally allow you to grow thousands of dollars worth of trees.

Hi David, thanks for the dose of realism , it looks like a useful book to have and I will try to get hold of a copy and have it sent out here. Our post is very reliable here in Nica.
Cheers again,
JOe.