Extended season starting trees indoors

[cmeg1]

Coreana Hornbeam Motherplants in the making.

I would like to make some coreana mothers too.I have successfully rooted coreana’s in a propogator,but they did not deal with the humidity shock.....I should have satisfactory results in aeroponic propogation with coreana’s.Especially since being treated as motherplant their entire life since germinating.Will be super stocky,excellent motherplants.That is where short internodes and loads of backbuds really make a difference in number of cut sites and rootability.Thanks to kelp and amino acids,extra calcium,and a constant 1:1 nitrogen to potassium ratio at less than .5 ec strength to build up the carbs and be full of energy.

 

[cmeg1]

Japanese maple propogation

Seen success first hand with aeroponic maple cuttings,so going to giva a try.
Bought a kiyohime,shishigashira ,and a ukon.
Was worried about the ukon cultivar as I was going from memory of a picture I seen once....then low and behold I find a 120 yr bonsai specimen on Jonas’ blog

 

[cmeg1]

Ok no shishigashira

Orange Dream instead...looks kind of cool.
Just 2year grafts ,so need to prepare....Pondering dim light..18 hrs..like for veg at 400 par...minumum veg...increased co2 though...should be interesting.Quite little i imagine so can pot up into hydro soil...good thing is tent has proper humidity and no harsh wind.

 

[cmeg1]

And a Katsura....we’ll see about this vendor...

Welcome to Japanese Maples and Evergreens - Japanese Maples and Evergreens

Japanese Maples and Evergreens specializes in Rare and Hard to find Japanese maple trees, conifers, evergreens, bamboo and wisteria and a few other specialty plants. There are several hundred varieties of Acer Palmatums (Japanese maples) and evergreens, with upright growers, lace leaf varieties...

japanesemaplesandevergreens.com

 

[cmeg1]

Orange Dream Japanese Maple

Totally in love with tthe colors of these

 

[cmeg1]

Katsura is awesome too

 

[PieterVE]

Hi @cmeg1 great thread, thanks for sharing all your insights !

I have a Platinum Hydroponics Supercloner 30 hopefully delivered in a week or so. And will try Zelkova en JM cuttings too. There is a lot of information here to get my head around and try to make good use of it all

Just wondering what kind of kelp you are using ? Is it powder or some liquid solution ?

My mother plants are in the garden, so will have to see how I can prepare them as best as possible.

Now the Fulvic acid + kelp, would that be helpful on "normal" bonsai as well, I wondered ?

Cheers, and please keep this up, really top notch info

 

[cmeg1]

Hi @cmeg1 great thread, thanks for sharing all your insights !

I have a Platinum Hydroponics Supercloner 30 hopefully delivered in a week or so. And will try Zelkova en JM cuttings too. There is a lot of information here to get my head around and try to make good use of it all

Just wondering what kind of kelp you are using ? Is it powder or some liquid solution ?

My mother plants are in the garden, so will have to see how I can prepare them as best as possible.

Now the Fulvic acid + kelp, would that be helpful on "normal" bonsai as well, I wondered ?

Cheers, and please keep this up, really top notch info

Powdered fulvic acid and kelp powder at a 5:2 ration....1/8tsp fulvic acid:1/16tsp kelp powder.
Powders have less npk...a good thing.
Yes this foliar spray on leaves NO MORE THAN ONCE A WEEK OR IT WILL BURN FOLIAGE.

Soil can be every watering....for soil I use 1/16 humic acid,1/16 fulvic acid:1/16 kelp.
Fulvic increases nutrient availability,so can cut fertilizer by 20% when using fulvic acid.
Humic acid is a good chealator of nutrients to hold near roots...fulvic carries nutrients into pant cells.

when using on soil with every watering.....wash leaves iff it gets on leaves because the kelp will burn foliage.

 

[cmeg1]

I use on all bonsai as it slows meristem growth and promotes side buds instead....the cytokinins in kelp cut auxin signal in meristem and forces backbudding without having to cut the terminal.
Not all species act the same but most respond very good.
Backbudding on 1” branches and seedlings!

 

[PieterVE]

As you transplant the rooted cuttings from your cloner, is that again in these grow pouches with perlite ? what kind of aftercare do you give them afterwards ?

 

[cmeg1]

Very low strength fertilizer like 1/8th or even 1/16th strength....add 1/16 tsp mono ammonium phosphate to boost rooting for 2-3 weeks...roots firstAlways.
low light for about two days...then by day 5-7 transition to full veg light...about 400-600 par if indoors.

 

[cmeg1]

Indoors I use grade 2 perlite and I love Rootpouch containers from Greenhousemegastore.com

 

[PieterVE]

Indoors I use grade 2 perlite and I love Rootpouch containers from Greenhousemegastore.com

I see u use different sizes, what's the size u use for the cuttings ? (as I have no idea how large I should go...)

 

[cmeg1]

I see u use different sizes, what's the size u use for the cuttings ? (as I have no idea how large I should go...)

I believe they are pint.....smallest Rootpouch has.

 

[cmeg1]

Aeroponic Hawthorn Experiment

Been two months in the cloner with these ‘Pauls Scarlet’ Hawthorn.I mist admit I ran out of patience.
Dirr’s propogation handbook states these only rarely root.
I decided to stick them in some perlite and put into the grow tent to see if 1000 ppm of co2 will get these to push roots.Essentially treated like calloused hardwood cuttings.
Low and behold I seen one tiny root in the whole resevoir.The rest are just heavy callous formation.Which in most soecies is a precurser to rooting.We’ll see.Feeding my normal low strength motherplant formula.Fun experiment anyway

I am very happy with my tent conditions.Best thing I did was move to smaller tents.Co2 lasts months!
Just over 80f & about 60% humidity which is perfect for veg and co2 fertilization.

 

[cmeg1]

Coreana Hornbeams ready to grow

These are cool.Seem to be pushing lateral growth more than anything.The kelp is really taking effect on these.They have been same for 3 weeks now ....I just switched to early veg formula a few days ago.
It is funny when tiny plants like this stall a bit while you are building roots.They just get stocky and the trunk thickens and they photosynthesize.Even just these few leaves do a great job of building photosynthetic energy on a start like this.The roots were induced to grow first with the mono ammonium phosphate and I believe this continues really ,even when I move on to starter veg.
It will be interesting to watch these multi-branch into growth! Ready to make some mini-Coreana’s.
If multi-branch,they could trunk up relatively fast.

I have tons of these in the seedtrays yet.Seed was really expensive,so I am hanging on to all of them.

Feeding the seed trays mother formula,so as they get bigger I will pluck them out and do a ring-bark and am going to try aeroponic seedling air-layers.Just bareroot and do the whole process in an aero cloner.Probably when they are only 3/16” or maybe slightly bigger.I was succesful in a rooting experiment with these coreanas with regular cuttings propogators.

 

[cmeg1]

maples/hornbeams/pines

Got the Japanese maples in today.Barerooted and potted into hydro soil.A Katsura,Orange Dream and a Ukon.Will prepare this as mothers in hopes of propogating.They are in weaker light below 400 par for mothers.Seems kind of like dappled sun for 18 hrs
These Hornbeams look to be taking off and growing.It is neat as they are branching first it seems.Kind of makes me want some informal Broom types.Smaller size and low branches not too much chopping back.Trunks could thicken very quick if I can actually get 4 or 5 leaders growing.A lot of these look to be setting that stage at only two inches tall yet!

The pines will be put up for sale any day now...within a week.

 

[cmeg1]

Just bought 2.2lbs of JBP seed from china
Sais its fresh seed....we’ll see.
$2.45 an ounce...about 1700 seeds an ounce.
Massive savings..

 

[cmeg1]

Just bought 2.2lbs of JBP seed from china
Sais its fresh seed....we’ll see.
$2.45 an ounce...about 1700 seeds an ounce.
Massive savings..

Oh ,duh.......I better get a permit first....requested a refund.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

59,840 individual JBP seed. That is a lot of seed. Fortunately, stored dry, in the refrigerator, it can last at better than 50% viability for over 10 years.

You are a maniac sir. The good kind of maniac. But a maniac none the less.