RobertB
Chumono
So I purchased this nice little flowering quince, tag said a Crimson and Gold, with the intent of trying to propagate some cuttings from it while starting it on its journey as a bonsai. After some research, it seams like quince does ok propagating from cuttings and even larger pencil thick cuttings or even thicker are possible to start. I personally haven't been that successful with cuttings at all but have been working on it for the past few years.
I found this pretty nice guide for taking cuttings so I sort of used this to go by.
http://www.internationalbonsai.com/files/1708315/uploaded/flowering_quince_article.pdf
I chose some cuttings from the very tips of the shoots. Most of the interior has finished blooming. I did have to pinch 1 flower bud off one of the cuttings.
First I mixed up some soil mix. I started with about a 6 inch container, then placed a layer of 1" size lava rocks at bottom for drainage. Next I filled with leftover bonsai soil. Mix of pine bark, builders gravel, DE and Turface. I then soaked it, let it drip dry then added about a 1/4" layer of sand to the top.
I took about 8-10 cuttings that were about 6 - 8 inches long, prepped the ends per the instructions included in this link, dipped into hormone, then used a wooden chopstick to make a hole in the soil, placed the cuttings about half their length deep then lightly packed around the edges. After all were planted, I placed on my shade bench which gets full sunlight till about 2-3pm right now. I added a large plastic barrel to help preserve moisture around the pot and now I'm hoping for the best. One thing I noticed is that since the bonsai soil was wet, it was hard to pack around the cutting and it seemed like the cutting might have stuck through most of the bonsai soil into the area where the large rocks were. I know some soil settled down into them. So who knows, maybe this will help.
I will update if these take or die. I will try and keep moist till they start growing, then probably remove cover then water like normal. Probably transplant in fall or spring of next year. maybe earlier if they start to grow like crazy.
Quince as purchased last month:
Bloomed out.
Cuttings.
Flat clean board and clean, new razor for prepping end. I also pinched off buds on bottom half of cutting.
Long cut on one side.
short cut on opposite side
All planted up and ready to go outside.
Hope for the best.
I found this pretty nice guide for taking cuttings so I sort of used this to go by.
http://www.internationalbonsai.com/files/1708315/uploaded/flowering_quince_article.pdf
I chose some cuttings from the very tips of the shoots. Most of the interior has finished blooming. I did have to pinch 1 flower bud off one of the cuttings.
First I mixed up some soil mix. I started with about a 6 inch container, then placed a layer of 1" size lava rocks at bottom for drainage. Next I filled with leftover bonsai soil. Mix of pine bark, builders gravel, DE and Turface. I then soaked it, let it drip dry then added about a 1/4" layer of sand to the top.
I took about 8-10 cuttings that were about 6 - 8 inches long, prepped the ends per the instructions included in this link, dipped into hormone, then used a wooden chopstick to make a hole in the soil, placed the cuttings about half their length deep then lightly packed around the edges. After all were planted, I placed on my shade bench which gets full sunlight till about 2-3pm right now. I added a large plastic barrel to help preserve moisture around the pot and now I'm hoping for the best. One thing I noticed is that since the bonsai soil was wet, it was hard to pack around the cutting and it seemed like the cutting might have stuck through most of the bonsai soil into the area where the large rocks were. I know some soil settled down into them. So who knows, maybe this will help.
I will update if these take or die. I will try and keep moist till they start growing, then probably remove cover then water like normal. Probably transplant in fall or spring of next year. maybe earlier if they start to grow like crazy.
Quince as purchased last month:
Bloomed out.
Cuttings.
Flat clean board and clean, new razor for prepping end. I also pinched off buds on bottom half of cutting.
Long cut on one side.
short cut on opposite side
All planted up and ready to go outside.
Hope for the best.