Hey everyone, today I’m going to be taking more Japanese maple cuttings and attempting to root those in a propagation box that I’ve created. Of course, I did take some cuttings previously this year, this year.I took some spring cuttings, and I’ve been attempting to root those, and I’ll give you a progress update on those cuttings. But I wanted to try and experiment this year and see if I could have better success when it warmed up a little bit here near the middle of June. So, a few different trees, and just see if I have better success rooting these cuttings, basically the same method, the same way. Stick around, and I’ll dive into my method for rooting these Japanese maple cuttings.
Now, before I take cuttings from the four different Japanese maple trees that I’m going to show you, I wanted to just once again remind you that anytime you take cuttings or you prune a tree, it’s a good practice to take some kind of rubbing alcohol and make sure you sanitize your tools. So, I just have a little pad here that’s pre-moistened with rubbing alcohol, and I’m just going to make sure that I sanitize my shears here, my snippers, to make sure that I don’t pass along any bacteria or other contaminants that might be on these from trimming other trees. So,it’s always a good practice just to make sure you don’t spread diseases or fungi or other things to your trees. So, with that being done, let’s dive into the four different trees that I’m going to take cuttings from, and I’ll show you the cuttings that you’re looking for, and then we’ll take those back to the propagation box.
Now, the first Japanese maple tree that I’m going to take cuttings from and try to root today is an Acer palmatum Japanese maple variety called ‘Pixi’. It’s got beautiful red leaves on the top side here, and then it does have some green on the underside. And you get a little bit of a mix between the red and the green throughout the season, but it’s a great looking tree. It’s very similar to the ‘Bloodgood’ variety, but this specific variety is they call it a dwarf, so it’s supposed to be smaller than the normal ‘Bloodgood’ variety. Now, when it comes to what you’re looking for for cuttings, I found that it works best if you take some of the newer growth, some of that spring growth before it gets really, really hard and woody. You want to still be flexible, but like, for instance, here, we could probably take this particular one. I’m going to go ahead and cut that piece here. I’ll trim this more later on, but that actually looks like a pretty decent cutting. So, we’re looking for something that, once again, that is a little bit flexible still, not completely new growth like that’s here on the end, but something that is beginning to start turning woody but not quite woody yet, some of that newer, this season growth. So, I’m going to take a number of cuttings like this from the tree, and then we’ll move on to the next variety.
And then I wanted to remind you that it’s always a good idea to make sure that after you take these cuttings, that you stick them in a glass of water. That will make sure that they stay alive and fresh in between the time of cutting them and sticking them in your soil medium that you’re going to root them in. Here’s another example of ones that I look for. So, this one is actually still quite flexible, but right when you get to here at the end, it’s getting more rigid. I believe that will actually be a good one that’ll root very well. The ‘Bloodgood’ variety that I rooted last year looked very similar to this in its woodiness, and it rooted, so I’m going to give this one a shot.
Okay, so I’ve taken 10 different cuttings, and in a minute, I will go ahead and strip off a lot of these leaves, cut off a lot of these leaves before we actually try to root these. But I got quite a few good ones here, once again, new growth, ones that have just a little bit of woodiness at the end, and then you’re actually going to get your rooting through the actual leaf node, so you want to make sure that at least one of those are under the soil, but if you can have a couple of those like here, I have a node there and a node here, so those two at least will be under the soil, and maybe I might even get a third node under the soil, that’s where the roots are going to come out of. So, those are the important points to have under the soil. Now, let’s move on to the next tree.
Okay, the next Japanese maple that I’m going to take cuttings from is a ‘Bloodgood’ tree. This tree does have a little bit of sun damage, maybe a little frost damage. I can’t tell if it’s sun or frost damage, but there is a little damage on the leaves. But that’s not going to affect it. I believe I can still take cuttings from those sections that I would have to trim off anyway because it’s kind of unsightly. So, I think that I’ll be able to take a good number of cuttings from this tree and root those, same process as I did with the previous tree, looking for newer growth that is just beginning to start to turn a little stiffer at the ends, with as many leaf nodes as possible that can be under the soil. So, let me take a number of cuttings from this tree.
Okay, I was able to take six different cuttings from this ‘Bloodgood’ tree. I didn’t want to take any more because I don’t want to affect the shape of this tree as it grows older.
The next Japanese maple tree that I want to take a few cuttings from is an Acer palmatum variety called ‘Mikazuki’, and this particular one I bought, I believe last year, as a grafted tree. And it’s got a really unique leaf here. Later on in the year, like right now in the summer, you can see a little bit of the pink on these leaves. But in general, you just have a beautiful, really pronounced veining with darker veins and a lighter leaf, and then kind of a unique… the margins are a little bit roughly, and just a really cool shape. The newer growth comes in red, and at different parts of the year, this turns pinks and reds and stuff. And this is a beautiful, wonderful tree. This is quite a young tree, so I’m not going to be able to take but just a few. I just wanted to start propagating this a little bit now. So, I’m going to take two, maybe three cuttings from this tree.
Okay, so I was able to take three different cuttings from this particular tree. These aren’t the most ideal cuttings that I would normally take. These have pretty much… they’re all completely new growth without any beginnings to become a little stiffer or woody. But the branches that are getting a little stiffer and maybe would be slightly more ideal, I didn’t want to take away from the tree. It’s once again, it’s a very young tree, I don’t want to affect the shape too much here. I just wanted to try a few cuttings. So, we’ll try these three, and hopefully, we can have some success. If not, we can try again in the future when this tree grows up another year or two.
Okay, there is an Acer palmatum variety called ‘Ginchi’. And these particular leaves, very thin, very skinny leaves, very unique tree. Once again, a young tree that I bought, I believe last year, and it’s a grafted tree, and I bought it at a local nursery. I’m only going to be able to take just maybe two from this particular tree, kind of like the other one. It’s a pretty young tree, I don’t want to take too much from it, but there are a few that I see that I can trim off and still keep this tree with a good shape for the future. So, let me take a couple of those cuttings, and then we’ll move over to our propagation box, and then we’ll move on.
Okay, I have two small little cuttings. Once again, this is not the most ideal for the cuttings. These are a little smaller than I would normally do.This one, I think, has a good shot. I do have three different leaf nodes that could go under the soil. So, I think I have a shot at that one. This one probably not, but I really didn’t want to take away any of this upper canopy area because I don’t want to take away from the tree itself. So, I’ll be taking cuttings from this one more in the future, but for now, I’m just going to try these two.
Now, this year, I put a number of cuttings, and we showed you this process in this plastic bin. And I chose this bin idea because it allowed me to have easier access to water and mist these like you have to several times a day without having to take off the plastic draping like I did last year. This method seems to be working. We did have a little cooler year this year, so I have lost some of these. These need heat, but in general, we have several of these left. There is an Alpine Weiss right there, and then the Orangiola is one, two, three, four. Maybe four Orangiolas that are still looking viable. There are several, as I’ve showed you in past updates, there are several here that have just completely dried up. But the ones that still have leaves still have a good shot at rooting. And I actually see that two of these actually have a little bit of new growth to them, so that is a good sign.
Now, as I mentioned at the beginning of the article, the reason I’m taking cuttings again this year is I want to experiment with taking cuttings in the summertime here, almost the middle of June, to see if I have the same or better success rate using the same plastic bin. This is actually an identical one that I created. I drilled some more holes in the top and drilled more holes in the bottom, and once again, have a soil and perlite mix here, roughly 50-50. And I’m going to use this one to try to root these new cuttings that we took today. Let’s move over to the cuttings, and I’ll show you quickly how I process those.
Okay, when it comes to processing these cuttings to get them ready to root, you want to make sure that you cut off a lot of these unnecessary leaves. I don’t want a lot of energy going to these leaves, keeping them alive. I want a lot of energy to go into creating roots. Now, you do need a few leaves so this remains viable as a cutting, and it allows it to pull in some nutrients and keep this alive. But you don’t want too many of these. So, I’m going to take, and I’m going to go through these and trim off a bunch of these leaves, and then I’ll show you how I stick those in the soil medium, and I’ll show you the rooting hormone that I use. It’s also a good idea to cut that there at the bottom at like a 45-degree angle. That is also a good idea.
All right, so these cuttings have all been processed. A lot of the leaves have been cut off, made sure that all the ends are at 45-degree angles, are soaking in water. Once again, you’ll notice that I have gloves on, and that’s because I’m going to be using this IBA rooting hormone. And anytime I use a rooting hormone, I make sure that I have hand protection, and then I’m also going to be wearing this N95 mask as well to protect my lungs. There’s a little bit of breeze coming through, and I just want to make sure that any of this rooting hormone powder doesn’t get blown into my lungs. It’s a good idea to protect your lungs anytime you’re using a powder like this.
So, what I’m going to do is I’m going to take out each of these particular cuttings. They’re going to be wet, and then dip them down into the rooting hormone, and then I’m going to use this little screwdriver here to make holes to stick them down. And it’s a pretty simple process that we’ll do. I’m going to take care of that, and then I’ll catch back up with you.
All the cuttings are now in the box. I have 21 cuttings altogether, I have them all lined up here. I did put little plant tags to make sure that I knew that this side was the ‘Bloodgood’ side, not to be confused with the ‘Pixie’ side, which looks somewhat similar. I got a tag there that says ‘Pixie’, and then of course, we have the ‘Mikazuki’ variety, got three of those here, and then the two ‘Ginchi’s. And so, I’m going to go ahead and mist these, and this will be something that I missed at least twice a day. When it gets hotter, I might check it on even three times a day. Just simply with a bottle like this, I just come through here and make sure I miss this.
This soil-perlite mix was already wet, so I’m not going to have to re-water this right now, but you’ll want to check the soil-perlite mix and just make sure that that also stays nice and moist. Now, when it comes to where I’ll store these, I’ll store these next to the other bin that I created in the spring that we showed you, and that’s underneath my Japanese maple bench. It’s going to be in an area there where it’s out of direct sunlight, which is important. You don’t want to scorch these. It needs to be warm, but it also needs to not be scorched. And so, indirect sunlight, under a large tree, something like that would also be appropriate.
I hope this helps! Let me know if you need anything else.
