wrote in message
ups.com...
JWBH wrote:
is it possible to propogate mistletoe from a sprig of it please?

Probably not. Commercial mistletoe will be imported and may not
like
our conditions or our host species. The berries are often waxed or
otherwise treated to make them look shiny, and may not yet be ripe.

That said, the natural way mistletoe spreads is that the berries are
eaten by birds and the seeds excreted onto tree branches. I believe
it
can be encouraged to germinate if a very squishy berry is found and
"squashed" into a small slit in the bark of a tree. I have seen it
done like this by three people, one of whom painted over the mess
with
dilute cowpat. All of his took, and a small number of the others
did
too. I have since heard that putting a binding over the seed to
stop
it falling off is a good idea, but no idea how you do that.
Old-fashioned sticking plaster, perhaps?

I believe you have to be quite specific about the hosts.

I buy British gardening mags and because they are so darned expensive
in this country, I keep them for years and I just finished reading an
article by Monty Don in the Jan 2005 BBC "Gardeners World" on the
annual mistletoe market at Tenbury in the angle where Shropshire,
Worcestershire and Herefordshire meet. He cautions that if buying
mistletoe to only buy British as so much is imported (but is, in his
view inferior).

He says that it grows on cider apple trees there and also says that:
"The seed is deposited on the bark of the host, germinates and puts
its root into the cambium layer and the sapwood, tapping into the
nutrients that the tree is living off. ..... Although the mistletoe
will use the tree for sustenance it will not kill it as it needs the
tree to stay alive." He also says that not all mistletoe will have
berries and that there are male and female plants of which only the
female has berries. He also goes on to say that although the
mistletoe plant loves apples, it is also keen on limes and will also
grow on willow, poplar and oak (although the latter is rare). It will
also grow on laburnums, cotoneaster, weeping ash, rowan and
amelanchier. More likely to grow on rough bark than smooth and will
grow on hawthorn.

"It's normal process of germination is for the berry to be eaten by a
bird, including the mistle thrush, who will then fly off to a branch
nearby and either wipe its beak clean of the sticky flesh,
accidentally depositing the little seed, or it will excrete the seed.
This will be parcelled in its own manure heap. The rain will wash the
seed down the bark until it gets caught in a crack, still with an
amount of nourishment to see it on its way.

I spent a happy hour at Berryfields last February, squidging the slimy
berries into the cracks of the large apple tree at the end of the long
walk. To my complete astonishment we were able to see tiny, almost
microscopic, new growth by mid-summer. these will gradually become
more than just a green nub growing from the side of a branch and will
develop into a tiny sprig"...... etc"

He goes on to say that to just try smearing mistletoe berries onto the
top side of branches of old apple, hawthorn or lime trees.