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Old 17-07-2008, 06:26 AM posted to sci.bio.botany
[email protected] plutonium.archimedes@gmail.com is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: May 2008
Posts: 104
Default root-cutting of Ulmus thomasii, rock-elm

Alright, faced with lack of seeds and even when I have say thirty
seeds of rock-elm, only 1 or 2 manages to
sprout. So faced with this circumstance, I must try root-cuttings and
grafting. Honestly, I hate grafting
because I always feel the tree is weak and will revert to its
rootstock. So many of the grafted trees of
mine, with the slightest of stress, have died off, with the rootstock
eventually coming to life. So you
spend all that time and energy on a graft and eventually the rootstock
growing.

So today I prepared a mist-room with a flat to hold 30 cuttings. I
bathed them in a hormone acid
solution and put them in a peat moss bed.

I am going to try another batch of 30 in a sand bed.

I understand elm is difficult to root cuttings and will be happy if 1
or 2 makes it.

My greatest problem is the consistency of the mist spray, for the air
can be very dry here.

Also, the other problem of too moist of a surroundings and the fungus
and bacteria. So maybe the
sand bed would be better than the peat moss.

If 1 or 2 out of 30, or 2 or 4 out of 60 manage to form roots, I would
consider it a success.

Unlike willow, elm is difficult.

Archimedes Plutonium
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whole entire Universe is just one big atom
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