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mistletoe propogation
is it possible to propogate mistletoe from a sprig of it please?
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#2
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mistletoe propogation
"JWBH" wrote in message ... is it possible to propogate mistletoe from a sprig of it please? You can try smearing the seeds onto tree branches...... there was a bit about it on gardeners world last week. Takes a while to get going and I seem to recall that some type of trees are better than others. anyone know which trees are best? Jenny |
#3
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mistletoe propogation
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. |
#4
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mistletoe propogation
JennyC wrote:
: "JWBH" wrote in message : ... :: is it possible to propogate mistletoe from a sprig of it please? : : You can try smearing the seeds onto tree branches...... there was a : bit about it on gardeners world last week. Takes a while to get going : and I seem to recall that some type of trees are better than others. : anyone know which trees are best? : : Jenny I think it was on apple trees in that programme |
#5
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mistletoe propogation
"Robert" wrote in message ... JennyC wrote: : "JWBH" wrote in message : ... :: is it possible to propogate mistletoe from a sprig of it please? : : You can try smearing the seeds onto tree branches...... there was a : bit about it on gardeners world last week. Takes a while to get going : and I seem to recall that some type of trees are better than others. : anyone know which trees are best? : : Jenny I think it was on apple trees in that programme I have been told that the type of tree the stuff is harvested off will be the one most likely for it to germinate on. (although how it knows before it germinates goodness only knows) -- Charlie, gardening in Cornwall. http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk Holders of National Plant Collections of Clematis viticella (cvs) and Lapageria rosea |
#6
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mistletoe propogation
"JWBH" wrote in message ... is it possible to propogate mistletoe from a sprig of it please? Yes, the berries need to be as ripe as possible which they are sometimes not at this time, I found it works better on the same tree type as it was originally found on. The method I used with most success was to mix the berries to a paste with chicken manure and spread it in cracks under tree branches, or at least in sheltered cracks so it is not washed away immediately by heavy rain. HTH -- Chris West Cork Ireland |
#8
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mistletoe propogation
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. |
#9
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mistletoe propogation
"Jennifer Sparkes" wrote: snip ... it 'takes' best if one puts it on the same type of tree from whence it came - ie apple to apple, birch to birch, whatever. Though not sure how one knows on which sort of tree the shop bought Mistletoe was originally growing ..... ---- I remember being told that before pressing a Mistletoe berry into the bark, it is always a good idea to first wound the underside of the tree branch, as doing so ensures a greater germinating success. I have often tried germinating mistletoe on old apple trees without any success. If I had succeeded, it seems that I would not have had any fruit for the first six to seven years. MikeCT |
#10
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mistletoe propogation
On Wed, 27 Dec 2006 10:31:38 +0000
Sacha wrote: On 27/12/06 08:31, in article , "Robert" wrote: JennyC wrote: : "JWBH" wrote in message : ... :: is it possible to propogate mistletoe from a sprig of it please? : : You can try smearing the seeds onto tree branches...... there was a : bit about it on gardeners world last week. Takes a while to get going : and I seem to recall that some type of trees are better than others. : anyone know which trees are best? : : Jenny I think it was on apple trees in that programme They're the traditional association. But you see absolutely masses of mistletoe on trees in northern France and I think - from memory - that those are probably poplars. Ack. In this part of Normandy it is a plague in the apple orchards. Can't say on the north side of the Seine. Can't imagine wanting more of the stuff. Convenient over the hols though. I have seen some in poplars but not maybe as endemic. We have some growing in the Lime (Tilia) also. -E -- Emery Davis You can reply to ecom by removing the well known companies |
#11
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Quote:
Walking around a suburb of Cheltenham a couple of weeks ago, we saw loadsa mistletoe. It was mainly on hawthorn, to our surprise. I suggested perhaps it favoured Rosaceae, but it was pointed out to me that mistletoe growing on oak is favoured by Panoramix/Getafix the druid in Asterix books. Then we saw some on what appeared to be a sycamore or Norway maple. There is a picture of it on Wikipedia growing on birch. So I think it is quite catholic in its tastes. It does seem to be more common in damper locations. I wonder if water-retaining moss/lichen on the tree helps it establish in natural situation? |
#12
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mistletoe propogation
In addition to being vaguely host specific, its clearly fairly sensitive to climate. An earlier poster quoted "Gardeners World on the annual mistletoe market at Tenbury in the angle where Shropshire, Worcestershire and Herefordshire meet". That part of the country seems to have mistletoe on every other tree, whether apple, oak ... but probably not pine. However this far north (yorkshire) its sufficiently rare that the local floras give specific place references for individual plants. I don't remember seeing it even on apple trees in Norfolk. Here's an article http://www.ciao.co.uk/Mistletoe__Review_5617035 which says its restricted to the south because of the lack of mistle-thrushes in the north. This is bullshit. Most years I see a good number of these birds in spring (though maybe they go south when the mistletoe is fruiting??). Anyway, I've tried the suggested technique using shop bought mistletoe (from unknown hosts) twice on hawthorns (which is what I have) without success. Reading others comments I note that I didn't use chicken manure and maybe I'll try that next time. Possibly there's something there that triggers germination. I notice that the original poster wanted to propagate "from a sprig of it" which suggests a cutting to me. I'm no expert but I'd guess thats impossible. Parasitic plants develop a special organ (haustoria) to interface to the host. I can't see it forming if you simply poked a sprig into a hole in the bark of the host. I googled on mistletoe cuttings propagation and found :- Methods and cuttings for mass propagation of plant parasites US Patent 6792715 - which is the sort of patent that brings the patent system into disrespect. You can read it at http://ep.espacenet.com/numberSearch?locale=en_EP shove US6792715 into the "number' box and hit 'search". Click on the title when it come up. Hit "original document" and "save full document" to get the complete patent. Note that the parasites are to be grown on the host from seed and the host branches (with parasites) grown on as cuttings. |
#13
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Mistletoe success! Having previously said that my attempts at putting mistletoe seeds on my garden trees didn't work, I now see that one of them has just started putting out a couple of shoots, almost 3 years after I stuck the seed on. On a crab apple.
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