CA Coastal Live Oak Cuttings, or Driving down the one o one

What is your favorite part of spring? For me, it's softwood cuttings. I am by no means a cuttings master,  but I have had my share of experience. I have made cuttings throughout the year regardless of the season and the ripeness of the branch. Most cuttings grew a few did not. The failure was not related to species. Usually, what happened os that I would prune a plant. Then I would try to root the cuttings. Most would make it but some would not. Yet, I would never have a 100 percent failure. I attribute this to the very mild climate.

I want to try California Live Oak softwood cuttings. I think that it will be successful. Here in southern California, we had lots of rain this winter. The Oaks have pushed out lots of new growth. I have access to many Live oaks so I can take a few cuttings from each and try my luck.

These branches are new and have not lignified. The branches are very flexible. The leaves have hardened though. I am going to take as much of the branch as possible. I am not going to cut any branch smaller than five inches.

For the planting medium, I am mixing vermiculite and perlite in a ratio of 1:1. I am using a taller pot so that I can bury the ends of the cuttings about three inches.

This is what the cuttings look like. It has too many leaves for it to survive. The leaves would cause all the cutting to lose too much moisture through perspiration.

I removed the growing tip and all of the leaves except for the top two. The top two just underneath where I cut the tip off.

Just before I put them in the pot I shaved an eighth of an inch from the bottom of the cutting. I did do it twice per cutting on opposite sites. Then I added rooting hormone and planted the cuttings and watered.

Even if they fail I'll be able to try in the winter one more time.

I am hoping for the best. I am trailblazing (That means I did not find any info on the web). Updates sure to follow. Cheers.

Update 05/01/2017:

it was a fail.

Spring time root pruning time.

Spring time, many plants have laid dormant for winter and now they're ready to emerge. On a past post I have shown you how i cut the tap roots off of seedlings. This post is about removing the tap roots from yearlings. The big difference is that I will not use any rooting hormone nor will I use a sandy middle (see:http://bonsai-misadventures.blogspot.com/2016/02/cedar-of-lebanon-cedrus-libani-cutting.html ) to place the plant in. Why am i cutting the tap roots? Tap roots are anchors. They grow long and deep. This is not good for plants living in pots. So, to promote a radial root pattern we remove tap roots. Important: do not let the roots dry out. Try to cut the roots during a cool time of the day. Have some water handy to dunk or spray the roots.

These are Osage orange. These trees were very prolific in the last ice age. The megafauna would eat the fruits and disperse the seeds. I don't know if any animal eats the fruits anymore. No animals munching on the fruit, no animal planting its seeds all over the place. Osage orange was also an important tree for the inhabitants of of the united states precolumbian arrival. The wood is great for making bows.

Enough about non bonsai related topics. All these Osage orange were planted from seed in the same pot. To start we watered the pot. Then we pulled the plants and soil out of the pot. We massaged the soil softly until it all fell off. Then we untangled the roots. You can probably skip the untangling part. I untangled it so I can take a clearer picture. You can just go right ahead and snip the excess root.

To know where you should cut is easy. Cut an inch to two inches under the soil line. That is under where the plant grew out of the soil.

  Now repot the plants and watch them grow. Cutting the roots is going to slow growth for a short time. The plant has to grow enough root to feed any new growth.  

These osage orange were sown in late spring. I don't believe they reached their full potential for last year.  But this year they’ll get sun, some water, and a little blood meal and they should stretch out.

These Acorns I harvested in early October. I planted them a week later. Three weeks after They were popping out of the dirt. They grew all winter here in sunny southern CA. Now in March they have grown about five inches. The procedures are the same as they are for the Osage Orange. Cut an inch to two inches below the acorn.

 Oak tap roots grow straight down and because they didn't have anywhere to go just started to spin around and they all got tangled.

 Here they are after the roots got chopped.

 The soil mix is 50% organic 50% inorganic, sand turface and fine volcanic rock.

 That's it for this batch of Oaks I have 3 more pots to do.

 This was the longest Oak seedling that I found.
 It measured about two feet.

Cheers 

Update 04/07/2016

I have lost a few of the oak trees. I pruned some cork oak right after and they are doing fine. I believe that i waited much to long to prune the Live oak. All the cork oak were much smaller than the live oak. The live oak that were smaller are doing great. 

Cork Oak Quercus Suber How to germinate many in a small container

     Space can be a precious commodity right? Or, who wants to dig up their garden or make long furrows in their yard? At its most rudimentary level bonsai is the art of keeping a plant in a tray (bon=盆=tray, sai= 栽=planting). So, why not start seeds in a pot?  Where I work we have about six cork oaks. Last October and November I collected as many acorns as I could. Many were devoured by the immense lawn mowers used to maintain the grounds.

collected on two different dates

     They were soaked for three days. All the floating acorns were removed  which was more than half of what I collected. After which I put them in zip lock bags and tossed them my refrigerator. I checked on the bag a few days ago and noticed the radicle sprouting. They had been in the refrigerator for about twelve weeks.

I was surprised to see green on the shell

This one was missing its shell. it is still viable and is germinating

      I will be planting 12 Acorns. After planting, the acorns will grow their tap roots first. Then they will grow the stem and leaves. The first time I grew cork oak I thought I had lost all of the seeds. It took many weeks to see anything. I waited and kept hoping. Then one day they started peeking through the soil. Needless to say I was very relieved.

     I'll be using a taller pot to grow the acorns. The tap roots are long and I'd rather they didn't tangle. The roots grow long, but after the stems grow from four to six inches I will chop off the excess root.

     For the soil I used fibrous organic material. All the fine matter was sifted out.

    The acorns were placed all in the same direction. I squeezed the two in the middle facing six o' clock.

     More soil was added until the acorns were barely covered. The reason for this is that the acorn is like a horizon. The root grows down from the acorn. Likewise the stem grows up from the acorn. So, it is better to bury them shallow. You want to just cover the acorn so that the radicle stays moist and start growing down.

     I added a little bit more soil. See the acorn just peeking through in the back? I added a little bit more cover for the acorn. I soaked the pot in water until it started to feel much heavier. Then I placed the pot in a shady spot. At this point direct sunshine is not very important.

   
     After six to twelve weeks you should see this:

These are California coastal live oak

     The picture above is actually California coastal live oak. I used the same process on these acorns. Cork oak leaves are much smaller and darker. These oaks come from an oak tree in Claremont CA. The acorns were long smooth with honey and brown stripes down the length of the acorn. They were very beautiful. I was reluctant to plant them, but what good is untapped potential? The live oak started to sprout in greens and reds. They were also beautiful. The leaves are big, soft, and supple. I would venture to say that if they are not a specific variety then they are some sort of hybrid. Yet, that is a topic for another post. Cheers.