2/10/24 Weekend Update

I mentioned before that it's been a warm winter. I think we're going to have an early spring. My Kojo-No-Mai Mt Fuji Cherries have been on my mind. Specifically, I wanted to re-pot them before they wake up for spring. I noticed the buds are starting to swell, so they're already starting to wake up. Perfect!

I have two cherries in 5-gallon pots; I decided to tackle the nicer one today because 

  1. It looks nicer and 

  2. There were lots of root suckers. 

I started early this morning, about 8am. The soil did not get a chance to warm up. Digging in the soil with my fingers was no fun! Regardless, I root-pruned and re-potted the tree. Here's what it looked like:

 

There's still a lot of work to do. It needs to be hard-pruned.  Wiring still needs to be done. All in time. The roots have been pruned back, the suckers have been removed and it's on its way to becoming a really nice tree.

I don't have practical experience with Mt Fuji Cherry trees. I don't know if hardwood cuttings will take and I don't know if root cuttings will take. I don't really know how suckers will do. Seems to me that suckers are just doing their best to be their own trees already, so I would think they would be a great propagation candidate. I've got nothing to lose by trying, so with that mind I started.

Like I've done with the Chinese elms in the past, I took some of the roots I trimmed off and planted them up with the top part exposed. The idea being that with luck, the exposed part will sprout. Here's a picture of some of the root cuttings: 

Not too impressive, I know. But I want to document the progress. I did four root cuttings today. I have more root cuttings I can do, but the soil was too cold. I buried the other root cuttings for later. 

Let's move on to the suckers! I'm including a picture of four or five suckers I dug up:

 

 

These had the best root development. They have a strong chance of survival. I decided to place these on the top shelf.  I have another 5 suckers that didn't have as much root development. They should be fine regardless, but they're still a lower-quality propagation source.

OH! While I noticed some of the trident maple seeds are starting to sprout! Go figure.

That's all I have for now.