The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Smallholding => Techniques and skills => Topic started by: Buffy the eggs layer on October 11, 2011, 08:58:53 pm
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Hi All,
I have a fallen willow tree and would like to strike some cuttings from it. can anyone tell me how to do it?
Buffy
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willow is one of the easiest of trees to grow the small twigs cut to six inch lengths and just push in the ground or compost pots remember the right way up best done in the spring longer whips can be planted if desired :farmer:
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Yes - easy peasy ;D In fact any twigs touching the ground from your fallen tree may have rooted already. I would use longer cuttings to get more of a leg on the plants, but it depends what you want them for. We used willow as hedging stakes one year and in spite of putting them in upside down so they wouldn't sprout, they still did ::) You can use any size of twig or branch too and one inch thick ones make a sturdy plant more quickly than a skinny one. Another way is to stand the cuttings in a bucket of water for a couple of weeks until the root buds just appear, then plant them out. It's best not to let the roots grow long as water roots have to be regrown once planted out. For planting out, you can put them in a slit trench all in a row then transplant them the following year, or if you can protect them you could plant them direct where you want them to grow.
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I've put willow twigs in a vase with daffodils and they've grown roots!
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If you plant them straight outside you need to protect them from rabbits they will scoff the lot. We rooted loads of cuttings in old pop bottles with the tops cut off, grew them on for the first year then planted them out. This way they were a healthy little tree big enough to put a spiral guard on for protection. Once planted in the ground they grow very quickly.
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Willow will as already said grow any way up ..
Now is a good time to bung the cuttings in where you want them to grow as it is damp and not drying out ... don't froget tree guards for out of over two thousand cutting some 2 foot in length and one foot in the ground ( I used a 4 foot long 1 inch diameter iron bar to make holes) rabbits and hares chewed almost half down to about four inches high. The next lot I put in got two foot tall tree guards
You can use the magical properties of willow to make your own rooting liquids.. simply get bunches of 4 inch tall 1/4 inch thick fresh sticks and boil them for 20 min ..let the liquid cool , then stand any other cuttings you have in it for 1/2 hr after you have corrrrectly prepared the cutting.
It is on par with the hormone rooting compunds but not as nasty.,.
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We cut willow and stored it in the cellar for burning. The bottom row rooted to the floor.
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I have mine in water but Im not sure if its doing much :-\
Buffy
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I just stick any broken branches or trimmed ones in the ground where I want them to grow. They root so easily and as said even a branch touching the floor will root if it is still long enough. At my mums is a weeping willow tree, one of our jobs when young was to trim the weeping branches to just above the ground so they did not take root.
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I have mine in water but Im not sure if its doing much :-\
Buffy
Get some new cutting in the soil instead of water ..cuttings in water this time of the year ( not enough heat or light ) tends to rot the cuttings
Spring ..pussy willow time is a time to use water and some cuttings. but as they grow better in soil it's not worth while.
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Biodynamics........ they do better if planted during a waxing moon cycle.
Don;t know of any academic evidence for this.
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Hi
well the willow rooted and was planted out. Its in bud now so it must be doing ok :)
Buffy