Volume 3
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Author: Roger U. Swingle
PP: 23
The essential role of compatibility in plant propagation by graftage and seed production has been recognized for many years. Its importance is reflected by the numerous reports in plant science literature on incompatibilities or uncongenialities and their effects on plant production and utilization. It has been possible for me to review only a very small part of the literature dealing with this subject but I have attempted to include more recently published reviews and articles in order that some of the basic aspects of incompatibility could be presented.
Incompatibility as applied to aspects of plant propagation has been variously defined. The term itself means “not capable of coexistence in harmony,” “lacking affinity,” “intolerant” or “antagonistic”. Argle (1), in his review of literature on graft incompatibility, considers it to be an inherent antagonism between certain stocks and scions, the cause or causes of failure or abnormalities arising out of the nature of the two plants.
Author: William Flemer III
PP: 36
Propagating American elms would seem, with the diseases which we have around, like propagating American chestnut from seed, but we at Princeton Nurseries haven't viewed it in that way. We have continued to grow elms and we have found that while we don't grow 40,000 or so annually as we used to do, we still grow between three and four thousand a year. We find that there is again beginning to be a moderate interest in planting American elms.
I think that at least in the East, where we have had Dutch elm disease for a number of years, there are still plenty of elms around. At least in rural areas there are still good reasons for planting the American elm.
A number of years ago when we first started to grow American elms in my grandfather’s F and F Nursery in Springfield, it was found that the American elm was one of the most variable of all shade trees. Some seedlings grew up rapidly into tall, graceful trees, while others were slow growing.
Author: Jack Siebenthaler
PP: 39
We select our seed in the fall when the pods are ripe and beginning to fall. We have no established practice for selection of seeds. We do secure a large number of seed each year and, as was the case this year, many of the seeds are not good. We try to get enough good seed so that we will have an ample supply of our own seedlings. We have found that we get the quickest cleaning by running the seed through a mascerator.
We sow the seed either in the fall or early spring. We have done it at both times and with good success either way. I think fall sowing in our particular location is satisfactory.
We dig the seedlings in the fall after one year of growth and store them over-winter outside. We don’t attempt to store them in controlled refrigerated storage. We heel-in the seedlings in sand so they are readily available for spring planting. We grade them before heeling them in so that there will not be added delay when planting time arrives. The seedlings are planted in the early spring…
Author: P. Nicolin
PP: 41
When my good old bearded teacher taught me grafting in the year 1911, 1 tried my luck with a twenty-year old apple tree.
I was not satisfied, however, with just a single kind, so six different ones were grafted: Teasgoods, Borsdorfer, Cellini, Gravenstein, Sternrenette and Goldparmane.
And they really all adhered!
Who could not imagine the joy and the pride of an eleven year old after such a success!
After this event, I have always kept in touch with trees and nurseries; I have tried many things, and now and then have been rewarded with good results.
The year before last I suddenly had a strange thought as I deliberated about the incompatibility of many pears with their quince understocks and what to do about it.
Of course, one can remedy this by introducing a more compatible intermediate. This is an old trick.
But one loses a whole year of culture by so doing. How would it be if one could reduce the intermediate to a single slice and, together with the incompatible piece, place…
Author: John Bos
PP: 44
We find that the stock plants are the most important factors. We have a few hundred stock plants, about 18-24” that never seem to get any larger because we keep taking cuttings off them every year. In the early spring during a few warm days, the buds on these plants tend to swell and develop into tiny leaves. Then a cold rain or light frost damages the edges of the leaves. These leaves will later grow out, but make poor cuttings. In fact we lose about one half of them; no matter how carefully the small brown ends are cut off when making the cutting, the loss is still 50%. Last summer we went to a local nursery that had some beautiful plants in the field with a lot of young growth that was free of blemishes or black spot. This man wanted us to root some cuttings for him. We took 700 cuttings, and have now 685 potted up and in the frame.
In order to obtain healthy cuttings, we have wondered if putting the stock plants under lath would help prevent damage to the foliage in the early
Author: Roger G. Coggeshall
PP: 46
The method of propagation that I am about to describe is both simple and inexpensive. The whole operation hinges upon the use of the plastic film called polyethylene. This is an air permeable, water impermeable plastic that allows for an exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide, while at the same time retaining the moisture inside the plastic, thereby keeping the humidity very high.
This same plastic, as you may know, is now being used in a wide variety of ways, from packaging vegetables to balling plants.
Using this plastic that keeps the humidity so high, we built a frame out of one half inch strapping over a section of greenhouse bench. The frame was eight feet wide, eighteen feet long, and fifteen inches high from the surface of the medium.
Over this frame strips of polythene fifty-four inches wide and two thousandths of an inch thick were laid. By running the strips across the width of the case we were able to enclose it nicely with four sheets. An overlap of three inches was left.
Author: John B. Roller
PP: 48
Our cuttings are taken from stock plantings that are to be grown for a period of five years, or from plants in containers. Our container plants, of course, are sold after one growing season so we use only cuttings from young vigorous stock. We have found that young plants give us faster rooting with higher percentage striking roots.
As to timing, our cuttings are taken after each period of growth has hardened without regard to calendar dates. The best time to take them varies from a few days to weeks. We normally get two periods of growth on holly but in good seasons we can expect three. If we have an early spring our first cutting comes in June followed by cuttings in August and October. With a late spring we usually cut about July and September.
The type of cutting taken is as bard as can be had on early cuttings as we have been most successful taking them just as the terminal buds begin to swell just before they break into active growth. No particular attention is paid to position of…
Author: H.M. Templeton
PP: 51
H: It is an honor to address this assembly of experts. It seems queer for me to stand here before you as a plant propagator because I am not. I am a machine operator. But I can tell you about a machine that apparently does know how to propagate plants. It is a device of wire and plastic and electrical equipment.
Since it has to have a name, we have called it the Phytotektor System. Each unit is 48 feet long and there can be, as many units as you wish under one control system. It is an attempted union of the English sunframe idea and the new mist humidification.
The ideas came from Sheat’s book, Propagation of Trees, Shrubs, and Conifers, from Mr Wells’; excellent articles in the American Nurseryman on mist humidification, from advice of Professors Stoutemyer and O’Rourke, and from eight or ten thousand hours of thought and experiment on our part.
Its object is to root cuttings in soil, where they can grow-on without being lifted, potted, or transplanted, until such time as they are…
Author: Charles E. Hess and William E. Snyder
PP: 56
In the field of horticulture, time clocks are used to extend the length of day by turning lights on at dusk and turning them off again after the desired daylength is reached and for cyclic control of mist for plant propagation.
Three different timers were designed, built, used and then discarded in the development of the timer to be described. The first three timers failed to meet all the requirements of a practical instrument, namely, simplicity, economy, availability of parts and adaptability. This timer, therefore, is the result of testing three different designs, selecting the desirable components of each and combining them into an economical and efficient instrument.
The final design includes some of the features of the earlier models and is very adaptable. The timer is actually two timers in one. One part controls the overall operation, that is it turns the times on for any duration, such as on at eight in the morning and off at four in the afternoon.
Author: Roger W. Pease
PP: 61
During the wet season of 1951 rooted cuttings of Ilex opaca, transplanted in April from the rooting cold frame to a clay soil, averaged 5.4 inches of growth when shaded and protected by six inch porous drain tile one foot high. The plants were mulched with sawdust and fertilized with both cottonseed meal and a 5; 10; 10 mixture. During the comparatively dry season of 1952 cuttings from the same clones, given similar treatment, showed negligible growth. No water supplementary to rainfall was applied during either season. Because of these observations it was thought that water in excess of rainfall might be advantageous to the growth of rooted Ilex opaca cuttings, especially during a dry season. It also seemed possible that rooted cuttings carried for the first growing season in a lath house with well-drained soil and overhead irrigation would show unusually good growth.
In the fall of 1952 a lath house was constructed which admitted one half constant light and had tile drainage, a crushed…
Author: William E. Snyder
PP: 67
Junipers can be propagated by seeds, layering, cuttings, and grafts, however layering is not a common commercial practice. Propagation by seeds is mainly for the production of understock or for seedlings for reforestation. Cuttings and grafts are employed in the production of the many species and varieties used in ornamental plantings.
PROPAGATION OF LAYERING. Sheat (50) has described the procedures to follow in the layering of various types of junipers, and Bannon (5) has studied the origin of roots in naturally layered plants of Juniperus communis depressa, J. horizontalis, and J virginiana. He found that the adventitious roots arose in the vicinity of the vascular rays - an origin comparable to the origin of roots of Taxus cuspidata and many other woody plants.
PROPAGATION BY SEEDS. The red cedar, Juniperus virginiana, is used as understock for grafting the numerous varieties used in ornamental plantings and also for reforestation in many areas of the United States. Since
Author: Pieter G. Zorg
PP: 81
One of the most convenient ways to propagate Junipers in large variety is by means of cuttings. This has been done for a great number of years in Europe as well in the United States. The purpose of growing Junipers from cuttings is quite obvious: to multiply a chosen plant and retain all its characteristics. It ranks among one of the most effective methods of increase for a large selection of Junipers. Some species and varieties are easily propagated by cuttings, while others require a little more attention, and some are difficult, but the method prevails because of its economy in handling. Besides, there is the advantage which is obtained by having the plant on its own roots.
It is not necessary to have a greenhouse for rooting juniper cuttings; it can be done in a coldframe as well. In France the nurseryman uses bell jars, which is more or less an ancient way of propagation in our eyes and commercially unpractical. In Germany coldframes are used. About 6 inches of horse manure is…
Author: J.B. Hill
PP: 86
The intent of this paper shall be, not to restate those basic fundamentals found in available literature, but to relate experiences from the standpoint of a commercial propagation effort. Special emphasis will be afforded those deviations from the standard procedures outlined in the literature. These deviations we have proven practical, and useful.
It should not be necessary to define a graft, let alone a juniper graft, but for the purposes of this paper, it shall be considered as “An organic union of two plants, as when a bud, or shoot containing a bud, is mechanically combined with another plant in such a manner that it lives and develops upon the food and nutrients supplied by the other.”
The reasons for producing junipers by the grafting method are to enable the reproduction of those species and varieties that do not “come true” from seed, nor root readily as cuttings, and to insure vigorous shoot growth and plant development with those varieties proven to root so poorly as cuttings.
Author: R.P. Meahl
PP: 98
A search of the literature reveals very little reference to the propagation of magnolias. Older books on propagation, however, are generally agreed that the seeds exhibit a dormancy, and should be stratified to secure good germination. Before sowing the seed, it was recommended that the outer fleshy covering be removed to prevent rapid deterioration by fungi.
Millais (5) mentioned that Magnolia macrophylla seeds sown immediately after gathering, germinated readily. He recommended the storage of freshly gathered seed of Magnolia grandiflorain dry sand until February, then in moist sand for seven to ten days to loosen the outer coat. After these coats were removed by washing in water, the seeds should be sown in a cold frame.
Toumey (7) found that seeds of Magnolia acuminate gave a germination of only about 3 per cent at maturity, even though about 68 per cent seemed sound. It was his belief that the hard endosperm of these seeds required several months for the absorption of sufficient…
Author: F.C. Galle
PP: 105
Due to my limited experience with only one species (M. grandiflora) and only two specific references (I and 2), I sent out letters to nurserymen and members of the Plant Propagators’ Society, requesting their experiences and procedure in handling Magnolias by seed. I received twenty-five (25) replies from this inquiry and wish to thank the contributors, for I have compiled my talk from their varied experiences.
From the references and the letters, I obtained information on fifteen (15) species and several varieties. The most common species normally grown from seed were M. grandiflora, virginiana(glauca),Kobus, accuminata, soulangeana, and stellata.
Collecting and handling seed - The cone-like fruits of magnolia, depending on the species and area, ripen from late summer to fall. The cones consist of several to many coalescent, one to two seeded follicles. At maturity the red to scarlet outer seed coat is fleshy and oily, and the inner seed coat is hard or stony.
Author: Tom Dodd Jr
PP: 108
r. President, Ladies, and Gentlemen: I am very glad to bring to you this report on MAGNOLIAS FROM CUTTINGS. Dr. Snyder called me last October and asked that I take part in this meeting and I deem it a distinct honor and privilege to do so.
As you probably already know, the Oriental magnolia is a very important crop with the nurserymen in southern Alabama. It is the largest deciduous crop we have and second only to broadleaves in propagation and sales. I would estimate that there are upwards of two and one half million cuttings rooted annually in Mobile County alone. However, in this report, I refer to our own experiences, although our method of propagation is general throughout the county.
The most desirable wood for cuttings is the softest and most succulent wood on the stock plants. To get this type wood, we apply a liberal amount of commercial fertilizer, such as 6;8;4 or 4;10;7, at a rate of about two thousand pounds per acre after the last killing frost which occurs usually...
Author: Charles Hess
PP: 113
Before going into grafting, I think the first thing to discuss is the growing of the proper understocks. We have found in our experience that Magnolia Kobus is the most outstanding understock for all Oriental varieties of magnolias. It is easy to grow and makes a wonderful root system, however, our biggest problem has been to get good seed from the Orient. It is only occasionally that we get seed which has been properly handled. In our experience with Magnolia Kobus, once the seed dries out it loses it’s germination power. One year we had a bed of seeds from Japan which gave us about a five percent stand the first year, but an excellent stand the second year. It also came up the third, fourth, and fifth year after we planted the seed. I am not able to explain why, but we have found that unless we could get Japanese seed early in the fall and have it packed in damp peat moss, it just will not germinate.
Years ago, we planted our own M. Kobus with the idea of growing our own seed.
Author: L.C. Chadwick
PP: 120
Hardwood cuttings have been used as a means of propagating deciduous shrubs and trees for centuries. It is an economical and efficient method of production and it is surprising that so little attention, experimentally, has been given to the practice. A survey of the literature indicates relatively few research publications dealing with this method of propagation.
In commercial practice this method of propagation has been confined largely to types of plants that root easily from Cuttings. Other than with fruits, little attempt has been made on the part of research workers, to formulate procedures whereby this method could be used with cuttings of some of the more difficult-to-root plants. The method is worthy of further exploitation.
Commercial, hardwood cuttings of deciduous shrubs are handled in two different ways. The most common method is to make long cuttings during the winter months, tying them in bundles and storing them in a cool place over winter.
Author: Louis C. Vanderbrook
PP: 133
In the propagation of deciduous shrubs from hardwood cuttings one of the first things we have to consider is that we are dealing with living organisms, and care must be taken in all our procedures to prevent death or losses. It therefore becomes necessary that we carefully select our cutting wood from healthy plants and only when it is in a ripened or good condition. In our nursery we have established stock blocks of most all the varieties which we propagate and in time will have every variety included in the stock blocks.
We usually cut our wood in the late fall after we have had sufficient frost to thoroughly ripen the wood. It is then brought into the warehouse and kept in a moist, cold part of the building until we are ready to start making the cuttings.
Cuttings which are going to be planted in the field outdoors in the spring are made up in eight inch lengths, starting about February 1st after we have finished our other winter work, tied in bundles of approximately 100 and then…
Author: J.P. Mahlstede
PP: 140
A knowledge of the various physiological and anatomical conditions which exist at the time of collection and which are concerned with the process of root development, in any cutting type will, in time, result not only in increased stands, but also in the more efficient operation of the propagation end of the nursery business.
This presentation has been divided into two parts; one, which discusses the literature which may be applied to softwood cuttings in general, and another which summarizes this material as it is related to softwood propagation under constant mist. Each of these topics, in turn is divided into a number of sections which present the appropriate data in a logical sequence, progressing from the selection of propagating wood, through cutting preparation and rooting.
Author: Leslie Hancock
PP: 151
The purpose of this paper is to describe a method of rooting many types of flowering Shrubs, broad-leaved evergreens, etc. in ordinary nursery soil during the months of June and early July without the use of glass or plastic substitutes. This method of rooting softwood cuttings that has been evolved by Woodland Nurseries at Cooksville, Ontario, had its beginning in certain observations made in Nanking, China, during the years 1923;1927. As Horticulturist on the staff of the College of Agriculture, University of Nanking, I found the Chinese flower gardeners using a primitive but very effective method of rooting roses, hydrangeas, and a few other ornamentals in ordinary garden soil.
During May, slightly raised beds of pulverized soil about three feet wide were constructed with a narrow rim of compacted soil sufficiently high to prevent any run off when small patches were flooded as required, much like miniature rice paddies. The propagating material used was the short side shoots…
Author: H.F. Harp
PP: 165
It is a well known fact that stems of plants generally bend towards light. Darwin (3) was the first to demonstrate that some "stimulus" was transmitted from the tip to a region further down the axis of seedlings exposed to one-sided illumination. The response of the plant to this "stimulus" caused the axis to bend toward light as a result of an unequal rate of growth.
To the inquiring mind, there were many questions in connection with this phenomena which were yet unanswered. It was for Boysen Jensen (1) some years later to demonstrate that Darwin's "stimulus" was a chemical substance which moved through the tissues of the plant.
In 1928, F. W. Went, (4) working with biochemists at the University of Utrecht, described a quantitative method for determining the presence of these chemical substances, which were later to be called plant hormones, or auxins. Went's original method of using agar blocks and oat seedlings to determine hormone concentration is essentially the same.
Author: S.L. Emsweller
PP: 170
When one attempts to speak on a subject as broad as indicated by this title he is confronted with the problem of selecting a few items among the many that are available.
Horticulture is a very broad term and one that is difficult to define. To many it concerns all phases of production of horticultural plant materials. In this sense it includes breeding, pathology, physiology, entomology and all the related fields. It is only very recently that a horticulturist was supposed to be informed in all these fields and in fact many amateur gardeners still consider him a source for all information on all sorts of plants.
At the present time research on horticultural plants is being done by many workers who classify themselves as physiologists, geneticists, pathologists, entomologists and cytologists. Modern research is so complex that it is usually impossible for one man to be trained in all the scientific fields that may be utilized in solving any problem. This has led to close cooperation