How to Propagate Kieffer Pear Trees from Cuttings

Kieffer Pears

The Kieffer pear is a tree that was gifted to me several years ago. I have very little to do to keep the tree looking good and producing fruit beyond giving it a yearly pruning in the winter. Only recently did I find that you can propagate the cuttings from a Kieffer Pear. Now granted, they are not nearly as easy as a willow cutting which just seems to want to root as soon as you try, but with some trial and error, the Kieffer pear cuttings will root over time.

The Kieffer pear is a hybrid between a European pear and a Chinese Sand pear with large crisp yellow fruit. I have to pay close attention or the squirrels will eat them just as they are about to ripen. I pick them while they are still firm and let them ripen inside safe from the wild harvesters.

Pear trees generally need between 200 and 800 chill hours of temperatures between 45 and 32 degrees to produce fruit. The Kieffer Pear needs about 400 chill hours and tolerates hot weather.

Since the Kieffer Pear is a hybrid, you can only use asexual propagation to reproduce the same plant. 

Kieffer Pear Blossoms

According to my research, the best way to propagate Kieffer Pear tree cuttings is the following:

• Prepare a 50:50 mixture of dampened vermiculite and coconut coir
• Fill a plant pot with at least 4 inches of the mixture
• Take either dormant or softwood cuttings and make sure the bottom angled cut is fresh and not dried out
• Dip the bottom of the cutting in rooting hormone
• Place the treated cutting in a prepared hole that is about 4 inches deep so that only one growth node is above the soil line
• Press the planting mixture firmly around the cutting
• Cover the container with clear film or a cover to allow light in but to also provide a humid environment for the cutting
• Place the cuttings under grow lights for 12 hours a day at about 72 degrees (F)
• Watch the cuttings for the next couple of months, lifting the cover every week or so to refresh the air and to make sure the soil stays moist.
• Once you see signs of root growth, transplant to a larger pot with regular potting soil and continue to water and make sure it gets 12 hours of sunlight a day.
• In the fall, allow the new plant to hibernate over the winter outside either in a pot or in a protected spot in your garden.
• Keep the soil moist for a least the first year after planting. 

So why not give this method a try and see if you can't produce a new tree for your food forest or backyard garden. If you don't have access to a Kieffer Pear tree, I do sell them for a few weeks of the year on Etsy here, Wildflower Run

How to Root Cherry Tree Cuttings (And Other Stone Fruits)

How many times have you seen an old cherry tree and wished you could have such a tree in your own yard. Just imagine going out in the summer and picking your own fresh cherries. Well you can! Ask the owner of the tree if you can take a few cuttings for yourself. Most of the time, the tree needs to be pruned in the winter while the tree is dormant to be ready for spring growth. Those cuttings normally just get tossed away as compost. 

• Look for pencil-sized thickness in cuttings about 6 to 8 inches long with several nodes. 
• Try to get the tops of the shoots from last year's growth
• Make sure to remove any flower buds as you want roots first
• Look for green under the bark to make sure you have a viable cutting

Rooting Method

1. Place the cuttings into a container of room temperature water as soon after you cut them from the tree as possible. You don't want the cut ends to dry out or you will have to recut them. I like to cut them so that the top has a straight perpendicular cut while the bottom has an angled cut.
2. Prepare a 6-inch deep rooting container by filling it with a 50:50 mixture of vermiculite and coconut coir that has been well moistened but is not wet. Press the mixture into the container  and then use a stick or pencil the same size as the cuttings to poke holes at least two inches apart.
3. Dip the bottom end of your cutting into rooting hormone, tap off the excess
4. Place the treated cutting into the prepared hole. Repeat for as many cuttings as you have.
5. Press the soil mixture firmly around the cuttings so that there are no gaps.
6. Cover the whole container with a lid or some sort of covering to keep the moisture from evaporating.
7. Set the container on a heated mat or in a heated greenhouse of about 75 degrees F.
8. Watch the cuttings for the next 6 to 8 weeks and remove the cover several times during the week to allow for fresh air and mist if necessary.
9. Transplant carefully to a plant pot filled with regular potting soil when you see signs of rooting.
10. Keep the newly grown cherry tree in the warm and bright conditions until the outside soil is 60 degrees and you can plant directly into the ground.

Note: Cherry cuttings are more difficult to root than other plants, but you can expect 50% success with this method.

If you don't have access to a cherry tree for cuttings, you can order them from Etsy where I sell some from my trees here, Wildflower Run

 

How to Root Muscadine Grape Vine Cuttings

Beautiful Muscadine Grapes

I have been growing grapes for almost fifteen years from cuttings I found while walking through my neighborhood. There was an old dilapidated house that was slowly sinking into the creek, but this house had a short fence with grape vines rambling over and around the old metal bars. One day in late October, as I walked my normal route, I realized that a neighbor had done a lot of pruning to the old vine and left the cuttings to dry up and rot away. Somewhere in the back of my brain, I remembered that grape vines could be encouraged to root and then sprout back into life. I took my treasure home and  found a spot in my yard to "plant" them in a trench about 6 inches deep. From the fruit I had seen during the summer, I thought they were Concord grapes, and figured they couldn't be that hard to grow.

Well, here it is now over a decade later and every year we get a nice harvest from the nine vines that grew from those cuttings. Almost nothing bothers the vines or the fruit except for a few rascally beavers that every few years will come along and bite through the nice thick base of the vine only to find that nothing falls down and he resorts to eating the lower portion of the vine down to the ground. As aggravating as it is, I know I can take cuttings from the leftover suspended vines on the trellis and that the roots will push out a new vine in the spring.

Inside the Muscadine grape vines

My muscadine grape vines were a little more pampered. I bought them as rooted plants from a fancy nursery store and then planted them at the end of my yard. They were slow to get started but mostly because the soil was really poor and although I added a few inches of mulch over their base, the root zone was compacted.

They now grow a mile a minute during the growing season. Their black fruits are somewhat similar to a Concord grape in that they have a tougher outer skin that is quite tart. but the inside is very sweet.

Muscadine Grape Vine Cuttings

So just how do I root the cuttings from my muscadine vines? (Note that these are non-patented vines) Well, I have two methods:

Fall and winter planting of dormant vine cuttings:

Note: I think (but I have not found sound research to prove this) the muscadine vines need a cold stratification time after they lose their leaves in the fall so if you are collecting cuttings in the early fall months, I recommend at least 48 hours in the freezer before taking the following steps. Otherwise, cuttings collected in the winter have already gone through natural stratification and are ready to start rooting

• prepare a rooting soil mixture of 50:50 vermiculite and sand or something similar
• poke holes in the soil mixture about the depth of two thirds of the length of the cuttings
• soak the cuttings in hot water (around 120 degrees F) for about 10 minutes
• remove them from the water, blot off excess moisture and dip in rooting hormone
• place the hormone covered end into the prepared holes 
• press the soil mixture firmly around the base of the cutting
• cover the rooting container loosely to hold in moisture.
• place the container on a heat mat held at about 80 degrees F. in a shaded area
• watch the cuttings for about 5-8 weeks making sure to keep the soil damp but not wet
• once you see a callus form around the base of the cuttings, transplant the cutting into another container with regular potting soil and keep moist and still on the warming mat
• check the cuttings carefully over the next couple of weeks to watch for the buds to swell. When you see signs of life, move them off the warming mat and under lights to encourage upper growth. 

Basically, you now have a tender young grapevine. You can start to harden it off by bringing it outside for a few hours at a time - if the ground is 60 degrees F or warmer. Don't try to plant it outdoors in the late fall or the cold stress might kill it.

Summer Rooting:

This is a much easier time to encourage muscadine grape vine cuttings to root.

• take a basal cutting of the current year's growth that is a little thinner than a pencil.
• remove all the leaves except for the top leaf and cut that in half. 
• prepare your dampened rooting mixture of 50:50 vermiculite and coconut coir
• poke holes in the soil mixture about the depth of two thirds of the length of the cuttings
• dip the end of your cutting in rooting hormone 
• place the angled end into the prepared holes and press the soil mixture firmly around the base of the cutting
• cover the rooting container loosely to hold in moisture.
• set aside in a warm and shaded area for 6 to 8 weeks. You should see plenty of root and maybe  leaf growth by the end of this time.
• remove the covering when you see leaves budding out and keep the soil damp
• plant into regular potting/garden soil after the leaves open

If you don't have access to a muscadine grape vine, I do sell cuttings from my plants during the year on Etsy here, WildflowerRun.

How to Root Hardy Kiwi (Actinidia arguta) Cuttings

I think there are lots of people that are like myself that want to start their own plants from a cutting. There is something intriguing about taking a dormant stick and watching life spring from under the seemingly dead bark. On the same hand, I have found such disappointment from watching a potentially alive stick do nothing more than rot away gradually before my eyes. Slowly, I am learning how to perfect the rooting process for better success rates.

Although the hardy kiwi is becoming more popular in nurseries, I think the vine is still a newcomer to most gardens, at least in the Mid Atlantic states around me. 

The vines take several years to fruit - mine took almost ten years before we actually saw fruit, but a couple of those years, we saw early blossoms only to have a late frost that killed off any coming fruit, so we might have had fruit earlier.

One of the coolest things about rooting a cutting is that the plant takes on the age of the mother plant, so even though you might start rooting some cuttings, you won't have to wait seven to ten years to get fruit, rather two or three years or just until the plant is established enough to bear fruit.

Why would you want to grow hardy kiwis?

• they are delicious right off the vine - no peeling required
• the plants are pest proof
• the vine is a beautiful landscape plant
• the hardy kiwi vine grows fast!
• the hardy kiwi is still a unique plant
• the kiwi berries are very nutritious and rarely found in grocery stores
• the plant is very hardy and takes abuse 

So just how do you root hardy kiwi cuttings?

1. Prepare a 50:50 mix of vermiculite and sand and dampen with water
2. Fill plant pots or a deep tray with at least 6 inches of the prepared rooting mixture and press to flatten (I like translucent containers so I can see the root growth)
3. Use the end of a pencil to poke holes about an inch shorter than the cutting
4. Dip the freshly cut end of the cutting in rooting hormone
5. Place the cutting in the hole
6. Press the soil mixture firmly around each of the cuttings
7. Cover the container to hold in moisture
8. Place in a shaded area that stays warm (68-75 degrees F)
9. Check the cuttings every week and mist if the soil mixture seems dry to the touch
10. Wait and wait and wait some more.

Cuttings take time to root and hardy kiwis take at least two months if not longer. However, once you notice that the roots are started, the wait is forgotten and the excitement of a new plant takes over.

You can plant the cutting in a prepared garden bed or a plant pot. Think of growing hardy kiwis as you would a grape vine, but a grape vine on steriods. 

You will need -

•  a spot with full sun (8+ hours a day)
•  soil with good organic matter and freely draining
•  a strong six-eight foot trellis that will hold the vines off the ground.

If you are interested in starting your own cuttings and don't have a local source, you can check out my Etsy page here: Kiwi Berry Cuttings

References:

http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.1039.2464&rep=rep1&type=pdf,

https://ssl.acesag.auburn.edu/department/peaches/kiwiprop.html

Planting Jerusalem Artichokes (Sunchokes)

I had my first taste of sunchokes as a child living in California - a long time ago, Since then, I didn't see sunchokes or Jerusalem artichokes as I knew them, until a couple of years ago when we were shopping in a large Korean grocery market. I looked at my husband, Eric and excitedly showed him the package of three or four tubers on a Styrofoam tray wrapped in cellophane, fully expecting him to reciprocate my enthusiasm but instantly seeing his doubt. After I briefly explained my experience, he agreed that we should at least try them, so we brought them home. 

That was the beginning of the explosion of sunchokes all over our property! I planted the three or four tubers along our driveway envisioning three or four flower plants gracing our yard with tubers for harvesting in the fall. Instead what happened was that I almost forgot about them as our yard became a massive construction site as we lifted our home 8 feet higher for flood protection.

The following spring, I noticed new little plants springing up where I planted them but also several on the other side of the driveway. I let them grow and enjoyed the tall plants and bright yellow flowers after the fall equinox. When the frost killed them back to the ground, I pulled up some of the dried stems and found several tubers under each plant, which I was thrilled to try my hand at cooking. We tried roasting them simply in the oven, boiling them with mashed potatoes, adding them to soups, and really enjoyed our new crop - although they never seemed as good as when I was a child eating them for the first time.

A year later, our yard exploded with sunchokes popping up everywhere. I will mention that we love growing all sorts of plants and are in the process of turning our lawns into food forests so we were not concerned about the invasiveness of this plant since it was not just a food source but also a beautiful flower. However, you can keep them under control by simply mowing the young plant, or planting the tubers in large planters and cutting the blooms before they go to seed.

So just how do you plant sunchokes?

Since sunchokes are often harvested in the late fall, you can plant right away, or store them as you do other flower bulbs, in a slightly damp material like sawdust or sand in an unheated garage in the dark. Either way, you want them to stay dormant until spring.

1. Prepare a hole about 6 inches deep in rich soil with plenty of organic matter and in full sun
2. Set the tuber in the hole and cover with soil, firming the soil until the hole is filled.
3. Water the area lightly if the soil is not damp.
4. Wait for the tuber to grow!

That is really how easy they are. You can plant them in the late fall, or the  middle of winter if you can get a fork in the ground or early in the spring. They are very hardy and don't seem to have many pests, besides maybe some aphids in the early summer.

More info:

According to Wikipedia... "The Jerusalem artichoke, also called sunroot, sunchoke, wild sunflower, topinambur, or earth apple, is a species of sunflower native to central North America. It is cultivated widely across the temperate zone for its tuber, which is used as a root vegetable."

Growing zones 3-8

Source for buying sunchokes, (from my own plants): Etsy, Wildflower Run