6 ways to preserve cuttings from grafting and propagation
Cuttings of garden plants are harvested throughout the dormancy period. It is very important that the planting material went through the hardening process, which begins with the onset of autumn cold weather. In order for the plant to develop properly, it is necessary to properly preserve the rhizome. This can be done in a simple and inexpensive way.
In a snow pile.
This method is possible when a snow cover of at least 50 cm remains in winter.For storage, a shallow trench of 35-40 cm deep is dug.To keep the snow from melting, a layer of sawdust is poured on top or spruce branches are shifted. Grass cuttings are placed on top, covered with hay or straw and covered with earth. After a snowfall, an additional layer of snow is placed on the collar.
Winter storage should be in a dry, non-floodable place on the north side of the house or outbuilding, where the snow cover holds longer.
If the collar is done correctly, a stable temperature of about 0°C will be maintained inside during the winter.
To protect against rodents, the shoots are wrapped with fiberglass, plastic or metal mesh.
in sawdust.
This method is suitable for regions with warm winters with long thawing. From the northern side of the building, a layer of damp sawdust is poured on the ground, cuttings tied into small bundles are placed on top and covered with damp sawdust. In this case, the height of the shelter should be at least 25 – 30 cm.After freezing of the covering material, another layer of height of 40 cm is poured.
The storage area is covered with a polyethylene film and left until spring. A few days before grafting, cuttings are transferred to a warm room, where they will gradually thaw.
To ensure the protection of seedlings, the following recommendations of experienced gardeners should be used:
- To protect against rodents, the sawdust is treated with a solution of cryolin or carbolic acid;
- To avoid getting wet during thawing, cuttings are wrapped in plastic tubes, cuttings made of propylene pipe or in polyethylene film.
in a barrel.
For storage, you can build a stationary storage unit that will last for several years. For it, use a large metal barrel with small holes in the bottom. The container is buried in the ground and placed inside plastic bottles with frozen water, put cuttings on top, wrapped in a covering material. The barrel is closed with a lid. During the winter, the storage unit is regularly checked and the thawed water bottles are replaced.
In the basement.
Storing grass clippings in the basement is an old practice. It requires maintaining temperatures of y-2 – 1 ° C. To control the temperature in the basement, install a thermometer. This will avoid overheating or overcooling of the rhizome.
When heated to + 3 ° C buds begin to swell, and cuttings become unsuitable for transplanting.
Room humidity should not be maintained above 70%. To humidify the air in the basement put a bucket of water.
Seedlings can be stored in the basement in several ways:
- wrapped in burlap;
- in sawdust, placed cut side down in dark plastic bags. The bags are left open to allow air access to the seedlings;
- Spread the broth horizontally in wooden crates with small holes and sprinkle wet sand or peat on top.
To determine whether the sand is wet enough, you need to squeeze a small amount of substrate in your hand. If the water does not flow out, but you can feel the moisture, the moisture is suitable.
In the refrigerator.
The easiest way. It is suitable if a small amount of planting material is put in storage.
Cuttings are tied into small bundles, wrapped in a damp clean cloth, placed in a dry clean plastic bag and placed on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator. The optimal temperature is +2 ° C. Under these conditions, the inventory will be stored until the end of February. In March, the buds begin to wake up, so it is quite difficult to store sprouts in the refrigerator.
There is another way to store the stock: cuttings, filled on both sides and completely filled with paraffin, are wrapped in damp cloth or paper and packed in polyethylene. The bags are tied and leave a small hole for air circulation.
In the garden plot
Harvested cuttings can be stored in the garden. Gardeners use different methods:
- On the tree. Planting material is sorted, tied in bundles, wrapped in a clean plastic bag and tied to a tree. To insulate the trunk, it is also wrapped with a dry cloth or fleece.
- In the sand. For storage, you need to dig a ditch 50 cm deep. Down pour a layer of sand with a thickness of 5 cm. Place grass clippings tied in tight bundles, then pour a layer of wet sand 10 cm high. Backfill the ditch with a layer of earth. Additionally, you can cover with slate or roofing material.
- Potatoes. This option is used to store a small number of strips of valuable plant species. To make the decoction long-lasting, it is inserted into large potatoes, packed in tight plastic bags and stored in a cold place.
Any time of the year is suitable for harvesting cuttings. It is important to properly maintain the inventory, as the condition of the cuttings determines the quality of the finish.
Learn how to store cuttings for good results
Sooner or later every gardener is faced with the need to finish a fruit tree or other crop. How to store cuttings for finishing, in theory, every garden owner imagines. However, in practice, some difficulties often arise. This is especially true for beginner gardeners.
Basic rules for the preparation of the cuttings
Competent preparation is necessary in order to save the stem for subsequent finishing. It is important to understand that this procedure is very responsible, so some preparation is required.
Stem is a small part of the branch, which can breathe life into a full-fledged fruit tree. In this case, the resulting plant retains all the characteristics of the parent crop.
The first thing a gardener needs to know is that cuttings for rearing in the spring or autumn should be carried out only from clearly reliable trees, and attention should be paid to their yield and varietal qualities.
Next, it is necessary to follow the advice of experienced gardeners:
- Preferably use annual shoots;
- Make cuts from the outer side of the crown;
- Choose only strong and fully developed shoots;
- Cut the shoots from the south side of the apple tree.
Really prepared cuttings are perfectly preserved, which means that the process of re-growth will be easy.
Selection of cuttings
What does a proper stem look like? First of all, you need to know that its size should be 30 to 40 cm and about 10 mm thick. On each cuttings there should be up to 7 developed buds. Attention should be paid to the internodes – it is desirable that they be short, as it depends on this, what will be a blanket. The tree or shrub, from which the cuttings are taken, should be young and fertile, up to 10 years old, but not younger than 3 years.
Gardeners recommend harvesting more cuttings than necessary. This should be done if not all cuttings can be obtained.
Only cuttings should be harvested from those trees and shrubs that are suitable in terms of timing. They have good growth with apical and lateral buds. If cuttings have to be cut from young plants that have not yet formed a full-fledged crown, it is necessary to use branches that are planned to be removed in the spring. So the culture itself will not suffer.
Preparation of grape cuttings for storage and subsequent grafting is not much different from the preparation for transportation of fruit trees, but has some nuances. It is recommended to cut from the middle part of the flattened vine. Grapes can be stored for the entire winter and brought to awakening in water in the spring.
The data of the preparations.
An equally important question is when the grafting should be cut. There are certain dates on which they should stop. They can be harvested twice a season: in late fall or early winter and early spring.
Gardeners are more likely to use fall harvesting. It can be started immediately after the leaves have fallen and the first serious frosts. Why is it important to have time to carry out pruning at this time? The plant has fully moved into the dormant phase, and the shoots have already had time to harden. In addition, possible pests and pathogens are killed by low temperatures.
Many gardeners know that grafting requires a dormant cuttings. The cuttings cut at the beginning of winter remain dormant until the grafting process takes place in the spring. Therefore, gardeners try to make the cuttings in the fall.
In regions where winters are not very harsh, the temperature does not fall below e-15 ° C, cuttings are harvested on a winter day. For summer grafting, cuttings should be cut just before the procedure.
How to store cuttings for grafting, general rules to follow
The cuttings are cut correctly, the terms are observed. Now it is important to keep in this state, that is, in the dream.
The horticulturist faces the following tasks:
- Prevent damage to the cuttings;
- Eliminate the risks of frost;
- Preserve dormancy;
- Eliminate desiccation.
In addition, it is necessary to ensure that the cuttings are not accessible to mice and rodents.
Do not rely on your memory, especially if there are many cuttings. They should be tied into bundles, which are sorted by variety and attached to each one a label with an inscription in waterproof ink.
Basic methods of preserving cuttings
Now it is necessary to find out in detail how you can save cuttings for grafting. There are different ways, each gardener uses the one that is more accessible to him. It is worth getting acquainted with the most popular and choose a suitable option for yourself.
In the refrigerator.
For storing cuttings in the refrigerator, you will need several cellophane bags, paper and ordinary cloth. If there are few cuttings, it is enough to bind them in bundles, put them in several bags and leave in the refrigerator at a temperature no higher than 2 ° C. At the same time, storage in the freezer leads to the death of cuttings, they should be chilled, not frozen. Often they are first placed in clean cloth or paper, and then in bags.
The lower compartment of the refrigerator, where vegetables are stored, is used for this purpose. The temperature in this compartment is not higher than 4 ° C, so the cuttings will remain in the right condition until mid-February, and then the buds will begin to sprout, especially in stone plant species.
In the basement.
One of the oldest ways to store grafts is in the basement. Here gardeners need to decide the best way to store grafting cuttings for grafting, as there are several options. Many use burlap or other coarse cloth, sand or sawdust, but some prefer more sophisticated materials, such as peat or moss, which is regularly moistened.
If it is possible to use sawdust, it should first be thoroughly moistened, and then the cuttings should be placed in them in sections. Before this, they should be placed in opaque bags, not tying them too tightly – the processes must have access to air.
You can store the material in wet sand, but for this you need wooden crates. The processes are placed in crates with holes for fresh air access and sprinkled with wet sand on top. How do you determine the level of moisture needed for preservation in this way? There is a simple way to do this. You need to pick the sand in your hand and press down hard. If you can feel the moisture, the water does not drip, then the humidity is suitable. The temperature in the basement should be from 0 to 2 ° C. This mode is suitable for cuttings, as well as for other vegetable plants, other stocks. As for the humidity level in the basement, it should be between 60-70%.
Outdoors.
Storing cuttings outside has two options: in snow and in sawdust. For gardeners living in regions with good snow cover, this is the best option. As a rule, gardeners in advance dig a trench of suitable size to a depth of 30-40 cm, fill it with coniferous branches and put the material there, covering it with a spruce branch. Then it is covered with earth, sawdust, straw. The thickness of the snow cover should be at least half a meter throughout the winter. Many people do not dig a hole and store packed cuttings at least half a meter under a layer of snow. To make it melt, put sawdust or a layer of straw on top.
For regions prone to prolonged thawing, storage processes in sawdust is shown. Usually the northern side of the house is chosen for this purpose, prepared cuttings are placed on wet sawdust. On the same, the sawdust medium is poured on them, a layer of not less than 15 cm. When they freeze, a layer of dry sawdust is poured (40 cm). Then everything is covered with a film. It is believed that sawdust is the best way to obtain apple slices for subsequent grafting.
Other ways to store
Gardeners have found other ways of storing seedlings, which are no less successful. Among them are storing in a plastic bottle, in a food container, and even in a net on a tree outside the window. A good way to preserve processes is with fresh potatoes. To do this, cuttings with cuttings are stuck into the tuber. In this way they are stored until spring.
How to check preservation after winter
When the winter period is over and the grafting process is ahead, you need to check the condition of the cuttings. It should be taken out of the shelter at the very last moment before grafting.
First of all, grafting of stone fruits should be carried out, as their sap starts earlier than that of other plants. Then, seed fruit trees can be grafted.
The grafting is carefully checked. Signs of the received cuttings:
- The bark is smooth;
- when bending, the handle is quite elastic, it does not break;
- buds are tightly pressed to the trunk;
- scales smooth;
- the wood is light-colored on the cut;
- the bud at the cut is green in color, without brown spots.
It is not superfluous to conduct a test for frost resistance. You need to make several cuts on the cuttings and put them in fresh water. It will become transparent, if the cuttings have been successfully preserved and have not lost their basic properties, if frozen, the water will turn brown.
The preparation of cuttings and their subsequent storage is an important part of successful grafting. For the procedure to be successful and the fruit tree to please the harvest, it is necessary to prepare the material in time, taking into account all the rules and nuances. Proper storage is also very important for the culture. Each gardener can independently choose the method, based on the resources available to him.
