Eucalyptus cuttings

[GavinG]

The generally-accepted wisdom is that you can't grow Eucs from cuttings, and seeds are easy, so why bother?

The answer is that if you find a particular form that has small leaves/short internodes/gives good tips for the races, then reproducing it exactly can be useful.

The stuff that came up on the Net was all to do with commercial forestry, and interestingly, not in Australia. Commercial plantations of Eucs in frinstance Africa, Brazil and France appear to be quite technically advanced.

The technique involves using very young tips - as soon as the leaves have colour. Cut the most unformed leaves off the top. Rooting ability decreases very quickly with any maturity at all. They were using rooting hormone, mist and heat in cooler months for 70-90% success rate. It should be do-able for us, with very young tips, hormones, and a cloche or tent, in spring or maybe autumn. I'm curious if anyone wants to test it out.

Best of luck,

Gavin

[Joel]

I would be VERY impressed if anybody on here could boast even a 50% strike rate.

Personally, I would spend my time trying to graft.

Joel