AusBonsai

Can you take cuttings from a gum tree and will they take?
If so when is the best time?

In short; NO.

There have been cases of success but they are few and far between. They all used really young material (tiny seedlings) and had VERY POOR strike rates.

Seed of most species germinate readily.

Joel

hi joel ive tried with seed a couple of times and since im only a beginner i havent had any succes so could you advise me as to what the best way to do this is please

Eucs rarely strike from cuttings - don't know why. It's not worth the effort however seeds are plentiful and germinate readily. Maybe you could experiment with the cuttings and discover the secret to success?
Flybri is successful with euc layers so maybe he has some experience with cuttings as well

Joel wrote:In short; NO.

Aint that the truth. The fact of the matter is that they self sow so prolifically that cuttings are not really required. I am forever picking them out of my Bonsai pots and if i plonk them into some soil, away they go. If someone wants to practise with Eucs they are welcome to come and help themselves.

The only euc cuttings i have heard of were taken from very young shoots growing from the lignotuber or epicormic shoots when a tree has been pruned hard or badly damaged.

I also have to weed them out of the pots and its quite a distance to the nearest tree here so how does that happen?

Seed shoud be easy. I have grown thousands when we were revegetating our farm.
Fill a tray or pot with seed raising mix (better to use this as a beginner, though I usually just use normal potting mix). The seed of most is very fine so just sprinkle it onto the surface then cover with a very thin layer of seed raising mix, fine sand or vermiculite. Most will probably germinate just sprinkled on the surface and not covered.
Best to water by soaking in a tray first or all the seed will float away if watered too hard. Use a fine spray or mist to water or use the 'bog method' - leave the seed tray sitting in a shallow saucer of water so the moisture wicks up through the mix to the seed.
Fertile seed germinates at most times of the year in a week or 2. Some alpine species may need stratifiaction but most germinate whenever there is sufficient moisture.

Prick out the seedlings into potting mix when they are big enough to get hold of - usually 2-3 pairs of leaves.

were the ones you had no success with purchased or collected?

shibui wrote:I also have to weed them out of the pots and its quite a distance to the nearest tree here so how does that happen?

It is really interesting that when i am working under my yellow box i can hear the pods exploding with popping sounds. I think this releases the seed and the wind carries them out of the distance of the mother tree. They need to be out of the area where the large tree feeds or they will not survive They literally produce millions.

bodhidharma wrote:It is really interesting that when i am working under my yellow box i can hear the pods exploding with popping sounds. I think this releases the seed and the wind carries them out of the distance of the mother tree. They need to be out of the area where the large tree feeds or they will not survive They literally produce millions.

I'm just picturing a David Attenborough doco in that bodhi

They sure can pop up everywhere, my husband puts plastic pots full of potting mix in and around my bonsai so that I end up watering empty pots, he has lined the driveway with gums and bottlebrushes with the trees that have self sowed in these pots. he also scores seedlings from me when it is repotting time, as the gums are seem to love my bonsai pots

I agree with all that has been said about prolific eucalypt seedlings, and that this is usually the easiest way to propagate them. However, in my other life I have been involved in a number of commercial operations to clone eucalypts, and some species are not too hard if you have a good set-up. For example, E. camaldulensis (river red gum), E. saligna (Sydney blue gum), E. grandis (Flooded gum or Rose gum) are all worth a try if you particularly want a clone. These are commercially important species for timber production and there may be others which are suited to bonsai which we haven't tried yet.

If you don't particularly want a clone, then... yeah go ahead with the seedlings.

Cheers, Andrew.