AusBonsai

im wishing to take a few cuttings from a captain cook bottle brush at my nans house.
my question is how big of a cutting can i take? 20cm or is that too big? also can i use honey instead of rooting hormone?

Pup's post has a lot of helpful info: viewtopic.php?f=55&t=2641

Filled with A LOT of answers definately reccomended reading (and I beleive your questions are answered in the first two posts )

DENAz wrote:Pup's post has a lot of helpful info: viewtopic.php?f=55&t=2641

Filled with A LOT of answers definately reccomended reading (and I beleive your questions are answered in the first two posts )

You just beat me to it! Yes, that thread has some great info. I would say it's required reading for working with Callistemon. I'm getting ready to do some cuttings myself. Good luck!

well i guess i better read it then. im considering buy a few as well just the settle the urges lol.

Could an airlayer be an alternative?

bazron wrote:well i guess i better read it then. im considering buy a few as well just the settle the urges lol.

Yeah, pup even talks about using honey for the cuttings, so its definatley worth it

The green shed (in my area at least) has just recently stocked up on a heap of Calli's, I bought a few interesting ones from there a week ago Think I have 5 different varieties growing in training pots at the moment (not to mention a heap of seeds sprouting)

Thanks for the post Bazron
Im becoming more and more interested in our native species and I think this has just pushed me over the edge
I may have to purchase some this weekend also. Just to see how I go.

xtolord wrote:Could an airlayer be an alternative?

I haven't tried it myself, but others have said that these do well with air layers too. Which method you choose depends on how much you value getting an extra tree out of it vs how much you want to just get to work on the trunk now I suppose. I have one tree with some layers set, it another that ill be doing cuttings on because I don't wan to wait.

Air layers are the go. I have done up to a succesful 7cm layers. Defenatley try the aerial layers.

I took some big (15cm dia) Calli cuttings about a month ago. Pupped them with some honey and have been misting them with a combo of seasol and rooting hormone regularly since (off the back of a posting here talking about nurseries using rooting hormone this way to improve survival rates).

Looking healthy still, no leaves dropping and some budding so we have lift off! Fair bit of stored energy in a bit of wood this big so probably to early to call in reality, but hoping to see some roots out the bottom of the pots soonish.

Steve B wrote:I took some big (15cm dia) Calli cuttings about a month ago. Pupped them with some honey and have been misting them with a combo of seasol and rooting hormone regularly since (off the back of a posting here talking about nurseries using rooting hormone this way to improve survival rates).

Looking healthy still, no leaves dropping and some budding so we have lift off! Fair bit of stored energy in a bit of wood this big so probably to early to call in reality, but hoping to see some roots out the bottom of the pots soonish.

15CM in diameter! thats what im hoping to do. how long are the cuttings?

between about 25 to 30cm high. I've been hacking them back for a while now in preparation (I could have been airlayering, but I didn't have regular access to monitor them). They are really just stumps with a handfull of new branchlets (sub 0.5cm dia) and shoots - I'd guess less than 50 leaves in total to try and minimise water loss (but hopefully enough to take up the rooting hormone I'm spraying on them).

I think if your Nan can be talked into letting you airlayer them it will give you a better chance of survival on anything this big. Some great methods in the discussions here. I want to try an airlayer this size and use the rooting hormone misting technique to see how that goes. Maybe try a cutting as a fallback on the least desirable target?