AusBonsai

do root cuttings have to be fully covered by soil in order to shoot or can they shoot from exposed areas?--specifically wisteria and english and chinese elms---

Only ever tried wisteria ( which failed), but think that they need to have some of the root exposed to shoot from.

Ken

I have successfully done root cuttings from cleros and Chinese elms. The clero remained dormant for a LONGtime (months a and months) , to the point where I was going to throw the pot out. When I tipped the pot out I saw little white rootlets and happily repacked the soil in. I now have about four small cleros ready to be wired.

The CE's were dead easy. They can't help but root with soil, time and a little fertiliser.

I will never throw away roots from these again. I can take them to a club meeting to give away or sell.

Both English Elms and Chinese Elms do well with root cuttings. They are easy to style too as the roots --> trunks are relatively flexible. They tends to shoot near the top cut so as long as you leave some top exposing to the air, they will shoot up just fine. There is no need to expose a lot as they do not often have lateral shoots from root cuttings anyway.
Cheers
DK

I always leave the top 1/3 of root cuttings above the soil. They will still shoot if buried but can put out roots from the new shoots. I have struck some from longer, twisted roots with 4-5 cm below soil and 10 cm+ exposed. Elm cuttings nearly always produce buds just around the exposed cambium where the top is cut.

I have not struck wisteria from roots but the way they sucker from any severed roots I expect they will be easy too.

Guy,

The trick with elms is to cut back the root to a few cms above the fine roots. Normally root cuttings are a singl thick root with a bunch of fine roots on the end. You will not get branches developing from the root structure, so cut it fairly short. I leave mine with the tips sticking up above the surface. Then go like wildfire!

I agree with shibui, leave about one third above the growing media. This works well with crabapple and crepe myrtle.

-thankyou everybody for the info-I'll leave them alone now for a couple of months and see what happens--perhaps I'll end up with quite a few with the exposed root style.