During this long, cold winter, I decided I’d take on a few different projects in an attempt to fight off the mid-winter blues.
We’re all dreaming of sunny, warm spring days, with flowers in bloom and tender salad greens as far as the eye can see….
That’s definitely not our reality right now, though; at least, not in 7a, it’s not.
For this project, we are rooting plum tree cuttings.
Well, we’re trying to at least! I, however, don’t think this is going to end as intended; I’m taking a second round of cuttings in order to get a backup batch rooting going ASAP, to ensure we succeed somewhere!
On the bright side, we’ll wind up with one of two situations out of this particular project:
- Either everything will end up just spiffy, and the cuttings will root (Haha… not how things work on the homestead, usually!)
- Or, the cuttings will fail and I will tell you everything you SHOULDN’T do.
As time goes on, we will add further updates and link to them from this post– so be sure to check out the updates as we roll them out!
Rooting Plum Trees: What Are We Doing, and How Are We Doing It?
I will preface this with saying that I’ve already done plenty of things wrong with this batch of cuttings; and I know it. I also wasn’t sure how the cuttings would react to being brought indoors; I wanted to attempt to stimulate them to root indoors, to hasten the process. Thus, I cut the branches and brought them indoors. I then placed the cuttings (top side up!) into a cup of water. They’ve been relaxing, enjoying the warmer indoors, for about two weeks now. Yup, that’s right; in their cup of water.
Now, I did my research. Truly, I did. However, this doesn’t always yield ALL of the answers you need– and as you’ll see, human error, factors in too. But isn’t that the fun in a project? I have found reports that rooting plums are both unbelievably easy, and impossibly hard– clearly, variety plays a big role in this.
You see, “variety” is the funny part here….. I’ll explain this one further down!
Mistake #1: Or Was It a Mistake?
For my first mistake, I should not have left the cuttings in a cup of water. I completely forgot about them! I was rushing through the process of cutting the pruned branches to size and placing them in water. It was supposed to be temporary, for just a few hours, to keep them from drying out; 4 days later, I realized what I’d done. At that point, I decided to roll with it, and see what happens. I figured it was too late to move them over to soil, so I left them alone.
Here’s the kicker though: I have seen many instances where people recommend allowing the cuttings to sit in water, giving them time to develop a callus. This, I have not seen yet. However, this supposedly assists the plum or stone fruit cuttings with rooting, and successful propagation. I guess we’ll see if this occurs as this project continues on!
Mistake #2: I Should Have Graduated the Plum Cuttings to the Indoors Slowly…
Alright, I was truly jumping the gun when I brought them inside. I was thinking that root growth would be nearly non-existent in the winter soil, believing that the cuttings might rot instead. I wanted to get these cuttings rooted and growing now, in order to plant them by the time spring came. This is a very SLOW process.
I think I should have taken the cuttings and placed them in a raised bed outdoors, with the hopes that they would just grow their roots, ever so slowly, through the remainder of the winter. Being indoors has forced them into spring mode, without any root development. This crossed my mind when I thought the buds appeared bigger… At that point, it was obviously too late to stick them back outside.
Now, pardon my macro shot; Depth of field within macro photography is a struggle.
The Current Situation: Plum Cuttings Are Flowering!
Flowering sounds awesome, right?? It must mean the cuttings are doing well, right?
No. Exactly the opposite actually! I was very bummed out when I realized the cuttings were flowering.
Flowering and fruit production are the most demanding tasks for a plant- since these cuttings have not yet developed roots, they have expended an incredible amount of their energy reserves on flowering.
That’s not good- you want that energy to go into root growth when propagating fruit trees, not flowering.
I fully expect these cuttings to die off largely due to the flowering; but I will allow them to run their course and see what happens. You truly never know what may happen! Plants are truly incredible, and they don’t get enough credit for the things that they are capable of!
What I’m Going to Do From Here: Damage Control & Backup Plan
Now that they are blooming, I’m going to remove all flower buds from roughly half of the cuttings. I will remove buds from the cuttings that are not even close to flowering yet- but I will not be removing leaf buds. There is a distinct difference.
By removing these tiny buds, I’m hoping that the cutting will retain enough energy to root successfully. As for the rest… I’m not expecting much.
The Backup Plan: Stay Tuned! Outdoor Propagation
For my backup plan, I’m going to take more cuttings and keep them outdoors, in soil. Half of them will receive rooting hormone, and the other half will not.
Because….. science!
These cuttings will be placed in a micro greenhouse, too. I’m going to build a tiny little bed, and fill it with rich potting soil. Then, I will place some drop cloth over the top, in order to maintain moisture. This will hopefully allow the cuttings to develop roots over winter, then begin showing growth in spring. I will also de-bud all of these cuttings in the spring, too.
The Curve Ball In Our Situation: Plum Tree Variety
As I mentioned, some varieties are rumored to root far easier than other varieties.
Our purchased variety, Damson Plum, is one of the ones that is supposed to be easy to root. This is where it gets tricky…
You see, we planted the tree towards the end of winter. The tree just never put on any leaves, and I assumed it was late to do so (like some other trees we have). Come June, I assumed it was dead. I did my rounds one day a few weeks later, and noticed a small plant coming up from the base of the trunk! It was alive! This tiny growth exploded into a 6 foot tree before autumn arrived; it now towers over me (as if it didn’t already), and one would NEVER guess that this tree is only 18 months old.
As time went on, I began to question this plum tree… I think it may have been a grafted tree, but I cannot find evidence of this. If this is the case, the grafted tree may have completely died, leaving behind a root stock that was still alive. I cannot be positive of this, but I do have some other evidence that this may be the case: including the fact that this tree is technically going into its third year, and is clearly going to be covered from head to toe with flowers this spring!
By fall, I [should] be able to confirm the variety of plum that we have. I say should, as you can NEVER expect a harvest- you can only hope for one, as most seasoned homesteaders already know. Any number of things could happen before we receive a mature fruit from the tree, which is one good reason for my attempts at propagating it.
So wish us luck, and be watching for updates!
Thank you all for dropping in and hanging out with us!
Don’t forget to leave some comments below, and feel free to tag along on our journey- go on and propagate a tree or two!