Horizontal tree cuttings

[slowworm]

This year I'm trying out a method of growing a new goat willow hedge by taking 2"-4" rods of goat willow about 2'-4' long and laying them down horizontally to see if they root and throw up shoots along the branch. I've left the odd thick cutting laying on the ground in the past and they've grown, so I thought I'd try on purpose. If it works it has the benefit of the rods rooting without being blown about by all the wind we've had this winter.

I've had a look but can't find out if this method has a name or is even suggested anywhere. Anyone know?

 

[Kepis]

Closest i can think off is Pleaching, i've done it with Hazel & Willow in the past, but normally by bending over a supple whip (shoot) and pinning it to the ground, i used to scrape off the outer bark where it touches the ground to encourage rooting to take place. Once the new tree was established with a healthy root, i then separated the shoot from the parent tree.

I know that Willow cuttings ive discarded in the past from a cutting/thinning operation have rooted, some are nice trees now too.

 

[Pattree]

If the rods were still attached to roots it would be called layering. It’s how to propagate rhododendrons etc.

Without being attached to the rootstock I guess they are simply cuttings. I think I’d put some compost over the basal end of each rod. It might keep water flowing through the tissues. You don’t want the xylem to dry out before the dormant buds have started to grow and initiated root radicals. I might even drop them into a shallow slit were I doing it.

I’ll be interested to hear how they get on.

 

[Kepis]

If the rods were still attached to roots it would be called layering. It’s how to propagate rhododendrons etc.

Pleaching Hazel | Hedgelink

hedgelink.org.uk

Video shows the type of thing that i've done, just a slightly different method, the old fella that taught me didn't dig a slit or lay the whip down as the chap in the video does, we just as i said above, scrapped the bark off where the wood touched the ground and pinned it in place, guess it's one of the oddities of regional variation of age old skills and methodology.

 

[Broch]

Yep, we tend to just pin using a Y from a hazel branch and then scatter a bit of 'woodland compost' (AKA woodland floor) over the pinned down branch. It's a basic way of recovering an old hedge by filling in the gaps before laying it. It takes years mind.

 

[British Red]

Yep, we tend to just pin using a Y from a hazel branch and then scatter a bit of 'woodland compost' (AKA woodland floor) over the pinned down branch. It's a basic way of recovering an old hedge by filling in the gaps before laying it. It takes years mind.

Yup I layer rootstocks in this way but often lay an entire 3' sapling in the ground with just the top leaves proud. I can get 6 or more rootstocks like that

 

[slowworm]

Closest i can think off is Pleaching, i've done it with Hazel & Willow

Yes, I've layered hazel and other plants in the past. I also have a few acres of old willow carr where I've seen the grey/goat willow stems fall and root whilst still connected to their parent plant.

I'm now trying to root cuttings, the closest thing I can think of is when you take a leaf cutting but lay in over the compost and you get multiple plants grow.

Now I think about it I wonder if you can grow something like herbaceous perennials via a horizontal cutting? Google is not being very helpful tonight.

 

[Pattree]

If you are looking for a hedge I’d be inclined to do it more conventionally. Cut six inch lengths and shove them in vertically in two rows staggered nine inches apart and maybe 18 inches to two feet between plants in a row. Then I’d shove in half a dozen extra at the end of each row.

By laying the wands flat you have no control over the spacing of the emerging plantlets. Some will be too close and some whole sticks won’t make it. It’s an interesting technique and if you pursue it I’d like to know how it works out.

By having a clump of spares tucked in close by you can beat up any gaps come Autumn.

I do most of my gardening such as it is, from an old turn-of-the-century gardening book - but I avoid / would be arrested for owning, most of the chemicals involved.
I can’t see your approach in there.

 

[Laurentius]

I have laid down the trunk of a willow tree and it has sent up vertical shoots.

 

[Broch]

This has to be the best example I have ever seen at the Charles Ackers Redwood Grove near Leighton (just 12 miles down the road from me). It's well worth a visit if you're ever in the area.

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