365Caws is now in its 14th year of publication, and was originally intended to end after 365 days. It has sometimes been difficult for me to find new material, particularly during the winter months, but now as I enter my own twilight years, I cannot guarantee that I will be able to provide daily posts. It is my hope that along the way I may have inspired someone to a greater curiosity about the natural world. If so, I can rest, content in the knowledge that my work here has been done.
Friday, May 3, 2024
Let's Propagate!
Day 203: When a Parkie friend announced that she and her family were contemplating a move, I realized that I would no longer have access to medlars from her tree. I have not yet perfected the art of making medlar jelly, and don't know anyone else with a tree, so I asked her if I could take some slips. I did some research, came up with a couple of possible propagation methods, one of which involved grafting medlar scions onto either hawthorn or quince rootstock, both of which I have in the yard. It's been many, many years since I did a graft, so I reviewed the technique and went visiting with secateurs in hand. Two things were operating against me, though. The first was that they had pruned the tree of almost all the one-year wood. The second was that the new wood was all very small in diameter and would be difficult to graft. As a backup plan, I took cuttings, dipped them in rooting hormone and stuck them down in prepared medium. As anticipated, the grafting did not go well, but the slips appear to be in good shape. Time will tell if they hold their terminal leaves and form roots. In any event, it will be years before I can try making medlar jelly again.
Labels:
grafting,
horticulture,
medlars,
propagation
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