I had to cut some small branches/ suckers from the bottom of my Canadian Cherry tree and was wondering if I can root them? The tree is still young and very small, but I don't know if it's grafted or not.. Has anyone tried to root these, and what did you do to succeed? I would love any ideas. Right now, I just have them in water, after stripping most of the leaves off them towards the bottom.

You really ought to find out if it is grafted. If it is and those are root suckers you probably won't end up with your preferred cherry; might not end up with a cherry at all. The graft will look like a scar that goes all the way around the trunk, or a swollen out bulbous area, again around the trunk or possibly on one side (if side grafted).

If you feel it is part of the real cherry tree you can use a rooting hormone (I recommend Dip n' Grow liquid) and give it a try.

Shoe

Guess I could dig down around it a ways and see. Our maple tree is grafted, but I bought it and knew it. I'm always cutting suckers off the darn thing. Guess I could try rooting some of them too. Sis always needs trees for shelter belts for the livestock and doesn't care what they are, as long as they aren't cottonwoods

Well, if they are root stock suckers you could always root them, then root some cuttings from the cherry part, then graft the two together sometime, eh?

I say go for it, especially if your sister can use them one day; if they turn out to be cherry trees you can always go there during harvest time!

Shoe

Thanks Shoe for the vote of confidence? But I think I will give it a try, just to see how it works for me. Might be that some time I'll want to know I can do it

It would help to know what kind of cherry is a "Canadian Cherry"

The tag that came with it says: Canada Red Flowering Cherry prunus virginiana "Shubert" if that helps any But for some reason, now that I think back, seems like it might be a chokecherry of some kind?

Shubert is a chokecherry, which means the fruit size is about 1/3" It is primarily a decorative tree although the fruits are edible, if a bit tart. They can be used cooked or to make jelly. It is supposed to be a very beautiful tree.

Heck, probably won't ever harvest much fruit, as I'm sure the birds will beat me to it We planted 2 cherry trees, the other being a Montmorency and it really took off this year and filled out nicely and grew some and had a couple dozen cherries on it until the waxwings found it. Cherries weren't ripe yet, and the darn things ate all the meat off the pits and left the pits hanging there naked

skellogg said:Heck, probably won't ever harvest much fruit, as I'm sure the birds will beat me to it We planted 2 cherry trees, the other being a Montmorency and it really took off this year and filled out nicely and grew some and had a couple dozen cherries on it until the waxwings found it. Cherries weren't ripe yet, and the darn things ate all the meat off the pits and left the pits hanging there naked

Cherry trees should be rooted in spring to give them time to grow before they are transplanted outside. Some trees will need to be grown indoors over fall and winter if they do not grow quickly or large enough by the end of summer. steps are:----Fill your planter with a potting material consisting of half peat and half Perlite. Choose a cutting that is several inches long. Make sure it is wrapped in moist paper towels or newspaper until it is ready to be planted. Dip the end of the cutting into the hormone powder, thoroughly coating at least 1 inch of the cutting to stimulate root growth. Make a space for the tree in the planting material. Place the tree into the planter and cover the end of it with the planting material to hold it firmly in place. Spray the planting material once each day with water. Keep the tree in a well-lit, humid environment. If necessary, cover the tree with plastic sheeting to increase the humidity of its growing environment

Thanks for the info Matthew. I did not have it covered in plastic, but may need to do that, as we are always very dry here, and have very little humidity anywhere. Because it is so late in the season, and we've already had a couple of frosts, I was planning on trying to overwinter it inside. We will see how it does.

Multiple cuttings will improve the chances for success. Some Prunus can be difficult to start from cuttings and chokecherries are noted for that.

In general, I start softwood cuttings in pots in plastic bags, out of any exposure to the sun, of course. Matthew gave you good advice. I would just add that you should try both hardwood and softwood cuttings and may want to try slightly different times in the spring for softwood and differing times in fall or winter for hardwood (hardwood in the ground in winter or kept in the refrigerator until early spring).

I think most Prunus will have better success with softwood cuttings, however, there is a lot of variance depending on variety.. I have also read advice for starting (softwood) cuttings timing that is tied to how mature the fruit is, with some advice linking best success to cuttings (for Prunus, but not specific to your variety) that are taken between fruit set and fruit maturity.

Also remember that you are trying to propagate the top set of the plant, so root suckers should be avoided as sources for the cuttings if you are not sure that it has not been grafted.

Since you have an established plant, you should have a chance to repeat attempts under slightly different conditions, if your initial trials don't work.

ditto, what twitcher said regarding doing multiple cuttings. In a nursery you should be able to get 6 or 8 cuttings and have a better success rate. I do many of my cuttings in plastic bags also. It sure makes it easy to allow excess condensation out as well as air/gas exchange if you use a bag big enough that you can easily open and close the top.

Shoe (pic is of gardenia cuttings in pots/bags).