While doing grafts for my recent grafting project, I came to my bag of A.s. 'Aureum - Full Moon' scions and remembered reading somewhere that A.s. 'Aureum' is "difficult to propagate". I find that odd, as it seems like any other shirasawanum as far as growth habit, quality of the scions, etc. etc. So exactly WHY is it difficult to propagate? Do the grafts not take? Are they more succeptible to fungal attack? Or is it just a slow grower, and that makes it "difficult" to turn a profit?? :-) Anyone have any insights? Thanks!
Generally all shirasawanum cultivars are harder to propagate than that of palmatum. I think it might have something to do with the wood having a bigger pith and that the wood dose not seam to harden up as much as a palmatum. Ever notice that shirasawanum, especially Aureum gets the black branch tips in the winter, which i attribute to not hardening off enough in winter.
Thanks Yweride. So far I have not noticed black branch tips. Mine seem to look fine, in spite of the fact that it got down to 4 degrees F this winter. This includes A.s. 'Garden Glory', A.s. 'Aureum', A.s. 'Junihitoe', and A.s. 'Moonrise'. I just inspected all these tress looking for scions, and did not notice dead branch tips. Perhaps the effect simply has not shown up yet? I'll keep an eye out for it. In the mean time, I'm crossing my fingers for the 6 or 7 'Aureum' grafts I did. I would love for them to take!
Hi Katain-- Let me just mention in passing that some years ago a friend of mine grafted three our four scions of 'Aureum' onto A. pseudosieboldianum, and they all took and performed beautifully. Side veneer grafts, I think, and the understock was pretty big--maybe 1/2"-3/4". I always assumed that it was the size and vigour of the understock that produced the good growth, but who knows? I'd love to know how different understocks affect growth, hardiness, and disease resistance, but I don't know of any research on the subject. I can't say about long-term success, though. This tree had a V crotch at the top, and one day my son's friend threw a big heavy beachball onto it and split it right down the middle for about two feet. I parafilmed it back together right away, but that didn't work, and then with a two-foot wound the rest of it promptly died. Sigh. In general I'd say that 'Autumn Moon' is a sturdier cultivar. D. Good luck!
Thanks Daniel. At this point all I can do is hope for the best I guess. We'll know in a few weeks if anything I did was successful.
