Hello,recently got a load of red rootstock,amongst them were a couple of dissectums.As usual all these plants look a better red than any of my cultivars so I was thinking of grafting the dissectums. However I was wondering,would they do ok on their own roots? I've seen only a few 'Atro' dissectums for sale,but they've always been grafted,and somehow it just seems a bit odd to graft them onto what could well be their 'siblings'. I realise this may give them more vigour but they're not doing bad so far,about 10'' high.Anyone grown them up from seed?
Interesting question. I have a bunch of about 15 red dissectums I germinated in spring 2010 that I am going to leave on their own roots. Too early to tell on growth rates (apart from slower than normal palmatum) and long term survival obviously, but they are tough little devils. Went through last winter in 9cm pots without losing a single one, frozen solid for the best part of two months and down to almost -10°C on a few occasions.
I set aside my seed grown disectums and either sell, plant or watch them. Seems silly to graft them if they are a desirable seedling. I set aside lots of seedlings to watch and most will end up as gifts over time. Anyway, I have 2 I purchased in my landscape around 6 years old, 1 red and 1 green and my parents have a 10 year old green disectum in their landscape. All are doing well and in zones 7 and 8 and the only advantage I would see in grafting them is trying to see what changes may occur on vigorous rootstock AND to make sure the plant isnt lost if the original dies. Having said that, I already cant tell the differences between my red disectums and green disectums as it is so not much would be lost if those older seedlings did die. As an aside I have a unique seed grown maple that is 4 years old that is only 4 inches by 4 inches and is truly unique. I am fearful every spring it wont leaf out again and it refuses to grow enough to be grafted. Regardless if it did, the internode space is measured in mm's and these are the cultivars I have little success in grafting. I digress though... Justin
If the seedling red dissectums look good to you or perhaps better in color now than your grafted red dissectums, it is probably better just to leave them alone. In the olden days people would monitor these young trees, let them get up in age, set seed and then perhaps graft those seedlings. From an environmental approach this is the more sensible process to do. As from seedlings grown by us from those parent plants we have some adaptability built into those generational seedlings that may indeed help those cultivars to which we want to graft onto them. I've stated before more than once that the best seedlings for us to use for grafting or budding are the seedlings we have grown ourselves. Built in adaptability to our own home grown areas provides a huge advantage for us over imported or brought in seedlings that have no previous adaptation to our growing conditions and climate. Jim
Thankyou for your inputs guys.I asked because I've never actually seen a non-grafted dissectum,so was unsure. Maf,it's good to know that yours made it through that last winter,I'll definately leave them be for now then...see how they do...and sounds like yours have grown happily for years too Justin.I wonder if you could possibly try bud grafting on that special seedling?..you have great success with grafting.....hang on though,4''x4'' in 4yrs?!!...maybe not. Good point Jim,we often assume buying a 'species' green rootstock is best but we don't know the history or wether it'll perform well where we are.If we've got seedlings that look promising,no-matter the parent,then would make sense to give them a go(mine are too young to tell yet)Infact probably our largest maple grower sells the usual rootstocks, but they choose to use seedlings of 'Senkaki' for their own grafting,as it performs well for them and is repeatable and straight.Also seeing all these brighter red, nice heavily dissected seedlings made me question ...did I really need to buy the red cultivars I did,as I don't really need hi-heat tolerant plants ha.
