Propagation: grafted or propagated ?

I all.
We recently found in nursery new sort of young Acer .
Do you think these two young maples are grafted ?
Or are they propagated ?
Thanks.

 

Hello Pierre, I hope you are well.

Your maples do not look grafted to me. There is a relatively new technique out of Boskoop where a guy is propagating rooted cuttings (bouturage) on a large scale. If these are cultivars, they may be cuttings. Otherwise, I'd assume they are seedlings (semis).

meilleures salutations, -E

 

Thanks emery. I was in doubt** , but now i agree with you.
I found "sonkoot" on the label. van Son & Koot - Acer en buitenplanten kwekerij

**Je doutais car il existe en Italie une technique de greffe horizontale avec une perceuse. Elle est pratiquée en arboriculture. Dans ce cas, la cicatrice est un anneau sans boursouflure. Je me dis qu'un jour ou l'autre nous allons voir arriver des Acer greffés de cette façon.

Joyeux printemps à toutes et tous.
I wish you a nice spring.

 

There's a distinct change in the texture and colour of the bark at the base - I'd say grafted.

 

Michael I'm guessing the texture change is just where the seedling was originally buried to. Many of my JM seedlings get something similar. I've never seen a graft union with zero swelling or scarring, and perfectly flat (i.e. neither a saddle nor side veneer graft), especially in such young maples.

 

If it looks identical all the way around, then yes it's a cutting and the line is where the soil used to be before potting up. My friend Elpiedio does both Acer p grafting and cuttings. He's been doing it for 30+ years. I will say that some of his better grafts (80%) look just as perfect. I have also seen some of his graft(s) right at the root flare that look nearly as perfect as the line near the root flare in the first photo (if you look closely at that area of the photo).

The reason why I said if it looks the same all around, it's rooted, because Elpiedio's graft will show a perfect shark tooth into the scion wood on one side.

PS who ever potted up that maple the last time did the right thing by exposing the root flare at the proper time. I notice @opusoculi always plants and pots their maples the right way! Too many don't do this and it leads to circling roots and deep fissures in the bark. I see it way too often these days with growers. The growers that don't do it, you can find the root flare down about 2" for every time the tree was potted up. It's a shame! (Due to lack of knowledge or laziness). It's most problematic with growers that use high levels of composted peat in their soil mix. They always have quality issues with their trees and lots of diseases too.

 

It looks identical all the way around, yes .
All those Acer coming from van Son & Koot are right named culivars (sonkoot.nl is the label). They are numerous in french nurseries and all présents exactly the same change texture.
So they are cuttings.

+"who ever potted up that maple the last time did the right thing by exposing the root flare at the proper time." I agree that.

Thanks JT1, i am always interested by your analysis.

 

Any details on the propagation technique? So far I keep finding articles in french that when translated are just your typical propagate from cuttings page.