Never tried to root a tree cutting, need advice please

A client of mine is selling one of her vacation properties. It has a tree that was planted in with some of her Mum's ashes and she wants to bring a piece of it home to grow. I said I wouldtry to help, even though I have never tried this before and she has no idea what type of tree it is. All I know is that it has bark....not a soft cutting by any means.

Can someone please offer me some "for dummies style"advice on how to do this?

Many thanks,
Lori
forgot to mention Mum was English and so is this gal.....

 

I think we need to know what kind of tree it is.
Some can only be propagated from seed.

 

As I mentioned, she doesn't know and I was hoping for general advice. Nemind, I'll go look elsewhhere online

 

Sorry wasn't being difficult @CanadianLori, its just that some trees cannot be grown from cuttings.

 

Pete is right. Some trees will root from cuttings if you so much as drop a twig on damp soil. There are others where even the hard-core botanists with labs and magic chemicals have given up on. I doubt there is such a thing asgeneral advice when it comes to tree cuttings.

I know your client has no idea what tree it is, but could she not take a photo, or use one of the many online id apps that look at leaf shape, pattern etc as well as bark style?

 

She is bringing the thing here tomorrow morning. Too late for a pic. I do all her drapery and slipvover work so she knows this is me just trying to help her and nothing to do with business.. I told her it would either work. Or not. I will find general advice from another forum. Didn't realize that I was asking for something not available here

Good thing I don't ask for advice too often. Guess I belong in a newbie forum . My bad, my apologies

 

Please don't take the huff. Really, we are trying to help. It's just that there is no general method. I have a massive fat book upstairs with separate propgation instructions for hundreds of different plants. Some apparently will never take from a stem cutting but might from a leaf cutting. Others apparently do best with soft wood cuttings, or hard wood cuttings. Some work best in summer, some in winter. Some will only grow from seed, some are apparently actually easier from cuttings. It goes on and on.

But if we're going for a general approach without knowing anything about the tree, I personally would look for a pencil width twig, ideally this year's or last year's growth, at least a foot long, and I'd simply sink it in 50/50 mix of compost and sand, kept moist, with a clear bag over the top to keep it humid, somewhere sunny but not in direct sun at mid day, and cool. Then I'd just hope for the best but expect failure.

 

Lori, if she's bringing it to tomorrow, can't you take a couple of pics then. Or at least a bit more of a description. All you've really told us is that it's a tree with bark.

 

@Anthony Rogers Thank you for the advice. I have sand here, rooting gel and the lady called to say she will be here in less than an hour from now

@clueless1 Not taking the huff just recognizing that this is not the forum for some of my questions. Easy peasy

 

Sorry I got the names backwards. I was typing in a hurry. Client showed up at the same time my family arrived and I got in a frazzle

 

[QUOTE="CanadianLori,

@clueless1 Not taking the huff just recognizing that this is not the forum for some of my questions. Easy peasy [/QUOTE]

There are no questions you cannot ask @CanadianLori, its just that we need more info.
Taking cuttings from a tree can be very simple, can be difficult, or can be impossible as Clueless points out, depending on what it is.

 

I was looking this up recently myself and for a general "dummies" style advice I've gone with this from the BBC Gardening website:

Hope that may be of some help to you @CanadianLori

 

Thank you @"M" - much appreciated!

 

Good day everyone,

@shiney Wawa's beach is actually on (are you ready for this) Lake Wawa

I am having a very busy day and it looks as though this trend will continue for the rest of the week. Got lots of wage earning work to accomplish and most of it is for a favourite customer of mine

We're very cool and windy and cloudy here. Good weather to be getting paid to work inside

Have a safe rest of the day all.