Thank you so much for reminding me that is it August! I had made a mental note to do this when I found your post about it somewhere. I think this might be the answer to rooting some of the difficult plants I have tried to propagate for years, such as coppertone loquat.

Thanks, again!

Janie

Thanks for the tip!!!!!
John Gray

i use a toothpick in the "wound" of a stem when i bury it for layering...is that the same principle??

Nandina, does this work for fruit trees and trees like the flowering cherry?

Molly,
Fruit trees/flowering cherry are generally difficult to root and usually are grafted onto suitable root stock. Give the toothpick method a try...using the 'water sprouts' (upward growth on fruit tree branches that one usually removes at pruning time) as rooting material. You should have a fairly successful strike rate.

Couldn't stand it... I had to bump this especially because of the time of year for this...

~Angela

Angela, thanks for bumping this up. This is the first time I read about this technique!

Re bump :
How did it work any one in zone 6 or 7 try it?

This is the first time I have seen this method. I am going to try it, and see how it goes. I am having trouble rooting one of my mother-in-law's camellias. Maybe this will do the trick!

Bump

I don't understand this method of propagating. what is the purpose of the toothpick? Do you place the toothpick in horizonal position or vertical? Never heard of this before.

I wonder if this has a better rate of success then doing an air propigating on a tree or shrub. Anyone have experience on what is better for say a cherry or Japanese Maple.

Thank you.
DhD

Nandina, could you explain a bit more about the cutting and toothpick insertion please? I can't visualise it at all. Are there any pictures of it you could upload? I'd love to use your method to propagate some plants from my late father's garden before his house is sold. Thanks, Vohn

This is about as straight forward as it can be. Poke a hole through the wood of last year's growth, just below a node. Stick a toothpick through it and leave it alone. No tape, no nothing. Come back when the wound is calloused, and clip it from the parent. Stick as to root. So simple and works on things that are especially hard to root. Thanks again, Nandina.

Thanks Little_dani! I understood the remainder of the instructions - it was just the making the cut bit that I couldn't visualise. Now you've said "poke a hole" it is all crystal clear - thanks so much for your help. Vohn

Bump

I didn't know about letting a cutting callus before sticking it. My usual technique is to let a cutting sit in a cup of water for a week or two before planting it. I'd guess that prevents the callusing from occurring and explains my poor success rate. Do that make sense?

Do the roots come out of the callused area?

The roots do come out of the calloused area, Hans.

Using water will work for easy things like tomatoes & other herbaceous plants, but if you want to root hardwood shrubs and trees (not all will root either so it's good to have a reference book such as Dirr's 'The Reference Manual of Woody Plant Propagation') or internet searching for recommended methods.

This method here is something they don't write about in books to my knowledge. And it just may solve puzzles where certain plants have never been rooted in the past. That's my purpose in this.

I want to know how this will influence woody plants such as a pawpaw. Pawpaws to my knowledge have never successfully rooted, and, pawpaws that are grafted often die. That is the cultivar grafted to the seedling often dies. If a pawpaw could be on it's own roots, a colinization of suckers from that plant will always be true to variety.

That's just one question that puzzles me. I am trying this method on oaks, all kinds of maple species, and so much more. I want to learn what's possible with this method and have a checklist of what is not possible, too.

Best of luck to you and everyone as interested in this as I am.

And Hans, you should look up stooling as a means to propagate. In early spring you make a mound of dirt under your shrub or tree branches and the following spring you take a hose and blast the dirt away. Anything that grew roots you clip off below those roots and pot them up or grow them in nursery beds to later transplant to the landscape. That's just one way to stool. You can also bend branches to the ground and bury them and put a heavy rock on top to hold (a) branch in place all year. It's an excellent method of woody plant propagation.

Dax

To Dax...Every August someone brings this old 'toothpick' post I wrote years ago up again. I am delighted to note that you are working with the technique seriously. I have received messages from pro's expressing gratitude and regaling me with their success rates. Tops among those remarks is their ability to easily root Kalmia latifolia which is a tough one. Please post an update of your Pawpaw trials. This one I have not tried but plan to locate a tree in my area for experimentation.

As I wrote in one of my posts on this subject, the toothpick technique of rooting shrubs and trees was developed by a small group of horticulturists associated with the Arnold Arboretum during the 1940's. They all became well-known in their fields of horticulture. They just decided to 'sit' on this rooting technique because it gave them a leg-up in the propagation/sales business. I decided that the subject should not die with we few familiar with the subject. So. here it is, detailed as best I can. Have fun!

Hello nandina,

I now have a recurring, annual reminder set on my email calendar telling me it's time to get busy.

It's great I have a greenhouse in addition because I keep it a few degrees above freezing all winter. So, that will keep the cuttings a bit happier.

So far I've done at least these and I tried to do at least three per plant. Some have 10-15 or more & I'm sure I've done at least 120+:

oaks, maples, Betula uber, bald cypress, serviceberry, (3-4) viburnum-species, apples, sweet cherry, plum, apricot, nectarine, grapes, deciduous azalea, Cornus officinalis, truncatum maple, red maple, Acer triflorum, Acer griseum, Acer palmatum, Acer japonicum, arborvitae, Alaskan cypress, rhododendron, pecan, metasequoia, fir, spruce, pine, parrotia, & arborvitae. I wouldn't be surprised if I'm forgetting something. And as I mentioned, I did pawpaws but also persimmons at a friends.

I certainly will report all results next year... likely the same day I start in again.

Dax

Nandina, have you rooted any roses with this method? I root a lot of roses but there are several varieties that are consistently hard to root. I will try this method.

Also, why would this method not work as well on this year's growth?

I get the distinct impression that persons here are hesitant to experiment - at least until they get a link to someones work elsewhere.

Here is a good place to try something different, For example use a wooden toothpick soaked in rooting compound. Use something metal like a nail instead of a toothpick.

erasmus_gw...No, I have not tried rooting roses using this 'toothpick' method. I will be interested in your experiment. The old technique of a rose cutting under a jar under a shady shrub has always worked for me.

Those who wish to experiment using differing methods are free to do. Report in if you are successful.

I root lots of roses in open air , doing nothing to raise humidity. Some of my most vigorous , healthiest plants are consistently hard to root. So I think this method is worth a try. Might be worth a try at various time of year too. I know some people have air layered roses, and some layer them on the ground. I think the toothpick method is the same idea...keeping the desired cutting nourished longer ..once it's calloused it has a better chance of rooting quickly before it can rot.

A rosarian came to my garden this spring who roots difficult ones in February. Maybe his success with that has something to do with the age of the cutting. Also at that time of year the plants might be waking up, getting ready to put on growth in spring and would have more oomph to root. Anyway I'm very interested in trying this and bought my exacto knife the other day.

Albert, your idea of soaking the wooden toothpick in rooting compound is interesting. Might be of some help.

I was hoping that Dax or anyone could describe how to take the cutting, asnd where to take the cutting from on the plant which I wanted to take the cutting from. If not i will just have to buy another plant in the future, i guess.

Sorry Dax, but, I'm not sure where to peg down the branch on the Rhody, so I hope you can be specific about where to peg it down in a pot of new soil.

Photos of This Technique

Dax

Kudos for the reminder and the well written post!

Does the August/September timeframe hold for all climate zones? Planting and harvest times vary, so it seems plausible that the propagation season would as well...?

I wonder, there must be some sort of criteria, after all, greenhouse grown specimens aren't always on the same 'calendar' as their free-range brethren. Perhaps it has to do with day length, or maybe requirements for the cutting itself; age of the growth, temperature, moisture, light intensity or day length?

Sure you have to adapt according to your climate. For colder climates like zone 3 I would begin in July. Those in zone 3 are already having frosts.

For warmer climates, let's say California zone 10, I would still follow the August time frame but I would cut off the cuttings 3-months later.

Dax

Zero to root. Nothing.

I have no idea why.

Dax

Thanks for the update, Dax. Sorry the results weren't a success.

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-thunder while sun shines=devil beating his wife

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-toothpick technique improves rooting of cuttings

Sam, why do you doubt that it might work? Do you think it doesn't encourage callusing? or that having a callus doesn't improve rooting? Seems to me that if the horticulturalists at Arnold Arboretum liked the results you need to give some reason for doubt rather than simply casting aspersions.

Am not casting dispersions, I'm saying straight out this is an urban myth. The guy on THIS post rooted nothing with this process. Not even arbor-vitae, one of the most easy to root conifers.

The "story" quoted above about Arnold Arboretum has a bad smell to it. This arboretum has researched and published propagation for years. It is published in Arnoldia and their presentations given in the IPPS Eastern Region conferences, I know because I used to attend. They have been generous to share info. If they never shared info about the toothpick method its because it doesn't work.

I've uploaded countless pix of rooted cuttings on the trees and shrubs forums using mist system propagation. Lets see some proof in the form of pix that this toothpick method works. I've never seen it on any of these forums.

I tried the toothpick method on some hard to root roses but I was not careful to separate the toothpick cuttings from non toothpick cuttings. I didn't see any callousing on the cuttings after a couple of months still on the plant. I took a lot of mostly non toothpick cuttings last Oct. and November, and then in February. Many rooted and are now potted up and growing. Since so many were not treated with toothpicks I think it was the time of year that turned out to be helpful for some varieties.

Usually I think that the time to take cuttings is spring and summer so this expands my idea of when cuttings can be taken. I had tried dormant cuttings before where you lay them on their sides and bury the whole cutting but that didn't work for me. I had these cuttings in pots of play sand and they were stuck upright with about 1/3 of the cuttings above the sand. They were out in the open through freezing weather all winter.

About all I can add and I don't have photos any more is that I crossed my t's and dotted my i's from the above instructions. I have nothing else of value I can add, of course.

@gardener365, thanks for the reply. Did the camellias form callouses at the point of toothpick insertion? Did they get that far along in the process?

If I said I did Camellias than I would've had to have taken cuttings from my Mother's houseplants which I do not recall having ever done. I saw you pose that the first time you asked hence my no-reply.

I'm sorry. I misread your 2017-ish post. I didn't realize camellias were excluded from your trials. My sincere apology.

I tell ya if you really want to have success rooting (any) cuttings - you should watch this video, Carol/anyone. You can skip ahead to 1:30 seconds. Pay attention to what this guy does by scraping the bark off of two sides. From there I go off in a different direction whereas he's wrapping with parafilm. I happen (instead) use a tent which I bought a huge & clear rubbermaid and drilled about 9 or a dozen holes around an inch in diameter on the bottom which I prop up one side; Once or more daily as necessary I mist the cuttings and the tupperware with fine water droplets only. My cuttings are in many a different pots but I like 1/2 gallon air pruning pots I found on eBay some time ago but the measurements were in metric. I also will use Anderson Tree Band Pots that are 5" tall. Anyways, under I have bottom heat....it's a heat mat sandwiched between (2) pieces of reflective insulation. I've determined that level of heat is excellent for rooting. I use the same heat mats everybody else uses. The ones with big green writing on them that are as large as 48" x 20". I use 1 parts 'Dip n' Grow' to 5 parts water for hardwood cuttings at 5-10 seconds dip or 1 to 10 parts 'Dip n' Grow' to water for softwood.

Here's that video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwPvmG9sK_Y&t=250s

@gardener365, Thanks very much for the great info and video link. Good stuff!

Update on the camellias. Toothpicks were inserted on August 30, 2020. These photos were taken this week on October 7, 2020 - 38 days after insertion. The stems and wounds have calloused over.

Carol in Jacksonville

Here is a repaired link to @gardener365 (Dax)'s post in the Trees Forum:

Photos of This Technique / Toothpick Rooting Technique: August

No, it's not August, but I only happened upon this post today, and found other relevant information that may speak to some of the questions raised over the sixteen year life of this post.
In 1985 the Magnolia Society published, in the summer journal of the society, an article by Rob Nicholson, an assistant propagator at Dana Greenhouse, Arnold Arboretum, Jamaica Plain MA. The article was entitled "The Toothpick Trick". The study compared rooting outcomes of four Magnolia species/varieties, under five treatment strategies including control. Two of the treatments used the toothpick trick. I'm including here screenshots of the two pages, as well as an enlargement of the table of results. The links to the journal pages on the Magnolia Society site are:
https://www.magnoliasociety.org/resources/Journal/Images/1973-1985_VOL_09-21/VOLUME%2021%20No.%201_15_THE%20TOOTHPICK%20TRICK_ROB%20NICHOLSON.pdf
https://www.magnoliasociety.org/resources/Journal/Images/1973-1985_VOL_09-21/VOLUME%2021%20No.%201_16_STANDING%20COMMITTEES_.pdf

This is great information. Thanks very much💐