Cutting Propagation for Bonsai

There are lots of methods to take cuttings for bonsai,
this is the one that I have had the most success with.
Equipment For cuttings: I use a 100 watt Metal Halide
Light source, I have also had equal success with
fluorescents.

For bottom heat I am using a Hydrofarm heat mat
with thermostat. The thermostat will be set at
75 degrees, which is especially useful for
Japanese Maples.

Pots and Soil: For the container I will be using
a 1/2 size flat with a 36 cell pack. The soil will
be an equal mix of peat and perlite. This is a
light mix which will help with early root development
and prevent fungal attack.

For these cuttings I will use Hormex 16 and
Hormex 30 for the lace leaf maples. Hormex works
great for trees and shrubs because it can be bought
with much higher % IBA (indolebutyric acid the
root hormone). For example most regular rooting
hormones have something like a .1% IBA, whereas
Hormex 16 has 1.6% IBA. Stronger doesn't
necessarily mean better though. Using too
strong a concentration will end in necrosis
on the cutting. I have found it to be safe in the
past to use Hormex 16 on most of these cuttings.
The notoriously hard to root lace leaf maples
respond better to Hormex 30.

The species I will be dealing with today are:
Acer ginnala, Acer palmatum 'Viridis', Acer palmatum
'Crimson Queen', Acer palmatum 'Butterfly',
Carpinus turczaninovii and Carpinus coreana.
The Viridis is the green lace leaf Japanese maple
and the Crimson Queen is the red lace leaf maple.
I didn't get any good pictures of the Butterfly J
apanese maple leaf, but it is absolutely gorgeous.
They have small green leaves with white and pink
edges.

The three Japanese maple cultivars came from trees
of friends. To get them home, I immediately wrapped
them in damp paper towels and sealed them in a
Ziploc bag. When I got home, I washed them thoroughly
to remove any bugs that may have made the journey.
I then placed them in a cup filled with water.
You need to make sure to never let your cuttings
go dry. The faster you can go from plant to hormone
to soil, the better (not the case with Jades).

I like to make my cuts near the internodes
(some plants will only root from here, others it
doesn't matter), and remove the bottom two or
three sets of leaves. I like to have 2-3 sets
of leaves on a cutting. If the cut is not fresh,
as in the case of the maples, I make another cut
and immediately dip in hormone. I then put the
cutting into a cell, where I have already punched
out a small hole with a chopstick. Just place
the cutting in the hole and firm the soil around
it. The soil should be moist, but not dripping wet.

When all the cuttings are in place I mist the whole
tray once again, and place the humidity dome over
the tray. The humidity dome is key, as it maintains
a 100% level of humidity around the cuttings. This
prevents the cuttings from losing water to
transpiration, which causes wilting. All of this
gives the cuttings a stress free environment in
which they can establish roots.

After securing the humidity dome, I place the
cuttings on the heat mat set at 75 and underneath
the light. The bottom heat helps encourage new
roots to grow. It will be 4-6 weeks before most
of these cuttings have grown a strong enough root
system to transplant, possibly a few more weeks
for the Japanese Maples.
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