London plane seeding pattern / rhythm?

[Sheal]

We learn by our mistakes Low Altitude, especially when it comes to gardening. However give it another go but please don't feed them anything next time. As with most cuttings newly rooted they can't cope with fertiliser, it's too strong. They need to be growing strongly with mature, healthy roots and preferably in the ground before you do so. Also, if the young plants look healthy there's no need to feed at all as they take nutrients from the soil.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Someone pointed out that tomato side shoots would root easily in water, but that there is a difference between water roots and soil roots. I tried planting a cutting in an expanded polystyrene cup of soil, then floating it in a larger cup of water, it rooted easily , as it would in water, but produced proper, hairy soil roots, best of both worlds. Might be worth a try.

The London planes I know flake much bigger pieces than an inch or two. When I was young and London was filthy they had quite strikingly mottled trunks, almost black and white, it is more shades of grey now, but still very noticeable. We used to be told that was the reason they were not suffocated by the sooty deposits, I don't know how true that is, there were other trees in London.

 

[Sheal]

Yes Oliver, there is a difference between water and soil roots. I have found though that the plants go on to develop proper roots as they mature.

 

[cpp gardener]

Do those leaves look like Mulberry leaves to anyone else?

 

[Low Altitude]

We learn by our mistakes Low Altitude, especially when it comes to gardening. However give it another go but please don't feed them anything next time. As with most cuttings newly rooted they can't cope with fertiliser, it's too strong. They need to be growing strongly with mature, healthy roots and preferably in the ground before you do so. Also, if the young plants look healthy there's no need to feed at all as they take nutrients from the soil.

Absolutely – live and learn... sometimes the hard way. So dumb of me... should have thought...

Okay. Spring is coming...

 

[Low Altitude]

I think you haven’t found any seeds because it’s not a London Planetree. I think what you have cuttings of is a White Mulberry. Plane trees have lots of indumentum, fuzz all over the leaves and especially on the bottom, which yours do not have. Did they leak white sap when you cut them? The bark on Platanus flakes off in pieces an inch or two squarish as well, so check the trunk, too.

That is really interesting. I must admit, hanging my head in shame, that I had identified it as London Plane by using one of those online 'identify your tree' sites.

Tell you what: when i can, I'll go and take some thought-out pics of the parent tree, trunk and flaking bark and such with tape measure for scale, and post them here so everyone can take a good look at the 'original'.

Watch this space...

 

[Oliver Buckle]

One doesn't always have to wait for Spring. Last Autumn when I pruned my bay tree back I stuck a row of cuttings in a slot made with a spade and heeled them in. I won't know for sure until I dig them out, but a number are still green and healthy looking after about three months. I am told a lot of root growth occurs during the winter season, I have certainly found it to be true of box cuttings. Mind you I have also had box which has survived for up to eighteen months before rooting, so maybe the bay is just bare stems still.

 

[Low Altitude]

Eighteen months before rooting?!?!?! Wow, that's interesting.

On a whim, a couple of weeks ago, I took m'trusty penknife and lopped a few little branchlets of a discarded Xmas tree that was lying in the street. Unlike the co-operative, eager dracaena mentioned in this other discussion here on the forum, there's no sign yet of any rooting whatsoever.

I've been changing the water every couple of days, but the branchlets are drying out and shedding needles, and i don't know if you can see from the photo, but there's mucus forming over the cut bottoms of the 'cuttings', which suggests the branchlets aren't drawing water... because they're dead.

I wonder if it would be different with cuttings taken from a living tree in the ground.

Or whether trying them in water is the wrong idea and i should re-cut the bottoms and try them in soil. I doubt it at this point – I'm pretty sure they're dead – but next Xmas, maybe....

 

[cpp gardener]

Spruces don't root in water. You need fresh cuttings in Summer and rooting hormone.

 

[Low Altitude]

Aha. Thanks again, CPP. You've saved me wasting another month watering dead twigs!

 

[cpp gardener]

Always happy to be of assistance.

 

[Low Altitude]

Look what I picked up sitting on a sidewalk today:

That thing is about an inch across and came from one of the trees of interest, whether plane or more likely now, Mulberry.

Tell me what you think, everyone, but I'm guessing that what I'm seeing is a desiccated compound husk, empty, that shed its seeds some time ago, maybe last autumn, maybe years ago. Looks pretty dead to me.

I think I'm going to soak it in water overnight then break it up and see if there's anything in the structure that looks like a seed. I'm not hopeful....

 

[cpp gardener]

Actually you've found yet another tree! That's a seed capsule of a Liquidambar, also known as Sweetgum. They turn bright colors in the fall before the leaves drop. The seeds fall out before the capsules drop or immediately after. Look for a maple-leaved tree with opposite leaves or with woody raised 'wings' on the new growth.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Look what I picked up sitting on a sidewalk today:

You should be careful of that

The mulberries I know have a fruit a bit like a raspberry, but bigger and darker. They are delicious when ripe, which is when they are about to fall, a few hours later they are going mushy, which is why you never see them on sale.

 

[Low Altitude]

Actually you've found yet another tree! That's a seed capsule of a Liquidambar, also known as Sweetgum. They turn bright colors in the fall before the leaves drop. The seeds fall out before the capsules drop or immediately after. Look for a maple-leaved tree with opposite leaves or with woody raised 'wings' on the new growth.

Hilarious – wrong yet again! Thank you for setting me straight. I'll look for the parent.

Meanwhile FWIW, I did bisect the seed capsule and just as you say, it seems to have shed all its seeds: