Originally posted by John Paul Sanborn
Some trees can propigate as nurse logs, willows most noteably. The fall over and then prout leaves and roots wich will grow around the rotting nurse log.
remember to mist the leaves regularly so they will not dry out.
If you see some more sprouts on the logs, maybe a loacl nursery can help with the propigation.
JPS is right. A very important aid in this adventure is to keep the leaves moist and happy.
I suggested a rather unorthodox techniques, but it seemed to me from your photo that the leaves were struggling and couldn't last much longer because they were just sprouts on a log.
Generally, sprouts are taken as a larger twig and the bottom dipped in a hormone to encourage root growth. Here, the circumstances seemed rather delicate and I thought leaving a base on the sprouts meant as little injuryas possible to the top.
The secret as I see it is the leaves are self-productive; that is, they create the sugars they need to keep themselves and the twiglets beneath them alive and growing. The eventual big problem is the other half of this tiny tree is missing. But the cambial area on the underside of the bark is likely the busiest area of every tree in terms of robust cells wanting to help out if they can.
Cambiums are physically pretty distant from roots, but they do have the basic cells capable of turning into whatever type cell the tree needs. Buried in the container as I hope they are, the underside of the bark understands the type of cells needed--root structures and cells--and sets about to provide them.
If you have planted the bark chunks in the ground outside, the quick rain and temperature swings, and sun can easily dry out the new root home, so you have to pay more attention than if it's in a container.
If new roots can start and grow, they'll supply water and elements from the soil to build the more complex plant parts while the leaves continue to make sugars and keep everything supplied with sugar energy.
Until this jerry-rigged, rube goldberg arrangement gets off on its own two roots as it were, you will have to help by misting the leaves and keeping the soil wet--not waterlogged, just wet.
Don't pull the bark out of the soil to check anything; don;t wiggle it, There is a very tiny, very vulnerable assembly line being built there, and it doesn't need inspection, just quiet and solitude.
Your tree will end up looking like a tree growing though a piece of bark. Don't fix that. The tree has made some internal accommodations that you can't see and pulling that apart can kill it all. The tree will fix itself as it chooses. You may think that it looks stupid, but hopefully your wife will ask you to look in the mirror before you cast stones.
-------------
Hopefully, you might get some other sprouts. Watering the logs may induce a few more attempts.
If this works, you'll have done something miraculous to keep some memories intact.
Hell, I'm going to go out and pull off a few sprouts on a bark to see how they do myself. Good luck to you and your family.
Bob Wulkowicz
PS: I thought the thread was over with your previous post. Guess you have to scratch out stubborn for your dad and write in determined instead.
PPS: Have something to explain to the neighbors when you're out watering the logs.
