GigaBuist to the white curtesy phone, please

[Northwoods]

I have a Niobi Golden Willow that I recently planted.  Assuming I can A) not kill it until it is established, and B) keep the deer from killing it, how old does it need to be before I can propogate new trees from cuttings?  What are the limits (upper and lower) for the size of the branches I cut for the propogations?

[Regolith]

I'm not an expert, but it seems to me age doesn't really matter; you just can't take so much off it as to kill or harm the tree. The cuttings don't need to be big; a couple mm's thick and 8-12 inches will probably do. I helped plant a bunch of willows along a creek a long ways back to help rehabilitate the place after a wildfire, and that's about the size we used. Unfortunately, another wildfire came through the area and torched everything a few years later, so I couldn't tell you how well it worked, but my siblings and I used similar sized cuttings (actually twigs that had been blown off a mature tree by the wind) to plant cottenwoods in our backyard, and, besides one that was killed by herbicides when it was 12 or 15 feet tall, they grew just fine.

[Bob F.]

Yep, I think he's right.

[GigaBuist]

Hell if I know.  My brother handles the nursery stuff and we don't propagate any of that ourselves, we buy it in at their finished size.  Pretty much everything we know about nursery stuff is learned via the interwebs, not actual experience.

It does help being familiar with growing though.

Looks like the general advise is to cut them about 12" long, when the tree is dormant, store in a moist bag until spring, then plant.  Mulching should help keep weeds from competing.  No rooting hormone needed with them, unlike many annuals that we're familiar with.

Looks like you have to be REALLY bad at doing this to screw it up.  Makes sense.  Willow trees are some of the cheapest to buy.

[Scout26]

Willow trees are nasty.  I have one in the front yard.  There's always twigs and sticks all over the place.  The "vines" grow down to the ground and make it almost impossible to mow as your fighting your way through the "jungle" behind the mower.

A willow is a weed that someone didn't run over with a mower when they had the chance.

[grampster]

What Scout said.

[Monkeyleg]

Gigabuist, do you know anything about holly trees, specifically Foster hollies?

[Northwoods]

Willow trees are nasty.  I have one in the front yard.  There's always twigs and sticks all over the place.  The "vines" grow down to the ground and make it almost impossible to mow as your fighting your way through the "jungle" behind the mower.

A willow is a weed that someone didn't run over with a mower when they had the chance.

A pefect tree then for the north property line.

[GigaBuist]

Gigabuist, do you know anything about holly trees, specifically Foster hollies?

Nope, never heard of them before.  A quick search shows they're only hardy down to zone 6 which means they wouldn't be reliable here.  We're basically 6a and 5b in this area but you don't have to go far to find a 5a zip code.  Heck, until last year the USDA had us all at zone 5 in this area.

In short:  Too cold for that thing up here.

[charby]

Willow trees are nasty.  I have one in the front yard.  There's always twigs and sticks all over the place.  The "vines" grow down to the ground and make it almost impossible to mow as your fighting your way through the "jungle" behind the mower.

A willow is a weed that someone didn't run over with a mower when they had the chance.

Not all willows are weeds, many are planted where they shouldn't be.