Can you take a limb off a tree and put in dirt or water to start growing a new tree? The tree's I am checking on are Arizona ash, mimosa, chase tree, and a butterfly bush?
Starting them in water depends on the plant. Some will some won't, it will be best to do a search on your specific ones to see if simply putting them in water will work. You may have a list of plants that is easy to do where all the ones I tried would not tae root in water except for honey suckle. The honey suckle would only root if I took a woody stem and not brand new soft growth, in water anyway; it took root in sterile potting soil regardless of the stage of growth. There are a LOT of different ways to get new starts. I have started a plum tree, rose, Filbert, apple trees, honey suckle and many others from cuttings although it was not a very high success rate to keep them growing once they took root. Most of them took root, I just didn't keep them alive very well. There is a lot of information on doing it but here is what I did that worked: New growth with some rough bark on the stem, I had best results when I took slightly older new growth and not the newest softest stuff. Avoid any and all stems that have flower buds or have a good potential to flower. The flowers sucked the energy out all the plum starts I had and none of them even tried to take root. I got a new batch without flower nodes and they rooted really well. Of the 10 rose starts I tried all of them that did not have anything that even looked like a flowering potential rooted, the other 3 died without even having a chance to do anything. Clean cut the branch at an angle below a node with a sharp pruning sheer. I found that 7-8 inch lengths worked best for me, if you can go longer I think it will work even better. When I say below I mean toward the main bush leaving a node at the end of the cutting, about 1 inch up from the cut. Immediately put it in a fresh solution/powdered rooting hormone and then into a sterile planting medium. Follow the directions!! More than they recommend will not help and actually I had worse results when I didn't follow the instructions as closely as possible. Both things I tried was more powder and dipping the cuttings longer and both led to very poor results. When I followed the directions both liquid and powder gave me the same results. Keep them humid and regularly watered, do not let them dry out. Also, don't let them sit in water or over water them. I know, common sense, but staying on top of watering is ultra important to them and forgetting to water or over watering can do them in quickly. I kept mine covered as much as possible removing the covers late so they never dried up, roots and stems. The hard part for me was keeping them going once they start to grow after they get good roots. Mine would wilt after a week or so of new growth or I would kill the roots from too much water, I think. It can be done and if done right should be a fairly successful endeavor.
Great info Fish. I've been trying to get a few things started in water (fig tree, roses, gardenia). The fig looks like it's trying to start roots, but the other stuff just doesn't seem to be working. I'll take your advice and give it another try.
I have never tried rooting trees but I do know that Mimosa is super easy to grow from seed. There is one in our neighbors yard that drops seeds in my yard and I am always pulling up Mimosa seedlings from places I don't want them. You will have to wait until this fall when the seed pods dry tho.
