Huge Willow cutting

Back in 2005 I cut of a big branch from a weeping willow tree. As you can see it's as thick as a mans arm. I stuck it in a bucket with water and after 2-3 days it started to shoot branches and roots!

This is after about one week in the bucket! After a short time I planted the cutting in the bucket using traditional bonsai soil. The cutting continued to shoot and grew happy for another year.

In spring 2007 it repotted in a large mica pot. It needed some extra support because it had no big roots. It was planted in pure Leca 1-3 mm size. I have cut the branches back heavily every year and this is how it looked before styling and repotting.

This is how the roots looks now after two years in pure Leca. Only fine feeder roots.

After a trim it fit perfect in its new pot. It's a Chinese pot.

This is how the branches look.

This is the front, but it could might as well be the back. Most of the branches was wired and brought down to get the weeping effect. It didn't cut them much. Over the years much of the bark has died of and there is now only two live vains on the tree so it needs a dead wood work.

Under and over the trunk the bark is gone but it is callousing over pretty fast.

The tree is obviously quite two dimensional so it is probably better viewed from a 30 degree angle. It is leafing out very fast and seams happy in its new pot. It is planted in pure Moler.
Substrate rules!

That looks great Nil, I'm excited to see it as I did the very same thing this spring after some wind storms took a bunch of trees down, including a number of willows in my father-in-law's yard. Hope I get mine looking close to yours in a few years.

I was surprised to see how well that took. Did you use any hormone for rooting?

Hey Joe, my understanding was willows are made of rooting hormone and it seems to be true. I stuck my branches (3 in in dia) into sand and they all rooted without trouble.

I had a curly willow stump two feet in diameter that took 4 years to finally kill. Each time it sent up new branches I sprayed them with herbicide or broke them off. I even built a fire around the stump and burned it for several hours. The following spring it sent new shoots through the burned bark. I finally dug around it enough to get a chain around the roots and pulled it out with a tractor. Willows are tough to kill.
-PT

Jim's quite right. You can use willow water as a substitute for rooting hormone. There are no easier cuttings to take.

Preston, I've also been trying for three years to kill a curly willow stump. I drilled and inserted mushroom spore impregnated dowels. It shrugged it off and is still throwing out new sprouts.

WOW very cool to know. My Heather loves willows. I should dedicate some projects to her.

so let me get this straight...you cut from a live tree, and then placed it in a bucket with ONLY water? no soil or anything? and it grew roots from where you cut it off? is this a common technique for starting a bonsai? sorry...im new so i have lots of questions.

You can do this. It's not the ideal way to do it for bonsai as it creates masses of fine white roots all over the part of the trunk that is submerged in water. Much better to place the large cutting on a raft with just the base of the cutting in water, so that roots only form where you want them. Alternatively do it the easy way and secure the branch over very damp compost and make sure it never dries out. It will root and grow.

wow...that is amazing. thank you for the quick response

With a willow stump of this size, you can merely sharpen one end and pound it into the ground and it will root. There's neither art nor skill involved in rooting willow cuttings -- of any size. <g>

Very Nice. Please post an update when it has leafed out!

In the 80s my mom got an armload of curly willow limbs and stuck them in the ground all around the property, hoping some would root. ALL rooted. My dad has been dealing with them since. They lose lots of limbs during the winter, and put down heaps of hard to rake leaves in the fall. If your area is susceptible to ice storms, I would be wary of growing any out in the ground. When you dig one out, the roots can sprout and keep growing.