tourniquet method for radial roots

I had some good luck using a wire tourniquet to facilitate radial root development on some volunteer elm seedlings. I was curious whether or not this method works on some other species, specifically:

ginkgo biloba-

ficus benjamina- (I assume so and will find out next summer if it worked.)

Acer palmatum-

pinus strobus- (Curious in general w pines, although for my strobus I am only targeting the remnant of a tap root w/ whirl of active roots that could be safely whacked in a year or two.)

Lagerstroemia indica?(crepe myrtle)-

Casuarina equisetifolia-

I know that is a lot of species to ask, but as it turns out, most of my nebari are challenged

Hi

I was meaning to ask the same about:

Ginkgo biloba

and

Prunus cerasifera

Both nursery stock that needs to go into development pots soon.

I've used a wire touriquet on Ficus benjamina var Natasja with success, apart from the fact that it was quite an issue to get the wire out when I last repotted.

Cheers
Gerhard

I figured Ficus would be a safe bet. And unless I hear otherwise I'll give the tourniquet method another shot on the ginkgo this coming spring.

Thanks,
David

From previous reading I'm not that worried about the Gingko, sounds like they're pretty tough, but the Prunus is a worry for me since I killed 3/5 smaller ones during potting.

With ficus I've only ever gone wrong by root-pruning and potting in a very organic mix which led to root rot, since then I plant them in straight river sand after any heavy root work.

Instead of wire tourniquet, try pushing it through a CD...that way the grounlayer will root on top of the cd and be flat & radial!

I want to use this method on a Bald Cypress. Can anybody tell me how successful it will be?

No one can tell you how successful it will be, but in my experience BC are like weeds and can take some crazy abuse.