white pine cuttings

kklopping

I was able to get some white pine cuttings and put them into a cloning machine from Botanicare. And they have started to develop roots. What should be my next step? What soil would be the best at this point?

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Fletch

Cloning machine?... riiight...

Anyway, so basically you have rooted cuttings from a white pine. Well depending on where you are (the info in your profile doesn't tell us anything other than you're from somewhere in the USA) and what your growing situation is like, your next step would be to plant them out somewhere where they can grow for the next 5 to 10 years to let them develop trunks and roots so you have some basic elements to build on.

Now given that this is probably a bad time to be sticking newly rooted cuttings out to fend for themselves through the winter I guess you are going to be limited to potting them into something with a free draining soil mix (1 part grit, 1 part turface/oil dri/akadama or similar and 1 part pine bark is a pretty standard recipe - take a look in the forum on soil and fertilizer and such and you'll find lots of advice/opinions on what's best for pines) and placing them in a sheltered site until spring (unheated garage, greenhouse, cold room,..) so they can get a season of dormancy. Then in the spring plant them out if you can, if you haven't got the room then into growboxes is your next best bet, but be sure you have them outside. White pines do not do well as indoors and you would loose them within a season more than likely.

In future try to time things better when starting cuttings so they have some time during the growing season to get established in their pots or growing bed before winter hits.

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Regards
Fletch