Cuttings vs. Seeds

Test cutting.

I was at our local garden centre a while ago, talking with one of their knowledgeable staff. I briefly explained my interest in propagating old growth trees from cuttings. I obviously didn’t do a good job of explaining my purpose because he asked me, “why don’t you just collect cones and germinate from seeds?”

I could to that. In fact, I think it would be interesting to experiment on creating the ideal conditions for Western Red Cedar seeds to germinate. But that would be a side project, because germinating from seeds does not accomplish my objective. The resulting seedling that you get will be related to the parent tree that produced the cones, and will have similar characteristics, but the end result is a new tree, with genes that are a combination of two trees.

A tree that originates from a cutting is not just a relation of the tree from which the cutting was taken. A tree grown from a cutting IS the tree from which the cutting was taken, in so far as that it has exactly matching DNA. You get to work with a tree that has defied the odds in the extreme by managing to live for centuries longer than the average lifespan for it’s species, and extend that exceptional tree’s life even further. How cool is that.