Topic: Mistletoe

[Badger1]

I inherited some old knarled apple trees, has anyone tied seeding and growing mistletoe?

[undercarriage plan]

No, but I read somewhere that you just rub and squeeze the berries into a crevice in the bark, or was that a recipe..mm......best wait for Tim, I think..

[Treacletop]

Hi! never tried it but aooarently take some ripe berries and keep in a cool place until February then squash into a crevice and loosely cover with a piece of sacking (Hessian I assume!). It can take ages to root though..over a year I think.

I'd be interested to know as my apple tree might like a bit of decoration!

 :)

[gardenqueen]

 You could try some now as birds will be wiping excess misteltoe berries from their beaks onto trees at this time of year. Worth a chance anyway.

[Ceratonia]

My mother-in-law has tried it a few times, with limited success. Apparently, the germination rate is only about 10% even under the right conditions.  It's dioecious, so you need a male and female plant to get berries, so at least two seedlings required to get any berries (and you'll need to wait a few years).

I reckon it'd probably be better to pick "berries" in March. The ones I see growing wild seem to reach full size around then, which suggests that ones picked now might not be fully mature. They're always near the top of the tree, so maybe they like to be up in the light?

[amanda21]

I did read somewhere that the berries you rub into the wound should come from the same type of tree that you are implanting into.... not sure if that's true or not.  :)

[joji]

Propagating Mistletoe.
Mistletoe is a sky bound plant that never touches the ground. The mistletoe seeds are carried from tree to tree by birds, the sticky white residue inside the berry fixing the seed to the new tree. If you have a tree in your garden that you'd like to see mistletoe growing, but the birds aren't cooperating, why not have a go at growing it yourself.

The best time to try to propagate new mistletoe is in late February, though you can save berries from your Christmas mistletoe and re-hydrate them by soaking them in water for 24 hours before planting them. Mistletoe will grow on most deciduous trees, though it is most commonly found on apple, poplar, lime and hawthorn and is least likely to succeed on oak. The seed should be squeezed out of the berry and stuck onto the underside of a branch about 2cm in diameter (there's no need to nick the bark of the tree). The seed should start to germinate in March, sending out a small green shoot which will anchor itself onto the branch. During the summer, the mistletoe will develop its root system under the bark of the tree, and will produce it's first leaves the following spring. Not all the mistletoe seeds you plant will succeed and some may be eaten by birds so it's best to plant a few.

Although mistletoe is parasitic (it lives off water and minerals taken up by the roots of the host tree) it can photosynthesise for itself and will not normally kill the tree it is growing on, although on apple trees it may eventually reduce the amount of fruit it produces.

Hope this explanes a bit for you. :)

[Robert_Brenchley]

I quite fancy that, though I don't quite know how I'd actually get through the thorns and into my hawthorn to 'plant' it.

[adam04]

would it work on a silver birch??  huge one at the corner of the lottie and i mean huge, or at least i think its a SB so would be ncie to get a use out of it someway.

Only problem is that the branches are about 20ft up. so can only really do it at the trunk??

[moonbells]

I sowed about 40 seeds of reconstituted mistletoe onto my ancient Bramley last February. By reconstituted I mean that they were shrivelled since I'd had to buy them at Christmas which isn't the ideal time.  The mistletoe website http://www.mistletoe.org.uk/home/index2.htm says to soak them in that case.

Anyway, stuffed all these incredibly sticky little green shields into crevices under and on the sides of the branches. If they do anything the first season it's to grow an anchor to the tree and sort out the food supply. They only grow a leaf in year two, about a year after first sowing.  And as has been said, you have to get at least one male and one female to grow!

This year I got another bunch from a box labelled British mistletoe from Herefordshire so I am keeping the berries in a bag and will have another good squish in late February if the weather's fit.  And I will keep trying until I finally get it to grow!

http://www.mistle.co.uk/faqs.htm

is very good too. And has links to photos.

moonbells