I find myself in a bit of a bind. Despite the residents protests and petitions the city had decided to cut down the 50 year old stone pines (Pinus Pinea) that lined our southern California street, and now the deed is done. For somewhat involved reasons my wife and I want to try propagating the cuttings from the tree that was out front. We understand this is an low probability procedure with a mature pine but would love any tips, hints or instructions that you all could come up with to maximize our chance of success. Through my university's access I've found a paper on springerlink ( http://www.springerlink.com/content/n3634pn236v24720/ ) that seems to cover some of this ground, however I find myself unable to understand it (I'm in Computer Science, not Botany or Chemistry). Can anyone translate it into a procedure we could try? Mail me privately for a pdf of the paper if you do not have access to it. Thank you.
Search the foliage for any shoots where there's been some regrowth following any wind- or squirrel-broken shoots within the last year or two; in particular, look for regrowth shoots with juvenile foliage (short, blue-green leaves; left side in pic below). These will have a much higher chance of rooting as cuttings than adult foliage.
Thanks for the tip...unfortunately there was not a lot of choice in what we could get. Would you know anything else that could help? (rooting hormones, handling technique, sterilization of the surface, etc)?
Sorry, no. Otherwise, your best bet is to grow seeds from their cones - the seeds are very easy to grow.
