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If I take a tree cutting for propagation, will the plant live as long as if it were a new plant from seed or does it inherit the age tree which it was taken from?

After a few years of growth, will it be indistinguishable from a tree of the same size grown from seed, or will it always be noticeably different?

Thanks

James H
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  • Good question! If you take a cutting from a new shoot, which is less than a year old, the new tree will be that age I would say. But I haven't tested if it will age in the same manner as a tree grown from seed. – benn Jan 08 '18 at 13:18
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    What tree do you have in mind? We might be able to search for relevant data if nobody knows from their own experience. – Alina Jan 08 '18 at 16:04

1 Answers1

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A cutting that you root won't live as long as the original tree as it won't form a tap root which occurs during the juvenile stage. So it will never have as strong a root structure as the parent of the clone.

To get the root structure desired you will need to graft the cutting onto root stock and that host will determine the size of the resulting tree. However, grafted trees are more subject to diseases than an ungrafted tree and that shortens the potential life.

Graham Chiu
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