CALLUSING BED 115 



Callusing Bed. Dormant cuttings like the whip graft 

 must be put through a callusing process before planting 

 in the open ground. This may be done in exactly the 

 same way as the whip grafts. The cuttings are made in 

 the fall or early winter, tied up in bundles, properly labelled 

 and placed in the callusing bed. If sand is used it may 

 be placed in a cellar where the temperature will not get 

 above fifty degrees before spring. If possible, the temper- 

 ature should be held around thirty-two until mid-winter 

 and then raised gradually until planting time in the spring. 

 The cambium runs out at the cut ends of the twigs and forms 

 a white callus which later in the spring throws off roots. 

 The roots do not always come or form from these calluses 

 but may develop around the buds or nodes. In some plants, 

 as the willow, they may develop at any point between the 

 nodes. This latter represents adventitious buds which 

 have formed in the cambium layer and forced their way 

 through the epidermis. 



Where dormant cuttings are made on a large scale it 

 is often desirable to have a callusing bed out in the open, 

 particularly is this true in the warmer states. Such a bed 

 may be located in any convenient place where the soil is 

 of a sandy nature and the drainage good. Under such con- 

 ditions the cuttings should be made early in the fall, it 

 frequently being necessary to strip the leaves from the twigs 

 used. They would then be tied in bundles and buried in 

 the bed with the small ends downward; the upper end 

 being only two or three inches below the surface of the 

 ground. The sun shining on the ground makes the soil 

 near the top a little warmer, which tends to hasten the cal- 



