What are the propagation methods for leatherleaf mahonia (Mahonia bealei)?

  Leatherleaf mahonia is evergreen year-round, with an elegant tree form, unusual branches and leaves, and beautiful flowers, making it very suitable as a landscaping and ornamental tree species. It can be used to furnish courtyards, waterside pavilions and the like, and is often arranged together with rocks. According to research measurements, this tree has a certain resistance to polluting gases and can be used for greening industrial parks. It can also be planted around village orchards and vegetable gardens, providing both ornamental value and a harvest of medicinal material, with good results.

  The propagation methods fall into four types: seed propagation, cutting propagation, division propagation and transplanting.

  1. Seed propagation

  The fruit only ripens in late November; harvest the fruit in December, but do not thresh it first. Pile the fruit up for a period of after-ripening, then rub off the fruit skin, clean out the seeds thoroughly, dry them in the shade, and then mix them with moist sand and store them for a whole winter.

  After the seeds are harvested, they need to be stored with moist sand, placed in a certain container or buried in a pit for treatment. Store until March to April of the following year, then begin sowing. On a prepared seedling bed, open shallow furrows with a furrow spacing of 25cm and a furrow depth of 7cm, sow the seeds evenly into the furrows, and cover lightly with soil. In some places hole sowing is used instead. The hole spacing is about 20cm. Sow about 4 seeds per hole and cover with about 6cm of soil, with a sowing rate of 20kg per 0.067hm2. Hole sowing saves seeds. After sowing, keep the soil moist, and seedlings can emerge in about 2 weeks. Remove the straw covering in stages, set up a frame for shade in summer, and strengthen fertilizer and water management during the seedling stage. In the second year, leave the seedlings in the bed or transplant them separately; the site for growing them on should preferably be a semi-shaded environment. Seedlings grown from seed can only flower 4-5 years after planting.

  2. Cutting propagation

  Open-field cuttings should be taken in late March, using robust stems that dropped their leaves in winter as cuttings, cut into 15cm sections, inserted into loose sandy soil to a depth of 10cm, and a reed screen should be set up for shade. In the north, softwood cuttings should be used in June to July, with cuttings 10-12cm long, retaining 1 compound leaf at the tip, and cutting off the leaflets at the tip of the compound leaf. Leave only the 2 leaflets at the base and cut off 1/2 of them, insert into plain sandy soil in a large flower pot to a depth of 5cm. Keep shaded for care; new roots can grow after the Beginning of Autumn, and before winter the seedlings should be separated and potted, then moved into a cold room to overwinter.

  3. Division propagation

  Division can be carried out from mid-October to mid-November or from late February to late March. The stems of mahonia grow upright in clumps and have weak branching ability, so when propagating by cuttings the stems must be cut back to take the shoots, temporarily making the mother plant unable to be viewed ornamentally. Therefore, division is often combined with repotting and changing the soil: separate the whole clump of plants, pot them up and plant them, and after they survive, shorten the original stems to encourage the root system to sprout new root suckers and form new clumps.

  4. Transplanting

  The seedlings need to be cultivated in the seedling bed for 2-3 years; when the seedlings are 3-4cm tall, they can be transplanted. Transplanting can be done in spring or autumn, generally in March to April each year, and in arid and semi-arid areas it is better to transplant in autumn, in September to October. Keep the original soil or a mud ball, and maintenance and management are simple; pay attention to pruning dead branches to keep the plants tidy. Before planting, dig out the young seedlings and cut off part of the leaves to reduce the evaporation area, prepare the land well, and make beds 130cm wide; the bed length is determined specifically according to the number of seedlings and the terrain. Dig a hole at a row spacing and plant spacing of 30cm each and plant one plant, fill in soil and firm it to ground level, water to settle the roots, and after the water seeps in, cover with a layer of soil to conserve moisture.

  In addition, the sexual propagation method for Long-styled mahonia (Mahonia dolichostylis) seeds can be carried out according to the following steps:

  Seed collection: harvest when more than 60% of the fruits in a fruit cluster are purple-black.

  Peeling: remove the seed coat of the Long-styled mahonia fruits to obtain the seeds;

  Weighing: weigh the Long-styled mahonia seeds;

  Drying: place the Long-styled mahonia seeds in an environment of 20℃~30℃ to dry naturally, so that their moisture content drops to 20%~30%;

  Sowing and management: choose loose-textured soil, sow at a row spacing of 5cm×5cm~10cm×10cm, control the sowing depth at 3~5cm, then cover with soil, water thoroughly with rooting water, and cover with film; and use conventional methods for breeding management. After 1 month~2 months, they will sprout.