Grafting and seedlings.

Eldi_Dos

Uplifting article on BBC webpage this morning about the success of grafts and seedlings from the Sycamore Gap tree.
Marvelous people doing great work.

twopenny

I can give them lots of seedlings!
Sycamore is the bane of my life!!

Not that I'm denigrating their work but it must be one of the easiest to propergate and hardest to get rid of.
Could have done with that guy with the chainsaw in my last place.
Couldn't get rid of despite cutting and poison
That said it was a selfish and stupid to do what they did. Anyone hear why?

Farway

Good for them, not wanting to pour too much cold water on their achievements, but getting sycamore seeds not to grow must be harder

Brie

I think the difficulty is getting seedlings from that particular tree now that it's not actually growing anymore.  Amazing that there was someone to swoop in and nab something that might be viable more long term.  And lucky that it was autumn so seeds were available.  

The ongoing difficulty will be getting the new tree beyond sapling size as they are so vulnerable to someone snapping it, on purpose or not.  

twopenny

I like the idea but it's when you read "Andy Jaspar says, carrying a small pot with a 10cm green shoot. People have cried when holding it,"

that puts me off.

There are people and animals suffering that need the sort of help that this seedling is getting so I get the feeling that it's money and emotion that could be spent better.

The grafts aren't on the original rootstock and will never hold the same dna - much like the other trees that are being kept.

Hopefully the original stump will be producing shoots this year. They won't have the photogenic quality but although I'm a photographer it's all a bit ethreal -

ArbitraryRandom

I think they were also saying they'd grown some on from cuttings. 

But I do think it's nice to see the effort being taken in the face of what seems to have been just petty vandalism.