Abstract
Survival of cuttings and shoot growth were observed in three species of willow: Yamayanagi (Salix sieboldiana), Nekoyanagi (Salix gracilistyla) and Sunayanagi (Salix psammophila), a species of Chinese origin. Cuttings were planted in the “arch style cutting” method. In this method, long cuttings (1m long) were bent to become arched and planted at both ends. Arch style cutting may be regarded as a combination of the normal method for planting cuttings on the base side and shoot burying on the tip side. All shoots generated in each growing season were harvested at the end of the growing season with the number, total dry mass, and maximum length of new shoots determined for each cutting. Survival of whole cuttings and detachment of the tip of each cutting from the ground were observed each winter. Maximum length and total dry mass of shoots increased year after year, presumably an effect of harvesting. In some cuttings, the tip became detached from the ground within three years after planting. Poor rooting might have caused this tip detachment. In other cuttings that kept both ends in the ground, dieback on the tip side was observed just above ground. The dieback moved back towards the base side of the cuttings with time. It was suggested that continued shoot harvesting of Yamayanagi and Nekoyanagi cuttings would gradually increase shoot generation at both the base and tip ends of the cuttings and enable two stocks to be established from each cutting. Sunayanagi cuttings did not show the results of the other two species and gradually declined, presumably because this species is unsuited to Japanese environmental conditions.
