Mistletoe Smearing...

tigger · #1 (**permalink**) 02-01-2008, 06:16 PM

Just wondered if anyone else is going to "smear" there mistletoe berries onto their trees? and whether anyone has found a really good way of doing it...

As anyone got Mistletoe to grow on their trees by doing this???

I've chosen an old apple tree to smear mine on. I've tried for the last 3 years, but this year I feel lucky!

Jane

juliejam · #2 (**permalink**) 02-01-2008, 07:08 PM

Ive read that waiting until february to march before smearing your mistletoe berries is the best time..by this time they are at a more mature state...

Julie

tufftie · #3 (**permalink**) 02-01-2008, 07:11 PM

Good luck Tigger

I'm sure you're meant to sing round old apple trees - to do with wassailing them....might help

Susie · #4 (**permalink**) 02-01-2008, 08:18 PM

Good luck, Tigger. I'll be trying this again this year with the berries left over from Christmas. I don't suppose I will have much luck, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Hobjob · #5 (**permalink**) 03-01-2008, 03:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tigger

Just wondered if anyone else is going to "smear" there mistletoe berries onto their trees? and whether anyone has found a really good way of doing it...

As anyone got Mistletoe to grow on their trees by doing this???

I've chosen an old apple tree to smear mine on. I've tried for the last 3 years, but this year I feel lucky!

Jane

IIRC it doesn't work very well - mistletoe is cut with white berries which are not yet mature - in the wild they go blackish and are then mature. (Even then success rate is lowish).

There was a longish and good thread about this, I imagine this time last year

m1.carson · #6 (**permalink**) 03-01-2008, 06:06 AM

Hi,

There's a thread about it this year, it was said that The RHS tried it with 100 berries and only had a 2% success rate, and after 2yrs the leaves are only 2cms long, they suggested you smear it into cuts in the bark.

You'll need to check my statistics out, I've usually got them wrong.

Max.

Growing mistletoe by susie

Frimsley · #7 (**permalink**) 03-01-2008, 07:35 AM

Christmas mistletoe is pretty useless. You need to collect seed in February or March to propagate. I seem to recall that the dozens of sub species of mistletoe are somewhat host specific, so collect seed from mistletoe growing on the same species of tree as you want to establish it on, if possible.

Remove the flesh from the berry. Make a small cut so that you can lift some bark, then smear the seed beneath the bark. Replace the bark. Some suggest wrapping hessian around it keep the birds away.

Try with quite a few seeds, for two reasons. Firstly, the success rate is low. And secondly, mistletoe is dioecious - it needs both male and female plants to set seed.

tigger · #8 (**permalink**) 03-01-2008, 07:52 AM

Thanks for all your replies. Really helpful, although a little discouraging! Looks like I will need to get some in Feb/March if I want to stand any chance.... Hey ho!

mrs fish · #9 (**permalink**) 03-01-2008, 07:54 AM

Don't they germinate better if they have passed through the mistle thrush?
I heard that somewhere?

Adam Cheeseman · #10 (**permalink**) 03-01-2008, 08:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by m1.carson

Hi,

There's a thread about it this year, it was said that The RHS tried it with 100 berries and only had a 2% success rate, and after 2yrs the leaves are only 2cms long, they suggested you smear it into cuts in the bark.

You'll need to check my statistics out, I've usually got them wrong.

Max.

Growing mistletoe by susie

Hi Max,

Just to correct you, it was 2mm not cm. and it was at Kew

Cheers,

Adam