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Wednesday - June 25, 2008

From: Atlanta, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: Propagation
Title: Possibility of propagating buckeye from basal shoots
Answered by: Barbara Medford

QUESTION:

I have a beautiful red buckeye tree that has small shoots coming up at the base. I would love to share these with my friends. How do I do this?

ANSWER:

Aesculus pavia (red buckeye) is a lovely bush or small tree, and you are to be commended for wanting to share it with friends. It grows especially well in your part of East Texas. You should be warned that both the seeds and small sprouts are poisonous. They propagate very easily from seed. The recommendations we saw said that placing a seed, while it was still fresh, on its side on the dirt would give the best results. Most of the initial growth spurt is focused on creating a very long tap root. If you think your sprouts are from seeds, you must dig deep to get them out to transplant, so you will not break that taproot. And, again because of the taproot, be sure that where you put the seed is where you want the plant.

The sprouts you are asking about will not live well since they are probably from the main root system of the parent tree. If they were dug up with the roots this would damage the existing tree. Now if these are from seed they can be dug up and transplanted by digging soil with them and planting them into a hole twice the size of the rootball that was dug up. But it sounds like these are root sprouts and therefore should just be cut off.