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Mistletoe


mattjazz
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I think you have to make some sort of cut in the bark and possible bind the mistletoe to it, not too strongly I would have thought. As far as I know mistletoe only grows on certain trees and I think that's fruit trees and poplar, there are probably others.....good luck HTH not an expert...
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I wonder if you do have to cut the bark, as a birds deposit the seeds on trees either from rubbing their beak to get the sticky off or from the other end.

This just got me thinking, so popped off before posting this & looked it up on the RHS site, it looks like you don't follow nature if you want to cultivate it. http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0101/mistletoe.asp

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Apparently, the germination rate is better if you transfer between similar trees. If you get mistletoe from an apple tree, transfer the seeds to another apple tree. Also the seeds aren't ripe till March / April time. The link above probably tells you that but it didn't load when I tried it - which doesn't mean there's anything wrong with the url, just my temperamental dialup connection.

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And of course, the French assiduously follow the rules on mistletoe as with everything else. [:D] Our neighbours, who love their cider apple trees dearly, do remove the majority of their mistletoe but if they weren't harvesting the apples each autumn, I don't suppose they'd bother. I don't think it is viewed as important as the chardon removal which does seem to be taken more seriously and there's usually a paragraph or two in the local papers at chardon destruction time.

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Just happened to see a programme about this last night.  The tree has to have soft bark.  You squash the berries and place the glue inbetween two forks of a branch.  Do not cut the tree.  Do not put on the trunk as this bark is too hard.  Do this on several branches as some may not take.
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