You must be willing to stick to all the rules, otherwise your trees will not grow as expected. First thing to remember is that you are growing trees, not bushes, For this reason, all you need to have on top is one branch, the leader. The cuttings come to you without roots, however they are living and just waiting for the right environment to start growing. You must provide the best possible environment so they can not only grow but survive as well.
When you receive your cuttings, they are in a sealed plastic bag. That is to keep them from dehydrating before they go in the ground. If you are unable to plant them right away, keep them in the a cold, dark place, like the garage. Don't open the bag unless you are ready to plant. If the temperatures rise to above 50, the cuttings will start rooting and you must plant them immediately or they will die.
First have a hole dug at least a foot deep (2 ft. is best) and some extra good medium to fill the hole with once the cutting is in place. Next, enhance the cutting's chances to make a lot of roots by making a few cuts with a knife alongside the trunk (scratching the surface also works), within a foot of the bottom of the cutting and dusting that area with a rooting hormone before planting.
Next step is very important. Remove all the buds (the cuttings have buds alongside the trunk, about 1.5 inches apart) from the cutting all the way up to a foot from the top, The reason for this is that when you plant this cutting it has no roots and therefore there are no nutrients flowing up the trunk to feed the new opening buds. There is no need to remove the buds on the bottom foot of the cutting since some of them will become roots.
At the time you place the cutting in the ground, if the temperature is right, it will start making the root (a single root) which is supposed to feed that branch all the way up the trunk. If you increase the number of roots that the cutting makes, you are giving it more nutrients that can be sent up to the branches, therefore it will be able to sustain at least a few branches. Please don't overdo it at the beginning, after a year, you can allow as many branches as you want, but at very start, just be happy with just a few.
If you are growing hybrid poplars, definitely it only needs one bud on top, after all, every year the top bud grows about 10 ft. and makes leaves. The rest of the tree is supposed to make branches. This keeps the trees from getting top heavy and bending with the wind. If you have a very long cutting, keep in mind, once it is in the ground you will not be able to reach the top of it and leaving too many buds on the trunk may mean the death of that tree.
Once in the ground, backfill with good growing medium and tamp the soil very well. Also, to be sure the cutting does not sway with the wind, drive a metal pipe or bamboo cane in the ground parallel to the cutting and tie it to the cutting to immobilize it completely. Now you can water it with a water soluble fertilizer such as Miracle Gro and repeat the treatment every 2 weeks or so for the first year.
As the cutting grows, loosen up the ties to the pipe, remove it on the second year.
Any questions just email me fgomez@hybridoplars.com, I will try to help you.
Note: This file is included with every order of long cuttings.