Vic N

I tried my hand at air layering this past summer, and although it wasn't a total failure, it still may be!! The reason it still may be is that none of my layers grew roots and I've read that the layer can be left over winter and may take the next year. On the other hand only one of my layers has totally failed, the ones that are still going (?) have all developed a callous, but no sign of roots. I may have started these a few weeks too late, but I would like some clarification on a couple of points.

An air layer as I understand, cuts through three layers of the tree:
The bark, the cambium, and the phloem.

This leaves xylem and hard wood (?)
When I did my layers it was easy to see the bark and cambium, but how do you know what the phloem is and if it has been removed? Is it a white material like the xylem/wood, or does it just come off with the other two?
Is there a process that I did not do to cause my layers to not do well?

I have seen posts that reference scraping and even using a torch. Is this something I should be doing?

Thanks in advance! Vic

Michel

Hi,

some trees respond well to air layering, readily shooting out
new roots on all sides (willows, acers,...), others tend to make
just one root (cedars), and still other hardly ever respond (pines), so . . .

first question would be: what trees are we talking about here ?

(BTW: scorching & torching is definetely NOT a good idea
for airlayering in my book !)

Greetz,

Michel

Vic N

Michel,
Tried Bald Cypress (really thought that one would take off), Pyracantha, Hawthorne, Burning Bush, unknown ornamental fruit tree, and Acer Palmatum-Bloodgood. Vic

Kansai

Vic--The Phloem is outside the cambium, so once your get to the cambium, you are already through the phloem.

You've picked some tough customers to learn on. Get a bougainvillea and practice on that.

DR

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Salvelinus

Here's an illustration I did a few years ago, on a now defunct site

Just get through the cambium (remove all the green) and you'll be fine. You don't need (or want) to remove much else. Another thing to keep in mind: make sure you keep the entire exposed area of wood protected from the external air. Otherwise, the xylem can dry out and the layered branch will not receive sap, and will die.

Hope this helps!

Attached Images

Stem cross-section.jpg (17.3 KB, 46 views)

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--Scott ><>

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Michel

Hi,

Pyracantha & hawthorne should work, and I don't know about baldies,
but ornamental fruit and acer varieties are often grafted
just to give them a good understock with strong roots;
so when trying to airlayer above that, things might become quite iffy . . .

Greetz,

Michel

J-Bog

When is it better to use Air Layering as opposed to cuttings or other propagation techniques?

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"It is said that you should never leave anything to chance; but, in operating like that, chance never leaves anything to you."

Rick Moquin

Air layers are normally used to reduce the overall height of a given tree at some interesting point, or to produce a radial root mass at the trunks base.

They are also used on mature garden trees where an interesting junction exist and you wish to turn this (large cutting) into a bonsai while keeping the donor intact.

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Bonsai is the journey, not the destination
Bonsai Wonders

Dav4

As Rick said, you generally achieve a more desirable nebari via air layering. You also get larger stock sooner with layering vs. cuttings. For instance, I completed an Acer palmatum air layer this summer...the stock plant had been a cutting I made 9-10 years ago and had been growing in my yard for almost that long. The base of the air layer is approx. 2.5-3" in diameter, which is almost as large as that of the stock plant. If/when I pot up the stock plant, I'll basically have 2 trees of the same caliper, but one tree took 1/10th the time grow/collect.

Dave

Vic N

Getting a head start on some trees was my intention, as well as taking away some undesirable branches. Rather than waiting for a cutting to take, and to better learn the process of air-layers, I tried this method. I think my timing may have been late by a few weeks, but I'm pretty sure that most of what I did was sound. Here is one more question that just came to me: When cutting the ring of bark, is the depth of the cut critical? If a person cuts too deep into the xylem, will the layer fail? Vic