Acer Palmatum air-layering experiment

[SexyGArdener]

I started this in early April in 70% soil conditioner (mini pink bark and sand) and 30% crushed granite (3/8" size) in a clear snack cup uncovered. It gets water when the medium seems dry so every other day. This was done on a weak Shishigashira after severe root pruning/reduction (~75%) in March when the leaves were half-pushed and zero growth so far this year. It was foolish to repot that late, but the nursery soil wasn't draining well. I attempted 3 air-layers as backup from branches that were going to be prune anyways. I already sever 2 already; 1 seems to be doing fine and the other is struggling. I figured this one didn't have enough roots by August so I removed the soil medium (pine bark and crushed granite) and used 100% sphagnum moss around August 30th. Roots shown above are current as of today (10/23) and about 50% more since switching to Sphagnum moss. I'm going to leave this on until Spring and see how it goes.


This was removed around late August and seemed to be thriving. Roots are still not well developed, I could tell by wiggling it every couple of weeks (not smart but I have to know). Potted in 30% lava, 30% pumice, 25% turface, 10% pine bark, and 5% crush granite as a drainage layer.



These air layers are dissectum of unknow varietal (maybe Orangeola), started in mid-June because I was asked by a family member to do so because the main tree is too established to be moved and the air layers will be used as landscaping trees. The soil medium is 100% garden soil in milk/water gallon jugs. I forgot all about them until yesterday and decided to check because I was told dissectums were notoriously difficult to air-layer so I assume they won't have adequate roots until next spring considering how late they were started. I'm going to leave these on because they're wrist thick, 3 foot tall and wide each, and I have no room to over-winter these. The parent tree has always been neglected, no water or fertilizer. I'm excited to see if they survive this winter and if they'll thrive next year. The plan is to plant them in 15 gallon pots in the spring and ground plant them in the fall.

 

[Hack Yeah!]

Too established to be moved? Like a girl too pretty or a car too fast

 

[SexyGArdener]

Due to its location, I would need a bobcat to cleanly dig it out. I just don't think it's feasible to hand dig with pick axes and shovels, it's rediculously large. And yes, a girl can be too pretty and a car too fast, both of those require substantial amount of resources to maintain.

 

[Hack Yeah!]

I was just playing but if you are going to airlayer it down then remove it anyway, then you wouldn't have to take any roots to give it a go

 

[SexyGArdener]

I was just playing but if you are going to airlayer it down then remove it anyway, then you wouldn't have to take any roots to give it a go

I've contemplated on relocating the disectum for 2 winters as it's a beautiful tree, but seeing the surface roots and dreading the process which would take days with pick axes and shovels, I've decided it would be far less laborous to attempt air layerings or even buying a fully mature tree. Digging it close and treating it like a large cutting is not worth the risk considering the time and effort spent on digging it.

 

[Corrado]

You didnt say if you tried the copper wire tourniquet method or girdled the bark to get the roots going? If you girdled, how wide did you make the cut? Im trying to do a rough bark trident that failed 2 times in air layering by repairing the girdle with ---rough corky thick bark ! thinking of trying an earth layering technique next spring.

 

[SexyGArdener]

You didnt say if you tried the copper wire tourniquet method or girdled the bark to get the roots going? If you girdled, how wide did you make the cut? Im trying to do a rough bark trident that failed 2 times in air layering by repairing the girdle with ---rough corky thick bark ! thinking of trying an earth layering technique next spring.

I did not girdled any of my air layers, but my cuts were at least 1.5" or visually wider than the trunk/stem being air layered. I scraped the cambium underneath like it owes me money and I'm trying to kill it. Check out this Rose of Sharon air layer I started around September 5th in a milk jug using a mixture of pine bark, turface, crushed granite, and some perlite. It's fully exposed to the elements and the soil medium usually dries out within 24hrs. I like this mixture and will uses it next year on my Shin Deshojo and Arakawa maples as it's close to my potting medium. I've neglected this air layer since started and has only been watered about 7 or 8 times in the last 7 weeks plus maybe 4-6 rainy days. You can sort of tell it's dry by the lack of moisture on the side wall of the jug. I will detach it in a few days because it's forecasted to have cool and shady weather next week which is prefect and wouldn't stress it out too much.

 

[Corrado]

so your scrape was only enough to show the light green underneath or did you go into the white part .I girdled right to the white part by peeling off the bark and at least 1.5" wide and the damn thing healed right over it.

 

[SexyGArdener]

so your scrape was only enough to show the light green underneath or did you go into the white part .I girdled right to the white part by peeling off the bark and at least 1.5" wide and the damn thing healed right over it.

I scraped the cambium with extreme prejudice to reached hard wood because I had a failed attempt in the previous year (2020) on the same dissectum because I went easy/light on the scraping and it healed over. So this year, I had to re-attempt to know for sure if dissectums are hard/impossible to air layer or was my previous technique flawed, thus I used the same poor soil medium (garden soil) as last year. I also used milk jugs this year as appose to exclusively plastic bags because they're more stable and less likely to sag on leaning/horizontal branches; I can use guy wires/ropes to secure and hang it since it's more rigid than plastic bags. I did bag my jugs on these dissectums because I won't water the layers and don't want them drying out and become dry clay. As for the Rose of Sharon, I didn't bag for moisture retention because I knew it would layer fairly easy which I attempted really late in the growing season. I figured I would hand water it if it dries out since I can see it. Once it rooted, I wanted to know if I can dries it out for days and will it still survive. I probably won't let future air layers be torture this way, but it's something I had to know in case I like this technique and have to go on vacation, I wouldn't want to worry about watering it or bagging it before leaving. My approach to air layering now is treating it like an attached cutting, forcing it to fight for its survival by throwing new roots. I've previously used Garden Safe TakeRoot powder with okay results, but now switched to Clonex gel as the rooting hormone because it stays on the layers better than the powder.

 

[Shibui]

so your scrape was only enough to show the light green underneath or did you go into the white part .I girdled right to the white part by peeling off the bark and at least 1.5" wide and the damn thing healed right over it.

We need to understand the terminology to get best info and make this work.
1. cut and remove the bark. There should be some good videos now to show the technique. In spring and summer the entire thickness of bark will peel off like a banana skin. Between the bark and the wood is the cambium layer. Sometimes not visible as green but a very thin layer - only a few cells thick.
2. scrape all traces of cambium off the woody stem. It is the cambium where cells grow and divide. Cambium cells that are in contact with wood form more wood cells. Cambium on the outer side forms new bark. If you don't scrape it clean the remaining cambium can just form new bark.

Sounds like you may have just scraped the outer woody layers of bark until the inner bark showed white. Very likely never even removed the entire thickness of bark so no wonder it just healed up again. Inner bark is programmed to form more outer bark. New roots will only form from the cambium which is way down next to the wood.
If you can't find someone to show you maybe take some fresh branches from a tree and try making the cuts till you find the correct depth and feel for effective girdling.

 

[sorce]

It was foolish to repot that late,

Not if it's alive!

Welcome to Crazy!

Sorce