Air layer—how small is too small?

[cmeg1]

Are you scraping away the cambium here, or just putting on some hormone and wrapping with rock wool?

A lite scrape with the exacto knife in case there is some left over cambium

 

[WNC Bonsai]

Yes. But before you cut a girdle, there was sufficient xylem to transport enough water. That is, it grew to be what it was before you touched it. So there was enough xylem originally. The question is where did all the water carrying capacity go?

I assume that because of the thin stem there was little margin for error and when I removed the cambium and a certain portion of the heartwood there just wasn’t enough left. We also were in pretty dry conditions mid-summer. One lived and one died right next to each other and the only difference I can see is stem thickness and the fact that one was a plain green variety whereas the other was red leafed.

 

[WNC Bonsai]

Younger ones air layer quicker in my experiance…especially first or second grow season whips.like in one to two weeks…..sometimes like 4 days!!!!!
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Are you floating these cuttings in water using the styrafoam blocks shown in the photos?

 

[cmeg1]

Are you floating these cuttings in water using the styrafoam blocks shown in the photos?

That was the Hornbeams in the aeroponic cloner…….definately fun to do,as you can do smaller seedlings,but I still prefer ringbarking seedlings in the pots or trays as I can get lower just under branches without the styrofoam puck getting in the way and make some noce clumps with multi branch species.