Air Layer Blues

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Contact Hidden Gardens, see if they are shipping, or if your travels get you anywhere near the south side of Chicago, pick up your mix from them. You don't have to get into Chicago proper, Hidden Gardens is about 30 miles south of downtown.

The Hidden Gardens in Willowbrook, IL

 

[Cable]

Planning to separate this weekend. Any danger in putting directly into a bonsai pot? I'm expecting a ton of roots so I'm thinking a training pot is an unecessary step.

 

[Pitoon]

Planning to separate this weekend. Any danger in putting directly into a bonsai pot? I'm expecting a ton of roots so I'm thinking a training pot is an unecessary step.

It shouldn't be a problem, but how do you plan to secure the tree in the pot?

 

[BrianBay9]

It shouldn't be a problem, but how do you plan to secure the tree in the pot?

I often screw a small piece of board or plywood directly to the cut end of the trunk. It provides a flat surface to encourage a good nebari, and stabilizes the tree in the pot.

 

[Cable]

It shouldn't be a problem, but how do you plan to secure the tree in the pot?

If it has as many roots as I suspect it does (won't know until I open it up but the layer was started last March) then I don't think it will be a problem. If it is light then I'll use chopsticks across the two sides and secure them down.

 

[Cable]

Separated! Hopefully it will recover. It had roots about 3/4 of the way around, which should be plenty for an elm. Unfortunately, since I was doing it at the meeting I wasn't able to get picks of the separation.

 

[Warpig]

Hows this one holding up cable? Seem like it took pretty good?

 

[Cable]

Hows this one holding up cable? Seem like it took pretty good?

So far so good. It is just starting to break. I won't know for sure until the heat of summer hits it and then we'll see if it has enough roots to keep up but I'm fairly certain it will. It will spend probably two more weeks in the greenhouse.

 

[Will.power49]

I think that I'm going to do, based on this thread, is buy some Clay King and sift out some smaller particles for my elm and then I can use the rest in my other plants.

I know Its late to the game for this tree. But have you thought about looking around at local gravel pits. Being in OH also and having not alot of akidamia on hand. I have had good success with different sized gravel as a replacement. It may not be proper or traditional but it has worked well thus far.

 

[Cable]

I know Its late to the game for this tree. But have you thought about looking around at local gravel pits. Being in OH also and having not alot of akidamia on hand. I have had good success with different sized gravel as a replacement. It may not be proper or traditional but it has worked well thus far.

No, I wouldn't do that. For one thing, isn't most of the grave around here limestone? That would mess with the soil pH too much. Plus, gravel doesn't have any of the capabilities of many of the modern soil substrates. It might be helpful as a soil filler to add weight but if I was going to go with just one soil component it would be pumice. I use straight pumice for trees I've collected. Everything else gets either my standard DE/lava/pumice blend (sometimes with a little bark) or an akadama blend.

I did end up using the clay king for this elm and so far so good but it has only been a year.