Air layering in Fall

Nishant

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Hello All, there are a few branches if wisteria and pyracantha that I want to air layer.

Can I put the cut and wrap moss etc now? Generally it's very cold here in spring and I may not get to do this untill it's almost summer.

However I was wondering if I could put the air layering material now then I can save about six months of time.

Please advise.
 
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leatherback

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Generally it's very cold here in spring
London Ontario is where you are?
Because London UK never gets really cold?

In general, layers are of course started once the trees have started waking up in spring, or later..

I like this question. I have read in the bonsai maples book from Andrea that late winter is a good time to already start maple layers. I have put a tourniquette on a trident a few weeks back, and wrapped it with spaghnum to see whether that works. My thinking is that once you get the spring push of roots the layer starts rooting straight away. Then again, not all species grow their roots in early spring. Some only start growing roots in later spring, if I remember correctly.

Interested to see whether people have had succesfull trials.
 

Shibui

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In most areas you can certainly start layers in autumn but rooting will be very slow while the plants are dormant. You probably won't save 6 months but might get roots a few weeks before similar spring layers as these should callus over winter and have a slight head start on spring layers.
 

Wires_Guy_wires

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If you experience frosts, your callus might freeze and shatter into a million pieces. So I would definitely provide some protection.
Some trees can withstand it with ease, but others don't. It's worth exploring what happens before you start a layer and you plan on keeping it unprotected.
 

Bonsai Nut

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Root development in air-layers is triggered by hormone transport in the vascular tissues. If the tree is dormant and there is no active water transport happening, there will be no root development until the tree wakes up. Additionally, if you cut the girdle this late in the season, there is also a good likelihood that the cut site will not heal until the spring... leaving the site open to possible problems from disease or other pathogens.

It is all dependent on your agricultural zone and your tree species. London is relatively mild, and I don't know how dormant your trees get. It might be worth a couple of trials on material that isn't critical. My guess is that waiting until the tree is actively growing will yield best results... but I have no practical experience with it.
 
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Tieball

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I would just simply wait longer until you’re at spring when there is active bud moisture and swelling started. I have believed, and I am not that up on horticulturally knowledge really, that cutting a ring away well before the tree can actively handle it, or do something about it such as starting new roots, builds the environment for the cells above the cut to die away. In my belief you might not get roots where you think you will see them. I’ve also believed that the roots help provide some temperature stability throughout the tree as cold temperatures threaten to kill off outlying branches. However, all of this is just my practice, and my winters are far longer and colder than you might experience. I only layer in spring.

I would wait. But, you know your climate and your trees...give it a try....early layering.
 

Ohmy222

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Agree with above. If you do it now, it will really be no different than doing it in the spring. It will just be dormant until then. On top of that you increase the likelihood of infection and will have to monitor for drying out over the winter. I would wait for spring.
 

MrWunderful

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It will still need to be separated in late summer or early fall anyways, so I would wait until spring.
 

Nishant

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I think I will await, as most people advised. Just thought of sharing a branch I havested last year and trimmed it to get this.
 

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