Air Layering Japanese maple

[MACH5]

So what from here?

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Here is an airlayer on a viridis. About 1.5 inch thick limb. I know it is capable of forming roots becsuse I have taken 3 layers off of the same tree(none this big/thick).

Layer was started 5 months ago. No roots at all, no bridging, limb looks healthy, minimal callus.

Do people think the limb will make it through the winter? If so i will rewound and rewrap with moss. If people think it may die off, i may still have time to girdle younger wood (same limb) and see if i can get roots on that.

Has anyone noticed if the age of the stem seams to impact the probability of rooting.

I have my doubts that it will make through winter although I hope it does. If so, rewound and start over. You may just have enough time to do one now before your real winter hits?? I don't know. Viridis is slower than regular palmatum to layer so I do question if you do in fact have time on your side?

I do think thin and younger branches are quicker to layer.

 

[MACH5]

Congrats! I believe this air layering will make it. When do you plan to seperate?

Thanks! Excited for this one! I will give it until the very beginning of October. I will separate then unless I start to see a profusion of roots before that. In October plants are shutting down up here but as long as it has enough roots there is no worry if it cannot produce new ones once separated. The tree will be sustained until spring arrives.

 

[b3bowen]

I have my doubts that it will make through winter although I hope it does. If so, rewound and start over. You may just have enough time to do one now before your real winter hits?? I don't know. Viridis is slower than regular palmatum to layer so I do question if you do in fact have time on your side?

I do think thin and younger branches are quicker to layer.

Thanks so much for your input. I was also thinking that the branch would likely die over winter. This branch bifurcates into two thinner branches. I think I may girdle each of them to double my odds of success. I’m not sure that re-wounding at the same location is likely to turn out well given it had so much time and has done nothing so far.

 

[b3bowen]

Just heard good news from my brother. I asked him a few days ago to check on my higayasama air layer and today sent me this!



I received this pic from my brother today as I had asked him to give me a report on the progress of this air layer. I was excited to finally see this! I suspect many more roots inside that have not made it yet to the edge of the rather substantial bag of moss. I think there will be time for roots to develop enough to separate it before the cold arrives. I am now almost at the three month mark. It has been a slow process compared to what I am used to but I did expect it to be so.

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By the way, I’m jealous of how much better, verigated maples look late in the season when you don’t live in the south. Though I’m glad I don’t have to work as hard to protect them during the winter. This is my higayasama. Compare my leaves to yours. Mine only gets morning sun, to prevent it from frying. I guess the good news is, it will just look like standard Acer p. Except for in the spring, when it’s so beautiful.

 

[MACH5]

By the way, I’m jealous of how much better, verigated maples look late in the season when you don’t live in the south. Though I’m glad I don’t have to work as hard to protect them during the winter. This is my higayasama. Compare my leaves to yours. Mine only gets morning sun, to prevent it from frying. I guess the good news is, it will just look like standard Acer p. Except for in the spring, when it’s so beautiful.

WOW! All the variegation seems to disappear! Interesting! Yeah we do work very hard at making sure our maples get through the hellish, wicked and frigid winter temps we get!

 

[0soyoung]

By the way, I’m jealous of how much better, verigated maples look late in the season when you don’t live in the south. Though I’m glad I don’t have to work as hard to protect them during the winter. This is my higayasama. Compare my leaves to yours. Mine only gets morning sun, to prevent it from frying. I guess the good news is, it will just look like standard Acer p. Except for in the spring, when it’s so beautiful.

The leaves in your pic are the 'new growth' leaves. The only time Higasayama has only Higasayama's famous variegated little cupped hands is when it leafs out in spring. New growth displays rather ordinary green palmate leaves that will be replaced by the famous variegated ones (i.e. wait until next spring or remove those particular ones, as in defoliating).

 

[kouyou]

Has anyone noticed if the age of the stem seams to impact the probability of rooting.

when it comes to *cuttings* some cultivars, such as deshojo and katsura, have a higher rate of success when taken from plants that are overall younger (3-5 years). cuttings from older ‘parent plants’ (7-10 years) have much less success at rooting

I am talking about the age of the overall tree.

cuttings from maples that are flowering are also less vigorous, seemingly regardless of cultivar (confirmed for at least arakawa, kiyo hime, kashima, katsura).

i don’t know how this relates to air layering though

 

[Pitoon]

when it comes to *cuttings* some cultivars, such as deshojo and katsura, have a higher rate of success when taken from plants that are overall younger (3-5 years). cuttings from older ‘parent plants’ (7-10 years) have much less success at rooting

I am talking about the age of the overall tree.

cuttings from maples that are flowering are also less vigorous, seemingly regardless of cultivar (confirmed for at least arakawa, kiyo hime, kashima, katsura).

i don’t know how this relates to air layering though

I don't believe the age of the tree has anything to do with the cuttings. The key to having a successful cutting it to take it at the right time whether it's softwood, semi-hardwood, or hardwood. Once you cut a branch/stem you start your battle against
desiccation.

 

[kouyou]

I don't believe the age of the tree has anything to do with the cuttings. The key to having a successful cutting it to take it at the right time whether it's softwood, semi-hardwood, or hardwood. Once you cut a branch/stem you start your battle against
desiccation.

have you taken cuttings from several 30 year old katsura or deshoho maples sequentially throughout the growing season, while simultaneously taking cuttings from 3-5 year old katsura or deshoho maples sequentially throughout the growing season?

if not, what tests have you done, and on which cultivars?

again i don't know how this relates to air layering, so maybe we should start another thread

 

[Pitoon]

have you taken cuttings from several 30 year old katsura or deshoho maples sequentially throughout the growing season, while simultaneously taking cuttings from 3-5 year old katsura or deshoho maples sequentially throughout the growing season?

if not, what tests have you done, and on which cultivars?

again i don't know how this relates to air layering, so maybe we should start another thread

I have tried air layering old wood on a bloodgood that's in the ground in my yard, I would say the tree is +/-20-25yrs, the branch maybe +/- 10yrs. Hoping to get a thicker branch to save time on growth I've been unsuccessful each time. Typically if a plant is capable of having a cutting to strike it will also air layer and vice versa. Bloodgood is a cultivar that is capable of doing both. My failed air layerings proved to me that the branch needs to be younger, maybe 3-5yrs old would take?

We had some damage this year to that tree that required some branches to be removed along with the failed air layerings as a result the tree pushed out a lot of fresh green growth. We're too late in the season now for me to try to air layer or take cuttings of the new growth. I do plant to next year which would be optimum as they should be roughly 2-3ft next year and would make great air layerings. I'll post my results here when the time comes.

 

[0soyoung]

How is this layer doing, @MACH5 ?

 

[Ohmy222]

Some of the ones I done outside of the ones in the original post:

Corallium easy
Bonfire medium
Seigen easy
Arakawa medium
Nishiki Gawa hard
Peaches and cream hard
Mikawa Yarsubusa medium
Kotohime easy
Dissectum unknown cultivar hard
Beni Hime easy
Beni Maiko easy
Sangko Kaku hard
Twombleys Red Sentinel medium
Ibo Nishiki easy
Okushimo medium
Truncatum ‘flower of god’
Trident ‘miyasama yatsubusa’ easy
Shirasawanum ‘aureum’ hard

Paperback maple is the only one I have tried that did not root. All were cuttings. I have layered the Seigen, bonfire, shinedeshojo, and the dissectum as well. The dissectum is landscape tree and the layer was for landscape as well. It is red and not an upright. The Sangko kaku cuttings all died within a year too and did not have a good strike rate. I did have try twice to layer the Bonfire and Shindeshojo. The Seigen layer showed roots in about a week but it was a very small trunk.

 

[MACH5]

How is this layer doing, @MACH5 ?

Oso, I just separated the layer this past weekend. All potted up and doing ok but lost most of its leaves due to stress. However everything is green so hopefully it will be fine. Dissaponting still because I just found only a couple of roots actually above the cut proving the difficulty with some of these fancy cultivars. So nebari is not good or rather non existent at the moment but have ideas to improve it in the future. That is... if it survives.

 

[0soyoung]

I've never succeeded with mine in years of trying. Cambium below the girdle dies, xylem gets clogged, foliage quickly desiccates, about the same time as adventitious roots have just started forming.

 

[Warpig]

Oso, I just separated the layer this past weekend. All potted up and doing ok but lost most of its leaves due to stress. However everything is green so hopefully it will be fine. Dissaponting still because I just found only a couple of roots actually above the cut proving the difficulty with some of these fancy cultivars. So nebari is not good or rather non existent at the moment but have ideas to improve it in the future. That is... if it survives.

Sorry to hear about the roots. You still got this! Any ideas on why it took so long to get any growth?

 

[MACH5]

Sorry to hear about the roots. You still got this! Any ideas on why it took so long to get any growth?

Some or I’d say many cultivars are genetically weak. That’s why the vast majority get grafted for landscape use. They make a stronger plant. In bonsai of course grafting is generally avoided so we must contend with their genetically inferior traits. This is why I always recommend using nothing but the strongest cultivars for bonsai, specially to those that are less experienced.

It’s all good. If my layer survives but unable to do much with its nebari, I will just enjoy it as a patio tree. It is a beautiful maple!

 

[MACH5]

I've never succeeded with mine in years of trying. Cambium below the girdle dies, xylem gets clogged, foliage quickly desiccates, about the same time as adventitious roots have just started forming.

Same thing here. The section below the girdle died back all the way down to the next junction of branches. I have never seen this happen.

 

[Paulpash]

Same thing here. The section below the girdle died back all the way down to the next junction of branches. I have never seen this happen.

This is a similar story to my raft layer on an orange dream - it's turned black below the girdle and it's died back to a strong side branch. I have just left it so we'll see. There's the familiar pre autumnal colour change but no leaf dessication as yet. If there are no hiccups it would normally be ready for separation now but no sign of healthy whites

 

[Drew]

@Forrestford I do not touch them. I put them straight into a pot with soil and that's how they'll stay until the following spring. At that time I will then organize my roots and do whatever else is needed to get it ready for its first full growing season.

I was just about to say the same thing!

 

[b3bowen]

I have tried multiple times to air layer AP fireglow. It maintains the best red color of all my maples here in North Carolina. So far I have been unsuccessful. I put this air layer on in early March. I re-cut it in July. I checked it two weeks ago. And there were no roots visible. I had given up on it, and figured I would try again next year. Checked today, and all of the sudden there are multiple new extending root. It’s supposed to be 28° here in two days. So I’m fairly sure the new extensions would not continue to grow . I figured I would go ahead and cut it off and get it in the ground where it will stay more insulated. Hoping for the best.
Overall, it took seven months to put out roots.