Crab airlayer

[Mojosan]

I have several mature crabapples in my yard. I attempted to airlayer a branch last year, but it never took. I want to try again this spring, and wanted to get some advice.

I will be using a small pot with s. moss and plastic. How early can this be started? At bud swell or is it best to wait till later?

 

[John Ruger]

You're probably looking at mid April and it can take a while to see any results...a few months at least.

 

[Bob]

I haven't had any luck air layering any crab branch over a half to three quarters of an inch thick. With thicker branches all I get is callous, no roots. For me, these smaller branches get roots after about 6 weeks. I do the layer after leaf out.

Bob.

 

[Mojosan]

Yeah, I tried a 3 inch branch last year. Just scar tissue.... hmmmmmm

 

[milehigh_7]

I was trying to post this link earlier today but for some reason my cell network was really slow. Graham Potter has an excellent video on air layering and as luck would have it the tree in the video is a crab.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CREGA3jxGJE