Do Oriental Sweetgum Air Layer Well?

[Apex37]

I couldn't find a whole lot online and what I could find was about our American Sweetgum and people having little success with air layers. I have a decent amount of this trunk I'm planning to chop and thought I could possibly air layer it off.

Anybody else have success with this or thoughts?

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Calling @Brian Van Fleet

I have had nothing but problems with Oriental and American Sweetgum... for bonsai. For landscaping they are like weeds. I am sure it is just a question of unlocking their secrets... but I am not there yet. They grow everywhere in my property... so time to start experimenting!

 

[Apex37]

Calling @Brian Van Fleet

I have had nothing but problems with Oriental and American Sweetgum... for bonsai. For landscaping they are like weeds. I am sure it is just a question of unlocking their secrets... but I am not there yet.

Yeah I don't see many in bonsai, but I love their fall colors so I got this one back in April from Brent at Evergreen Gardenworks to play with. I had read that orientals are a little more receptive to bonsai techniques in terms of reducing leaf size and internode length, but this is my first year with this tree so I haven't really done any work on him yet.

 

[RKatzin]

They grow like weeds here in the Rogue Valley, Oregon so naturally one sprouted in one of my pots and I naturally am having a go with it. So far I've treated it like I do my maples and it has responded in kind with good growth, in a container, I'm guessing, six seasons a one inch trunk and two feet tall. I've docked it back once to eighteen inches last year and I have some branches selected to develop.
The tree does not appear to be self-biforating like the Japanese maple, but they do produce two shoots on the cut and backbud well as a result of pruning. So far so good, I'm liking this tree.
Oh yeah, it's growing in pumice, neat, hold the ice.
You know, they also sucker in aboundence from the roots and I'm not sure how this correlates to a difficulty airlayering, but it seems to indicate a more basally dominant tree. Maybe one of our resident science guys can shed some light.

 

[Apex37]

They grow like weeds here in the Rogue Valley, Oregon so naturally one sprouted in one of my pots and I naturally am having a go with it. So far I've treated it like I do my maples and it has responded in kind with good growth, in a container, I'm guessing, six seasons a one inch trunk and two feet tall. I've docked it back once to eighteen inches last year and I have some branches selected to develop.
The tree does not appear to be self-biforating like the Japanese maple, but they do produce two shoots on the cut and backbud well as a result of pruning. So far so good, I'm liking this tree.
Oh yeah, it's growing in pumice, neat, hold the ice.

I've enjoyed mine other than an aphid problem I was having, but that seems like almost every summer here in Texas with how dry and hot it gets. One thing to note, it can take sun. I've noticed virtually no leaf scorch and it's in a spot that gets direct sun up until 3pm. I've also noticed they backbud a lot as well.

 

[RKatzin]

I do know that the more sun you can give it the better the fall color.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

I think at least part of the challenge that I am having is that it doesn't have opposite bud placement like a maple. With a maple you can pinch growth at the first leaf junction and end up with two nice opposing buds... which will sprout and you can pinch - developing tight ramification very quickly. Because sweetgum has alternating buds, it throws long shoots, and if you pinch close, you end up with only one bud. So you have to go out to the second bud, which is already too far out on your branch. And so even if you are pinching growth aggressively, you still get leggy growth with long internodes. And each secondary branch has long alternate growth, etc.

That, at least, is the core of the problem that I am having.

 

[Carol 83]

Last week my brother showed me a picture of some little sweetgums in his yard and asked me if I wanted them. I didn't, but he was just trying to be nice, so I told him summer is not the time to be digging anything up. 30 minutes later he showed up with them. Straggly things with barely any roots. I potted them up and bagged them, but don't hold out a lot of hope for them.

 

[RKatzin]

I see what you're saying and I'm just beginning to work my branches. I let the bar extend for a whole season and then I nip the ends off. This spring new shoots popped at the base of the bar, one on each side, almost horizontal. I let them grow to about an inch long and I just removed the bar branch from between them. I'll let these grow the rest of this season and in the spring I'll choose on or the other. I'm about one third up the trunk placing branches this way. The trimming is done the same as English elms, always cutting to the node going in the direction you desire. Hey that's my plan anyway, I'll let you know how it rolls out.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Aside from their use as bonsai, I think they are beautiful trees in landscape and love their fall colors!

 

[Carol 83]

Aside from their use as bonsai, I think they are beautiful trees in landscape and love their fall colors!

Until you step on the sweetgum balls barefoot.

 

[Arlithrien]

Made two airlayers of Chinese sweetgum back in January. One of them threw out roots on one side but not enough to confidently sever.

 

[0soyoung]

Because sweetgum has alternating buds, it throws long shoots, and if you pinch close, you end up with only one bud.

I agree with your logic, but were it a hard and fast rule that only the most distal bud is released (after decapitating a stem), we would only have alternate leaved vines,

You know, the classic shohin broom species, zelkova, is alternating, not opposite.

 

[Maiden69]

I have one from Brent, according to him they air-layer easily. With that said, I chopped mine. This tree is THIRSTY!!! I have to water twice, sometimes 3 times a day now. I placed the orange tray under it to give me a small window of time till I get home from work in the afternoon. The top will wilt if not watered by mid day. I think I will move it into a grow bag in a "pot in pot" fashion, definitely not a candidate for a colander-pond basket, same as my luma apiculata.

 

[rockm]

I guess, aside from the mechanics of air layering, why do you want to air layer that portion? It's not all that interesting --a long thin uniform trunk with no movement or much to waste time with....If you're after "free" material, it ain't really free. Air layering it will set you back a year in developing the actual tree you're working on. Additionally, the lower trunk needs as much to growth as possible for it to develop diameter and a bit of character, including root spread. You don't show the nebari, which is the most important part of the tree. If it's mostly undeveloped, removing the top won't really help. First things first...

 

[RKatzin]

Until you step on the sweetgum balls barefoot.

They're not near as bad as the Giant Chinkapin aka Golden Chinkapin aka Goldenleaf Chestnut that populate the forests around this area. Imagine the Sweetgum balls with needle sharp spines! The nuts are delicious if you can get them before the chipmunks and ground squirrels. (Castanopsis chrysophylla) They are the bane of mushroom hunters in this area!

 

[augustine]

FWIW, I collected several native sweetgums over a few years. I cannot get them to survive. The root balls are coarse and woody. Maybe taproot?

I have one in the ground, maybe 7 years, which was container grown by our Dept of Natural Resources for reforestation. I've been cutting the roots every spring. It's not thick enough yet.

We'll see?

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Calling @Brian Van Fleet

I have had nothing but problems with Oriental and American Sweetgum... for bonsai. For landscaping they are like weeds. I am sure it is just a question of unlocking their secrets... but I am not there yet. They grow everywhere in my property... so time to start experimenting!

Haven’t tried air layering one. @Zach Smith knows more about these than I do. I did follow his advise to repot later in the spring, and mine have done well. I love these trees…in pots.

 

[Zach Smith]

I've never tried air layering Sweetgum, but it's worth noting that they produce fibrous roots very nicely in a pot. I mention this because you will virtually never lift one that has any appreciable fibrous root volume near the trunk.

 

[Caleb Campbell]

I've never tried air layering Sweetgum, but it's worth noting that they produce fibrous roots very nicely in a pot. I mention this because you will virtually never lift one that has any appreciable fibrous root volume near the trunk.

That has also been my experience Zach. It's like they hate the loamy topsoil and just grow a monstrous taproot, which I assume has the majority of their roots... somewhere down there.