I Wanted A Broom, So I Cut Down A Branch

[Saddler]

I definitely made a few mistakes with the saw. Here is an airlayer that has a good set of roots growing


I cut it back leaving a thick branch intended as the primary
Nope, don’t think it will work.
Yup, I wounded most of the branches and cut off a couple. Lesson learned, get a smaller, finer toothed saw for this kind of job. What’s done is done. I hope to cut these back to the first internode this fall anyways (unless I cut into them). An 1-3/4” hole saw got me reallly close to the edge. The 1-1/2” got me the depth. More bits and more hole. Perfect. Just don’t look at that bottom branch. But that hole is what the tree needs to grow into right?



Like I could leave it like that. I ground and then sanded the inside smooth I sanded into the cambium the whole way around (after I took this picture) and then took my sharpest knife and trimmed the whole edge smooth on a nice angle going into the hole.
I sealed the hole with plumbers putty and cut past on the branches. I had planned on wiring all the branches into position but after the beating they took....I just used a looped piece of wire to gently hold all the branches up a bit. Not ideal, but I figure this is a decent compromise until I can wire them individually. I’ll cut the air layer off in a couple of weeks, maybe later, depending on the forecast.

 

[Saddler]

I would be happy to hear ways you have done something similar and what I can to improve next time.

 

[Saddler]

I started to see new buds forming so I cut back the branches I had left on, removing any that were not going to have a potential future on this tree. I’ll leave it attached until I get two sets of leaves on the lowest internodes, or the middle of August in hopes to get one push of growth on its own roots that last push these maples give, or which ever comes first.

 

[Saddler]

I should have wired the branches at a better angle before I started the airlayer but I didn’t. I cut back each branch as close to the trunk as possible hoping that in four or five years the horizontal branch sections will get swallowed by the thickening trunk.

My favourite thing about using my regular bonsai soil mix for air layers is it is easy to straighten the roots out radially when I go to pot it up. Putting the pot bottom millimeters below the upper cut has really put me ahead of all my other airlayers in terms of horizontal roots.

 

[The Warm Canuck]

Do you have any updated pics of this?

I would love to see what it looks like now!