JM air layer collection

Cajunrider

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I air layered two 4 inch diameter JM branches in Kentucky early August. I am told they are full of roots. I'm planning to collect them when I travel up there for Thanksgiving. By that time all the leaves will have dropped.

My issue is that I don't have room in my car to transport such big branches. Can I cut the branch back to just one foot or less beyond the air layer? Will there be enough energy in the cut branch to bud out?

20180817_084020.jpg
 
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sorry i don't have the answer to your question, but i have a question for you:

will you be using this air layered section for landscape or bonsai? just curious

as an aside, that looks like a lovely old tree, love the moss! any pics of the whole thing?
 

Cajunrider

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sorry i don't have the answer to your question, but i have a question for you:

will you be using this air layered section for landscape or bonsai? just curious

as an aside, that looks like a lovely old tree, love the moss! any pics of the whole thing?
I'm planning to use the air layered sections for bonsai. I don't have a picture of the tree. I will take a pic when I get up there around Thanksgiving. It is a rather large JM. As a matter of fact I air layered those two branches because I was asked to prune them off since they grew out into a walk way.
 

BrianBay9

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Any chance you could leave them where they are until spring? Looks like you've got no foliage any where near the layer so you don't have much choice about it, other than perhaps timing. In the future I would suggest you start the layer out closer to the branching and foliage. As it is if it sprouts out you'll be left with a big cylinder of a trunk - no branching, no taper. It will take a lot of time to develop both.
 

Cajunrider

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Any chance you could leave them where they are until spring? Looks like you've got no foliage any where near the layer so you don't have much choice about it, other than perhaps timing. In the future I would suggest you start the layer out closer to the branching and foliage. As it is if it sprouts out you'll be left with a big cylinder of a trunk - no branching, no taper. It will take a lot of time to develop both.
I was in a rush and did those air layers in a few minutes with what was available. I usually travel there twice a year. If I wait, it will be summer before I can get up there to collect. The owner of the tree wants those branches out of the way ASAP. These two are long range projects just for fun. I'd be glad if I can cut them to just 4 inches away from the root ball and grow new leaders from the cuts.
 
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@Cajunrider

It sounds like you have no other choice but to do exactly as you describe.

i'd say wing it and hope for the best

unless you do have other options?
 

Cajunrider

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@Cajunrider

It sounds like you have no other choice but to do exactly as you describe.

i'd say wing it and hope for the best

unless you do have other options?
My last resort is to cut, pot, and leave them up there in large pots for the winter. Then come back in the summer and hope that they survive. I think their survival possibility is larger even with major cut off is with me babying them in the mild winter in Louisiana.
 

Cajunrider

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Well. I wasn't able to collect them!!! The ice storm they had just a week before I came up north took them along with a lot of other trees. So instead of collecting my air layer, I wound up spending 4 days playing lumberjack and cutting down trees. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything worth collecting for bonsai. They were either huge trees or trash bushes that I don't want as bonsai.
 

Silentrunning

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That stinks! I was following this thread to see how it turned out because our climate is similar to Kentucky. Sorry it didn’t work out for you.
 

Cajunrider

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The JP big tree is still there. I will attempt again in 2019. Hopefully it will be done at a better time period.
 

Hack Yeah!

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Well. I wasn't able to collect them!!! The ice storm they had just a week before I came up north took them along with a lot of other trees. So instead of collecting my air layer, I wound up spending 4 days playing lumberjack and cutting down trees. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything worth collecting for bonsai. They were either huge trees or trash bushes that I don't want as bonsai.
If your layered branch was laying on the ground couldn't you have collected it anyway? Or had it already been cleared
 

Cajunrider

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If your layered branch was laying on the ground couldn't you have collected it anyway? Or had it already been cleared
If they could have been collected I would have! I would have loved to have a chance to save them.
 
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