Sango Kaku air-layering

Hbhaska

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Just removed the air-layered sango Kaku and potted it up. Kept the rootball intact with all the sphagnum moss. Will carefully remove sphagnum moss and spread out the roots next spring.

thoughts and suggestions welcome. best regards
 

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fredman

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Good job. Love Sangu kaku. Hope you shredded the sphagnum. If not...I hope you have better luck than me removing it. I tried once on a maple and gave up in the end. It's a tangled mess. I couldn't remove it without breaking the roots. When shredded it's way easier.
 

Hbhaska

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My suggestion would be to not plan on doing any root work for at least a full growing season. Newly layered roots are very fragile and your apt to damage a lot of them if you work them next spring.
Well, a lot of bonsai masters think that I remove the sphagnum moss come spring, otherwise it will be hard to remove later. Is it ok to leave it in there for the following spring? @Shibui thinks it’s good to remove come spring. I can work carefully not to damage any roots, but I’m still not sure. I think I will wait and see how the tree responds in a month or so. It looks like the tree is about to put a second flush since I basically defoliated the whole thing. If there is plenty of foliage enough to sustain through the rest of the summer and early into fall (I live in Southern California), then i will think about removing the moss coming spring. If not, wait for one more year.
 

Hbhaska

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Good job. Love Sangu kaku. Hope you shredded the sphagnum. If not...I hope you have better luck than me removing it. I tried once on a maple and gave up in the end. It's a tangled mess. I couldn't remove it without breaking the roots. When shredded it's way easier.
Thank you. No, I didn’t remove the sphagnum moss because I didn’t want to damage the delicate roots. I hear a lot of people say that you are supposed to remove sphagnum moss. Why not leave it in there forever and treat it as if it were part of the rootball. When one wants to do root work and repot, could you not just cut them out and comb out the rootball with the sphagnum?
 

Mikecheck123

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My suggestion would be to not plan on doing any root work for at least a full growing season. Newly layered roots are very fragile and your apt to damage a lot of them if you work them next spring.
I disagree. Sango kaku are really tough and very resilient to root work. That container will be completely full of roots by spring.
 

BonsaiDTLA

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Why not leave it in there forever and treat it as if it were part of the rootball.

You would want to work on the roots to ensure favorable root growth. Leaving it too long can cause the roots to develop poorly (for bonsai purposes). Also, the sphagnum will eventually break down within a few years. The breakdown can lead to it compressing and squeezing the air out of soil or creating some other unhealthy conditions for the tree's roots.
 

0soyoung

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The most worrisome thing that I do not see (pix/words) is the explant/clone to be secured to the pot in any way/ It looks to me that it is just sitting in the pot with some soil/substrate around it and, therefore, at risk of root damage by the clone being jostled - bumped into, knocked over by wind, etc. It shouldn't be difficult to guy it to the rim of that plastic pot it is in (if I am mistaken and it is terracotta, it is not so easy, but should be done, IMHO).
 

fredman

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Thank you. No, I didn’t remove the sphagnum moss because I didn’t want to damage the delicate roots. I hear a lot of people say that you are supposed to remove sphagnum moss. Why not leave it in there forever and treat it as if it were part of the rootball. When one wants to do root work and repot, could you not just cut them out and comb out the rootball with the sphagnum?
Nah all i'm saying, is it's easier to remove later when the sphagnum is chopped fine....a water hose removes it clean. To remove the fibres, I found impossible.
 

Dav4

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I successfully layered 5 branches off a 'shishigashira' in sphag moss, worked the roots the following spring- many of the roots were damaged as I removed the moss-, then watched them decline and die that summer. You can do what you want, obviously, but more mature and lignified roots- read this as roots at least a year old- will handle work a lot better then the roots you'll have when you re-pot.
 

Hbhaska

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I successfully layered 5 branches off a 'shishigashira' in sphag moss, worked the roots the following spring- many of the roots were damaged as I removed the moss-, then watched them decline and die that summer. You can do what you want, obviously, but more mature and lignified roots- read this as roots at least a year old- will handle work a lot better then the roots you'll have when you re-pot.
Thank you. I will keep this in mind.
 

Paulpash

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I've done probably over 100 air layers. It is better to wait and work the following year. A living tree with roots that need working on is better than a dead one!
 
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