Sudden American elm airlayer problem

[Mikecheck123]

This airlayer looked completely normal yesterday. As in, the leaves above the airlayer looked healthy, and the roots in the bag were moist.

But today I saw that suddenly, all leaves above the airlayer dried out. It's as if the tree suddenly cut off the water supply. Can that happen?



Here are the roots. They look vigorous and healthy to me. But maybe they ran out of room?



I did an emergency separation. Hoping for the best.

 

[sorce]

Anything in a bag like that would have died HERE yesterday I reckon.

Sorce

 

[Mikecheck123]

Anything in a bag like that would have died HERE yesterday I reckon.

Sorce

Because?

 

[sorce]

Because?

It was HALF.

Hot as living f.

@milehigh7 used to talk about "boiling" roots, I was just thinking about it yesterday.

You sure it was one day? Seems impossible!

Sorce

 

[sorce]

The visible white things on the good leaves look concerning.

"Smart tree" theory says it is possible it abandoned it due to attempted survival of the rest.

It wants to live, not be artificially propagated for our pleasure.

Sorce

 

[Mikecheck123]

It was HALF.

Hot as living f.

@milehigh7 used to talk about "boiling" roots, I was just thinking about it yesterday.

You sure it was one day? Seems impossible!

Sorce

Oh there was foil around it.

 

[sorce]

Oh there was foil around it.

Lol! People pit foil around their heads too, but it's not universally agreed to stop abduction!

I'm just not sure foil doesn't keep in heat.

Sorce

 

[raydomz]

I took an air layer from a Japanese hornbeam this year - the roots developed quickly and in that time we had a major heat spell that lasted a couple of weeks (90-95 every day.) I had the very same situation - the tree looked fine one day and dead the next. Within the space of 2 days most all of the leaves wilted and browned. The roots were never left to dry and the tree stayed in full shade at all times. The good news is that I separated the layer (I planned to wait at least another 2-3 weeks), pulled all the leaves that hadn't dropped already and within one week there were new green buds pushing. I'm not out of the woods yet, but there's hope. I would put in the corner of your garden, full shade, water daily and try to put your mind elsewhere. It will likely be fine.

 

[Mikecheck123]

I took an air layer from a Japanese hornbeam this year - the roots developed quickly and in that time we had a major heat spell that lasted a couple of weeks (90-95 every day.) I had the very same situation - the tree looked fine one day and dead the next. Within the space of 2 days most all of the leaves wilted and browned. The roots were never left to dry and the tree stayed in full shade at all times. The good news is that I separated the layer (I planned to wait at least another 2-3 weeks), pulled all the leaves that hadn't dropped already and within one week there were new green buds pushing. I'm not out of the woods yet, but there's hope. I would put in the corner of your garden, full shade, water daily and try to put your mind elsewhere. It will likely be fine.

Cool, thanks! It looked to me like the roots wanted to keep going outward but couldn't find anything else. What also shocked me is how quickly they appeared.

 

[raydomz]

Cool, thanks! It looked to me like the roots wanted to keep going outward but couldn't find anything else. What also shocked me is how quickly they appeared.

The roots will not necessarily stop moving but will redirect, in most cases, up and around themselves. I find air layers often turn to a big mess of a ball if I leave them all season. The heat and humidity inside of the bag are a great environment for growing roots quickly but as you're seeing, anything can become too much.

I have not spent a whole lot of time trying to figure out what happened with mine but I'm guessing that it's due to leaving too many leaves/branches above it. I probably should have pruned it after it started to develop roots so that the load wasn't so heavy on the new roots.

The other weird thing about mine was how hard the tree/callus tried to bridge the gap where I pulled the bark. I made it nearly 2" long and when I separated it, it was only about 1/4" from reaching the other side. I've never seen a tree send out a long callus like that.

 

[0soyoung]

The girdle interrupts the flow of auxin to the cambium immediately below the girdle. Sometimes the cambium here dies and when it does, the xylem get plugged up, causing this to happen.

 

[leatherback]

Interesting result. Never seen that before. Thank you.

 

[Mike Corazzi]

Foil, or chrome is a dark color. Touch the chrome on your car in the sun. Roasted is my guess.

 

[Mikecheck123]

I would put in the corner of your garden, full shade, water daily and try to put your mind elsewhere. It will likely be fine

I think you were right. Life uh finds a way.

I kept in full shade and misted often.

Thanks!

 

[sorce]

Sorce

 

[raydomz]

I think you were right. Life uh finds a way.

I kept in full shade and misted often.

Thanks!

View attachment 323214

Yeah buddy! Glad to see it's moving!