air layering

[macmex]

Well, my 2024 grafting attempts appear to have flopped. I suspect I did them too early. Yesterday I took some time to try another experiment: air layering. Essentially, to air layer, is to wrap the stem of a plant (tree or bush, usually) with something that holds wet peat moss around it, causing the plant to grow roots at that spot. Later, once roots have formed, the branch can be cut away from the mother plant and planted in it's own place. I tried this last year using cut off pop bottles around the stems to hold the peat mix. Well, that didn't work well at all. When it gets hot they completely dry out and I can't afford to be going around watering them all summer. We'll see how this works. I suspect it will.


First I select a branch. This is a branch on our Keifer Pear.



Then I fill a zip lock bag with wet peat.



Then I make a lengthwise cut in the bag.



I hold the cut against the branch I want to air layer, wrapping the bag with duct tape, to hold it in place. I'm betting this will work. It should hold moisture much better.

Here's the air layering when it' finished. I'll leave it in place until the fall.



I also did two air layering on our mulberry. I understand that air layering sometimes works when nothing else will work for propagation of a given shrub or tree.

Anyone have experience with air layering?

[woodeye]

Air Layering is another one of those things that I never got around to experimenting with. I have been a lifetime fan of Sycamore trees but they don't live well here round my house because they need permeable soil much deeper than I have here. My plan (which never got past the planning stage) was to use a container full of potting mix that sat next to the existing Sycamore trees that I was successful in growing on the pond dam. The permeable soil of the pond dam allowed the Sycamores enough soil depth. I planned to just air layer a low hanging limb from the Sycamore tree, let it take root, then cut it off above the rooted limb that is anchored in the container of soil. 

The method I wanted to try would still not solve the problem you described about having to go around watering everything all summer long. Plus, with lots of limbs to air layer, the cost of the setup for all of them would be too much. I'm sorry I don't have suggestions for solving that, but I think the ziploc bag method you have done has a good chance of working...

[macmex]

Woodeye, just let me know next time you're passing through this area and I'll get you some seedlings. 

[woodeye]

Sounds great, macmex... I'd like to come to visit you all again this summer. I will let you know for sure later on and will always give plenty of lead time...

Thank You!

[rdback]

Like woodeye , I never got around to trying air-layering...yet. I also have a fruiting mulberry that I'd like to clone, and have been thinking about trying air-layering this year. Also, there's a large limb of that mulberry hanging over the road down to the garden, and it keeps sagging lower and lower every year. Now the Kubota ROPS is starting to hit it, so I think I'm going to cut that branch off after this year's fruit cycle. I might try rooting some cuttings as well. Good luck macmex . I hope we're successful. Long live the mulberry! lol

[macmex]

Rick, here's something else you might try with that low branch. I KNOW this will work.

My grafted mulberry had a limb which sticks out, almost horizontally from near the base of the little tree, so I decided to turn it into another tree. I'm not sure if this is technically called air layering, but it's very much the same thing, only without the bag.




I cleared out a space, where the limb would "touch down" when weighted down. Then I dug a shallow hole and lowered the branch down into it.



I covered it up with soil.



Here's a photo of the finished project. I set a tomato cage around the little branch, sticking up near the main tree. That's to keep people and animals from stepping on it.



Provided that no one (and nothing) destroys it before fall I'm sure this little branch will develop it's own roots. I should be able to transplant it in late fall.

Now, my wife has informed me we have enough mulberry trees, but I have a couple of friends who might appreciate one   

[woodeye]

Looks good, macmex . 

AI says:

"Yes, planting a low limb on a tree in the ground is air layering. Air layering, also known as marcotting, is a method of vegetative propagation that involves creating a new plant from a branch that's still attached to the parent plant."

With that in mind I suppose the only difference is the size of the container used to air layer the low hanging tree limb.

If a person is using a 5 gallon bucket the volume of the bucket is 0.668403 cubic feet.

If a person is using planet earth the volume of the earth is 260 billion cubic miles.

[chrysanthemum]

This is interesting stuff fellows.

I’ve never really investigated air layering at all, though I’ve seen the term. I can say that I’ve grown young hydrangea plants by placing bricks or stones on low lying branches and pinning them to the ground. Once they’re well rooted, I cut them off from the mother plant. My mom has a hydrangea that I gave her years ago by that method. I’m hoping to get some shoots from it to plant at our new house. She also has some Pothos that’s from a plant that was given to me over twenty years ago, so I hope to grow some more of that, too.