Hi Dan,dansai wrote:Hi Ray
As mentioned before I read somewhere that a layer on a node gives the best results for pines by which I assume they meant where a whorl of branches are. I read it somewhere on Ab, but after a lot of searching still cannot find the thread.
I suppose I have a few options. There is a straight section of trunk and then a whorl of branches, all of which have good curves in them as shown in pic 3 and 4. There are 2 weak branches, 5 reasonably strong ones and the central ones which has another whorl of branches towards the top.
So the options as I see them now.
1. Air layer the central trunk off above the whorl. Then next season, or at the same time, remove the 2 weak branches and air layer on the node to create a 5 tree clump.
2. As above, but separate the trunks after roots have formed. (Assuming all trunks have formed roots!!)
3. Air layer each branch, bar the weak ones, above the node to obtain 6 trees. Or if this is too much in one hit, maybe only do 3 and remove the rest.
All branches on the top section have strong buds ready for growth come spring.
I would go with your point 3. Each of the branches have strong growth which is ideal for doing the layers. You could take off the two weak branches. Make sure you leave sufficient stub on the trunk where you remove these two branches.
I have quoted what I said earlier concerning when to do the layers. I'm sure doing them at this time will contribute to the layers being successful.
I intend to do some more layers myself this year. There are still a number of branches on the stock tree that would be candidates for layering. I guess we will be able to share information as we would being doing the layers about the same time.You will notice I did the layer in November. If you look at the first photo you will see the candles have been cut back. These are the strong candles you get in Spring. I cut these back by half. I then waited a couple of weeks and then did the layers.
I removed the layers in March, the next year. You will see from the photos that the second candle growth was looking quite healthy. When I saw the candles growing so well I thought the roots should be doing well. It was after I checked the roots and saw how many roots there was I decided to remove the layers.
Regards Ray
So on 2 of the layers I have used coarse cocopeat that I removed the larger chunks from. The larger one has sphagnum moss though. 
