AusBonsai

hey guys last year in november i placed a air layer on a "acer" of some description in my front yard, with a koreshoff book in one hand and a stanley knife in the other i hacked a low branch that had been hacked off by my dad a long time ago he left a stump about 300mm long at the bottom of the trunk an i thought how hard can it be? so i got stuck into it, applied wet sphag and wrapped plastic around it, and walked away so today i was walking past and noticed it turned green through all this rain of late and couldn't see any roots so i ripped off the plastic all the moss fell away except for one side holy s***t theres roots i wasnt expecting that haha so now i don't know what to do. its started to callous over on the side that didn't root, there doesn't seem to me that there would be enough roots to support its self if i cut it off or am i wrong?
this probably wasn't the best place for an air layer but i didn't think it was going to root my first time around
any advice on what i should do now would be great because i dont know what i'am doing

matt

It seems that the roots have only grown on the "lower" side eg closest to the ground which I think would have something to do with the moisture pooling on that side longer, and possibly less sun exposure. That is only speculation. How often did you water it? Did you leave the top open, or did you use a syringe? I personally prefer the split pot method and I am going to try the purpose made "layer cups" this season.

Hopefully someone with more experience will confirm or deny my speculations.

Are layer pots a custom made or purchased item?

hey luke i didnt water that often but i only did a couple of times through summer i just pulled the top away a touch and poured water in as best as i could but because of all the rain we have had it didnt see lak of water being a problem i was worried about it being to wet in there haha when i checked up on it every now and then it always seemed very wet against the plastic wrap. i had lots of hole in the bottom of the plastic and didn't tie the bottom of the plastic too tight around the trunk because i was worried about it filling up. i had a plastic pot around it as well in summer to try an stop it from drying out but after a few months it had cooled down so i removed the pot to have a look to see if there were roots but could not see any so i never bothered to put the pot back around it

G'Day Matt the tree has just bridged the gap - it is lazy and it's easier to do that than grow new roots. I would scrape it back and make it wider and repack it and check in November. There is not enough root and it's too close to winter. As a general rule the ringbark width should be one and a half times the diameter of the trunk. I find elms and maples hard to layer and often wrap some wire in the middle of the ringbark to TRY and stop it growing back over. You may wish to try the split pot method this time - it'd easier to water and check

thanks bougy!! i will scrape it back and add the wire tomorrow afternoon but what exactly do you mean by the split pot method?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CREGA3jx ... ata_player

Get a plastic pot and cut it down the side and cut a hole in the bottom the same diameter as the trunk. The open it up and put it in place over the ringbark. I use duct tape to rejoin it. Fill it spag moss and some pine bark or whatvere you use and secure it in place so it doesn't move. It's easy to water and you don't have to unwrap it all to check it.

Rintar wrote:Are layer pots a custom made or purchased item?

The search function is your friend
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=11348&hilit=+layer+pot

matty-j wrote:what exactly do you mean by the split pot method?

There is plenty of info if you search slit pot method. This first link has heaps of info regarding different methods and do's and don't s viewtopic.php?f=7&t=7451&hilit=split+po ... d&start=30 and here is some info from ausbonsai wiki https://www.ausbonsai.com.au/wiki/index. ... =Air_layer

Hi Matty,
The pics of the maple bridging the bark gap look typical of not scraping the cambium. When you peel the bark a layer of cambium (the growing part of the trunk that can form either wood or bark) is left on the exposed trunk. The tree uses this to start to heal the patch and make new bark. When air layering you need to scrape the wood well to remove all traces of cambium so the tree can't heal the gap easily and is forced to make roots.

In my opinion this IS enough roots to support the small amount of branches above. I am constantly amazed at how few roots a plant can get by on. However experiece says NOT to separate a layer early in winter. The dormant tree cannot heal the cut and it is likely to get fungal infection if kept damp - symptoms are seen in spring - black bark just above and below ground level, new leaves wilt and tree dies. Separating it just as buds swell would be safer but you can adopt Bougy's advice and wait for more roots to be even safer.
Good luck

thanks bougy and luke
shibui i think you are spot on i dont think i went deep enough at all looking at the potter vid and some photos i didnt scrap back nearly enough
but i will try my luck again tomorrow and on the bright side it can only go better

Bougy Fan wrote: I find elms and maples hard to layer and often wrap some wire in the middle of the ringbark to TRY and stop it growing back over.

I will be doing this in the future when Layering certain species.

shibui wrote:In my opinion this IS enough roots to support the small amount of branches above. I am constantly amazed at how few roots a plant can get by on.:

I layered a maple a couple of years back and it only had a few roots. It wasn't great material (just practicing), but I thought what the heck and potted it (although not in winter). Sure enough it survived...there wasn't a lot of top growth though.
Right or wrong, now when I layer using the ring bark, I cut quite deep into the trunk (not scrape) and it has worked for me with no bridging.
Having said that though, it is now my preference when layering palmatum to use the torniquet over the ring bark as so many times roots only emerge from up to a few places at most when ring barking. And I don't mind waiting a bit longer if it means I will get a better radial spread of roots with the torniquet method.
Others may have had great success ring barking palmatum, but this is my preference based on my experiences.
Good luck Matty!
Cheers, Dario.

Thanks Dario I didn't get around to doing it today (working late on a Friday ) but I think I might take ur approach Dario an cut a little deeper but I was thinking today about how I'm going to do it, the side that has the roots should I not cut anywhere near it? And focus on cutting the side that has started to bridge, because the roots have poped out about 20 to 30mm down from my initial cut, I assumed they would have come out at the cut I made if that makes sense?

Yes I agree with shibui after looking at the photos again - most likely not deep enough. I would ignore the roots that are there and re cut higher up in a straight line making it wider and deeper. You want a nice straight line for the roots to all come out at one level to eventually become nebari.

Not sure about your weather down there - I imagine it could wait until the tree comes out of dormancy

Hi Matty
When you cut the layre out, you have to dig in Real hard and cut all the way back to the heartwood and then scrape some more.

Cut it back again ad Re-wrap with Spag and plastic and try again.

I wodu never do a Bot method layer if the tree is not in a position that will get constant attention and watering. I fit dries out once then it will die so for trees in the garden or otherwise suspect to lack of attention, then I use Sealed plastic wrap method.

Ken