AusBonsai

Just to prove I have more on the go than pines, I spent some time today with a couple of maples doing what I should have got to last year... except the pines got in the way...
Anyhow, first up is a trident maple I have had for a little while. It has a nice thick base on it in respect to the height of the tree but the nebari isn't doing much for me, so I was having trouble getting motivated to develop it. It is a bit too parallel with the soil and "finger-like" to be convincing for my taste, so today I decided to bite the bullet and ground layer it. Hopefully the pics below help explain what I am talking about and how I did the layer... And that is mission 1 for the day complete. Hopefully towards the end of summer I'll be able to unveil a new set of roots and kickstart this tree into a new direction.

Next up is another layer - this time an air layer on my one and only Japanese maple. This is not the best tree in the world but I'm hoping by layering off this branch I can turn it into a nice shohin and then redevelop the parent tree into something a little more dynamic. Always fun putting layers on and then waiting for the roots to develop - we'll see how these two pan out!

crikey!!! That's a neat job on the bark removal for those pesky roots on the Trident!

Fingers crossed they work out. I have to admit I've had no trouble air layering either tridents or Japanese maples, so I'm sure they'll go well.

Well done pine boy lol, I to have ventured into maples, look forward to your updates and progressions, you venture into figs and I definately know you are stalking me haha, good luck Ryan.

cheers Anthony

Had a peek today at how these layers were going.
It's a nice Christmas present on both counts ...

Wrap it up and wait till the on coming 40’s are over or you will lose it.
Cheers
Kirky

KIRKY wrote: ↑December 24th, 2019, 10:00 am Wrap it up and wait till the on coming 40’s are over or you will lose it.
Cheers
Kirky

We got 4 days of 40+ coming this week . Before the change due new years eve it will be 19 days straight here above 35. I'm OVER summer already. Protect those layers.

With results like this, stick with coir!
Imressive radial roots with the ground layer - a nice Christmas present!
Congrat.s

Just to keep the thread up to date I repacked/ rebagged the JM air layer and will leave until I have time to deal with it and the weather calms down a smidge, thanks for the advice Kirky.

Thats impressive. I havnt done any air layering yet but have a couple planned. This helps to motivate.
Cheers

So, I’ve been kinda busy over the last 2 weeks or so, however today I was out looking at my trees and considering the forecast for the next week in Melbourne I figured today was as good as any to extract that air layer so... I’ll probably expand on the “busy” part at some stage in the not too distant future, but right now happy with this maple layer. Planted it a little deep to protect the new roots but I think it’s looking pretty reasonable right now. Always nice to progress.

Congratulations. Good technique brings good results.

This will probably be the last addition I make to this thread, but just for completion here is the result of both layers after potting them up today. Actually, probably one more post with the Japanese maple after potting up too to follow.

Japanese maple repotted today as promised.

Great result on both counts. I have a JM that I want to both air and ground layer at some point (two different points!) so great to see your technique and the end results.