Airlayer On Acer Palmatum

Rene_Voortwist

I'd like to airlayer a japanese maple this spring. Someone in a belgian forum adviced me to do the airlayer ON the graft instead of UNDER the graft. Any thoughts on this ??

regards, René

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Rene_Voortwist

Here's a picture..

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TreeBay

It depends on the intent of doing the layer. The important thing is where the upper cut is positioned. If you layer this tree with that upper cut on the red maple trunk, you will get red maple roots. If you layer it with that cut on the green maple, you will get roots from a green maple (as you have now), but higher up.

In either case, you're going to have a bonsai with a short thick trunk, and no real movement or taper. I would get the top healed off first while it is growing on good roots. before layering.

Then, I would think about layering it much higher up where, maybe about where the two Y branches are, for a short, tapered shohin. Or, I would consider putting it in the ground for at least 5-10 years and cutting it back to a side branch \ so you can get some taper and movement.

Regards,

Matt

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Rene_Voortwist

Hi Matt,

Thanks for the answer ! Your idea of the shohin sounds good but I have always thought that maples were grafted because of their weak roots. If I layer above the graft won't I get a problem with that ?

regards, René