Acer campestre - air layering ??

Attila

A collected material with a trunk that has lots of character can be forgiven for a less than perfect nebari. It may have other aspects that compensate for that.

But I have trouble applying the above to Marija's tree. That's because maples lend themselves to airlayering very well, so one knows that it is possible to obtain a very good root structure. Having that knowledge, it is very hard to accept a so-so result.

In your case, although a perfect layer is to be expected, a young tree has plenty of time to develop a good nebari during the process of trunk formation and many seasons of rootpruning. With an older and larger tree, it's much harder to grow roots where there is none. That's why it's so important that the layer is very good.

(..My most recent airlayers on maples were done last May. I will find out next spring at repotting whether or not they are up to an acceptable standard. They are two trees about the size of Marija's tree, collected in Vancouver - Acer pseudoplatanus - ).

Back to the above tree, I should have noticed that Marija has left a bridge. This was a big mistake (sorry), and if the layer needs to be repeated, the bark should be removed completely.

Advertisement

Bruce Winter

Really? I've had great results cutting a window where I want roots, the roots were shooting over the side of the pot in less than 2 months. This was in pumice with a little chopped sphagnum on top.

Attila

I don't want to discount your success, but I doubt that this method works all the time, especially when you need to fill lots of gaps in the nebari.

If it was that easy to get new roots on any old stock, we should all have perfect nebaris on all our trees in no time.

I wish this was true on my old trees, but my experience tells me that it's a little harder than that.

On the other hand, if your experience refers primarily to hedge maple, then any attempt to layer this species should result in exceptionally good root development. But Carl's example shows that the tree was very reluctant to root all the way around and instead managed to heal over a large wound.

In other words, if we only cut a window on the maple, it will be very easy for the tree to heal over that window without growing any root. And that's what happened with Carl's maple, except that it wasn't a window but a ring all the way around.

Nevertheless, it's always worth a try to induce root development by scarring.

Attila

...also, just looking at your climate (Hawaii)..

..it is a warm and humid environment where local trees are prone to grow roots even from their branches - see ficus, schefflera, etc. Those factors don't apply for the majority of us.

Bruce Winter

Although I've done many air and ground layers this was the first try with windows, and I WAS wanting to fill gaps all round the nebari. I was really surprised how they all took. It was on a deshojo by the way.
As for the location, it's not what you think. 4K feet, cool alpine rainforest, never too warm, in the clouds. Otherwise I couldn't grow maples
Kinda like the mist houses we built in CA to grow roots on Sierra juniper.

marija hajdic

I have left one vertical strip, because I was affraid as trunk was maybe to thick for air layering. I have experience with layering, but much thinner branches.

__________________
Regards, Marija
http://www.my-bonsai.com

Attila

The thickness of the branch or trunk has very little to do with the success and survival of the layer. No need to worry about that.

Carl_Bergstrom

Do you mean that holding the age constant, thickness has little to do with it? Or do you mean even though thickness is correlated with age, thickness still has nothing to do with it (and therefore neither does age)?

-Carl

Attila

That's exactly right.

Age and the willingness to bud either roots or branches is always negatively correlated, but I was referring to the size.

Of course age and size are positively correlated, but it takes many years into a tree's maturity stage before age becomes a real factor.