Multiple Air Layers?

lehket

I have a red mulberring growing in a bad place in my yard. It's been there for a few years. Every year I've cut it down but never got around to removing the stump. Last year (my first bonsai year) I started pondering it as a subject for air layering, so this year I cut it way back again but left a five-foot or so section of trunk, much of which is about three to four inches thick. On July 4 I started an air layer of the upper section. It did quite well, and this morning I cut it off and potted it. My intent is to air layer this trunk several more times.

I started to wonder, although I've never seen this in any of the books or articles I've read, if it is possible to make multiple air layers on a trunk or branch at the same time. Would such a thing work, yielding several trees in a short time frame, or would it spell certain death for the upper part of the trunk?

__________________
--Dale
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Co-author of Spiritual Telemetry,
Host of Planet Baha'i and the Planet Baha'i Forum

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grampz

Mr. Dale,

In my opinion the most important thing to learn for successful air-layers is how the tree system works...To bring it down to a few words [although I highly recommend a deeper study], starches, sugars, hormones, ect. are manufactured in the leaves, and are transferred to the roots, flowers, trunk, fruit, ect. through the trees vascular system...When you stop this flow by cutting, tourniquet, or whatever means, the 'product' of the leaves cannot travel to the root system of the tree, and tend to gather at the wound site causing swelling and callus which eventually end up producing roots if the conditions are right...Therefore, as long as there is enough leaves above the air-layer area to produce the necessary things for roots to form it has the potential to work...

By placing layers below or on larger branches with lots of leaves to supply the needs of the layer I have successfully layered several areas on the same trunk simultaneously...It is also advantageous to not trim or prune above the layer until you separate it...

Regards
Behr

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As the Master departed the workshop,
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Brent

Dale

Yes, you can make as many layers as you want as long as you have branches and foliage between the layers to produce the carbohydrates and auxin to form the callus and roots at the base of each cut. I have done as many as 3 simultaneous layers on the same trunk. It may take some initial preparation to get the trunk 'bushy' over a long section that can later divided into layers.

Brent
EvergreenGardenworks.com
see our blog at http://BonsaiNurseryman.typepad.com

lehket

Behr & Brent,

Thanks! That being the case, this species would be a prime candidate for such a procedure. It grows quite fast. Even though I reduced it to almost nothing in the spring, by now it has lot of foliage up from very near the base of the trunk to the tip. It doesn't know when to quit. I'm not sure I want to try to start another air layer this late in the season, particularly since this is only my second attempt (the first one, on a different tree, failed) and I'd like to make sure I can keep the one I cut off this morning alive. But next season I can probably get three or four more trees off of this trunk.

__________________
--Dale
----------
Co-author of Spiritual Telemetry,
Host of Planet Baha'i and the Planet Baha'i Forum

emilias_garden

Hello! Wow Dale, your air-layering only took 6 weeks or so to produce roots and be ready to be cut. That was fast. Congrats! If you can, please post pics of the new plant. I am interrested in see it.

I was looking for info about this same question you made... So thanks to everybody to answer this multiple air-layerings question.

Cheers,
Jorge Joel...
Emilia's Garden

Levon

No problem. I've done this on a Malus this year with success...

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lehket

Jorge,

I'll try to get some photos eventually, but I'm kind of slow at doing so and my pictures at the moment aren't very high quality. It did turn out to be a rather fast process on this tree, but the species is a fast grower (as I said earlier).

__________________
--Dale
----------
Co-author of Spiritual Telemetry,
Host of Planet Baha'i and the Planet Baha'i Forum

lehket

Levon,

Thanks. I will definitely be trying this next season. I think I can probably get three or four more trees off of this one trunk. Assuming I can get them to survive afterwards.

__________________
--Dale
----------
Co-author of Spiritual Telemetry,
Host of Planet Baha'i and the Planet Baha'i Forum

emilias_garden

Hello Dale! Thank you for considering on taking some pics And tank you for sharing your experience, no i want to do a couple of dozen of air-layerings


Cheers,
Jorge Joel...
Emilia's Garden