Air Layering

[Stevie_B]

I've also begun scraping away the calloused part a bit to try and expose more cambium underneath. It seems that the more that is exposed, perhaps more roots are likely?

[SuperBonSaiyan]

Put on a bunch of air layers yesterday.

Revised my technique based on what I had learned from my successes and failures last season.

1) very clean top cut, I make sure to remove any fluff from the bark or cambium here.

2) paint on a paste of rooting hormone. I use rooting gel mixed with powder until it gets to a clag like consistency. I paint this on and make sure it gets thoroughly onto the cambium layer.

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3) sphagnum soaked in water with rooting hormone powder. Wrung out most of the water (still moist, not dripping water). Placed and packed densely onto plastic.

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4) wrap around and secure bottom first with wire, then I'll gently insert more sphagum at the top, without tamping down too much (don't want to disturb the hormone layer).

5) wire the top. Doesn't need to be snug, this will allow water to get in.

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6) wrap in foil, then poke holes around the bottom with a sharpened 2.5 or 3mm wire for drainage.

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I'll water the foliage on these daily.

[TimS]

Fingers crossed, always an exciting time starting layers

I did 2 Shishigashiras yesterday, one taking a 3/4s wrist thick trunk off a useless graft, and one smaller thumb thick one remaining on the graft but right below the graft union so eventually it should be invisible

In the past i have taken all the long finger thick too growth too, but from past experiences I know it's
a) boring material and
b) just delaying the rooting of the layers I do want

so I just cut all that growth off

Had a look at the Arakawa but nothing much exciting on it. Might set one on a branch I want to remove anyway that is growing towards the shade house but it's just dead straight and finger thick so not exactly thrilling material

[KIRKY]

Tim, if you have a garden trees with branches that will potentially need to be removed in the future. As a suggestion place tube over wire and wire branches creating movement prior to air layering.
Cheers
Susan

[SuperBonSaiyan]

Had a look at the Arakawa but nothing much exciting on it. Might set one on a branch I want to remove anyway that is growing towards the shade house but it's just dead straight and finger thick so not exactly thrilling material

Candidate for ground growing to thicken - then a trunk chop down the line to start building taper? (It's what I'm planning to do with most of my dead straight layers).

I also put a layer on a mume junction with 5-6 branches coming off of it (all dead straight). Hoping that roots because it would be great to have a mume with a chunky base - and I don't mind deadwood on a mume.

[TimS]

Have now started a bunch of layers for this season, mostly Japanese maples on garden trees i have had laying around for a while. Shishigashira and Kamagata are the main ones though.

I need to do some more research and growing with Shishigashira both on and off grafts, to understand if there is any benefit beyond aesthetic to growing this cultivar on its own roots. Going forward i think this will be the primary cultivar i focus on growing even though it is by far and away the slowest to develop. I would liken it to Ginkgo in terms of how slow they progress. Like hold a rock in your open palm and as it's eroded by the wind you can judge the rate of development.

Despite this I find it has some of the best and most reliable Autumn colour, and doesn't suffer the same foliar burn or disease issues that other cultivars do. Aphids is the only real problem that affects it for me, which are easily treatable. I am also keen to get my hands on beni-chidori if i ever find it.

I have decided not to layer Arakawa this year to let the branches thicken up and maybe some more interesting branch will emerge than the dead straight ones. I don't necessarily want thumb thick material with no taper that needs to be cut down hard and restarted. Easier to grow it on the tree and then layer it off once it's thicker/ has more movement in a few years.

Soon to enter my garden is a rescued garden tree maple i believe to be most likely Deshojo (not shin-deshojo, the old Deshojo variety) TBC on the next flush or foliage to confirm. After going through my reference books etc i am sure it is not atropurpurea, or Shin Deshojo or a handful of other potential ones none of which i have ever heard of in Australia. Trunk is wrist thick with a potential twin trunk air layer there ready to go but leaf size is quite large so tree would need to be large too. Hurry up and wait on that, it would be a layer for next year not this year though.

[SuperBonSaiyan]

Soon to enter my garden is a rescued garden tree maple i believe to be most likely Deshojo (not shin-deshojo, the old Deshojo variety) TBC on the next flush or foliage to confirm. After going through my reference books etc i am sure it is not atropurpurea, or Shin Deshojo or a handful of other potential ones none of which i have ever heard of in Australia.

What are the noticable differences between Deshojo and Shin-Deshojo?

[TimS]

Soon to enter my garden is a rescued garden tree maple i believe to be most likely Deshojo (not shin-deshojo, the old Deshojo variety) TBC on the next flush or foliage to confirm. After going through my reference books etc i am sure it is not atropurpurea, or Shin Deshojo or a handful of other potential ones none of which i have ever heard of in Australia.

What are the noticable differences between Deshojo and Shin-Deshojo?

As far as I know, shindeshojo holds the spring colour better/ longer and possibly has better autumn colour too, but Deshojo is an historic cultivars hundreds of years old so I'm keen to have it regardless

[Trimmy]

I've only ever seen shin deshojo for sale at nurseries. I'd started to think deshojo wasn't available in Australia. That being said, the colour on my shin deshojo was disappointing this year. It was more of a pale salmon colour than pink. Maybe too much sun?

[SuperBonSaiyan]

Soon to enter my garden is a rescued garden tree maple i believe to be most likely Deshojo (not shin-deshojo, the old Deshojo variety) TBC on the next flush or foliage to confirm. After going through my reference books etc i am sure it is not atropurpurea, or Shin Deshojo or a handful of other potential ones none of which i have ever heard of in Australia.

What are the noticable differences between Deshojo and Shin-Deshojo?

As far as I know, shindeshojo holds the spring colour better/ longer and possibly has better autumn colour too, but Deshojo is an historic cultivars hundreds of years old so I'm keen to have it regardless

Hopefully it air-layers better than Shin-deshojo as well. My one rooted layer (of 3 attempts) is struggling now. I've been misting the foliage but it keeps getting wind burnt.

[TimS]

I've only ever seen shin deshojo for sale at nurseries. I'd started to think deshojo wasn't available in Australia. That being said, the colour on my shin deshojo was disappointing this year. It was more of a pale salmon colour than pink. Maybe too much sun?

Possibly? Shin Deshojo just seems to be a very weak cultivars generally from years of experience trying to grow it both on graft and air layered too.

I have given up on it altogether for bonsai use as even on the graft it gets horrific powdery mildew, and all treatments I tried have ended up burning the foliage, then the summer heat burns the next flush anyway. I have one as a garden tree (still got powdery mildew even though I virtually never wet the foliage on it )

[TimS]

Soon to enter my garden is a rescued garden tree maple i believe to be most likely Deshojo (not shin-deshojo, the old Deshojo variety) TBC on the next flush or foliage to confirm. After going through my reference books etc i am sure it is not atropurpurea, or Shin Deshojo or a handful of other potential ones none of which i have ever heard of in Australia.

What are the noticable differences between Deshojo and Shin-Deshojo?

As far as I know, shindeshojo holds the spring colour better/ longer and possibly has better autumn colour too, but Deshojo is an historic cultivars hundreds of years old so I'm keen to have it regardless

Hopefully it air-layers better than Shin-deshojo as well. My one rooted layer (of 3 attempts) is struggling now. I've been misting the foliage but it keeps getting wind burnt.

Yep, after a dozen or more air layer attempts on shindeshojo I gave up on air layering it as they just go down hill on their own roots, and now don't even use it on the graft due to how severely affected by powdery mildew it is.

We'll see if this one is Deshojo and if it's any better.

[SuperBonSaiyan]

The air layer of the koto seems to be struggling a little bit at the moment

The top branches turned black a few weeks ago so I snipped them off and sealed the cuts.

Now the leaves are starting to burn on a little bit. Was hoping to layer it to propagate more of it this year but I think I'll leave it alone. Will try some cuttings once the lower shoots harden off. The shishi cuttings I took a few weeks ago are still green, whilst the koto cuttings I took have all dried out.

koto (1).jpg

koto (2).jpg

Popped under the bench for now to protect it from the wind.

koto (3).jpg

Really like this tree - just need to keep it alive!

[TimS]

The air layer of the koto seems to be struggling a little bit at the moment

The top branches turned black a few weeks ago so I snipped them off and sealed the cuts.

Now the leaves are starting to burn on a little bit. Was hoping to layer it to propagate more of it this year but I think I'll leave it alone. Will try some cuttings once the lower shoots harden off. The shishi cuttings I took a few weeks ago are still green, whilst the koto cuttings I took have all dried out.

koto (1).jpg
koto (2).jpg

Popped under the bench for now to protect it from the wind.

koto (3).jpg

Really like this tree - just need to keep it alive!

Probably best to assume any and all cultivars are not particularly strong genetically, it's why after a decade of air layering I'm now moving to look for good grafts and leave them on now instead.

Keep it protected from the wind any any full afternoon sun over 35 degrees definitely, can't help much more than that as the mother plant leafed out initially in spring but then got the black stem of death

Probably the only cultivars I want to layer now is Arakawa as it looks crap having the rough bark and a smooth bark on the graft nebari

[SuperBonSaiyan]

JM Kamagata layer separated today. Looked like a healthy amount of roots to me

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