AusBonsai

Over the past year I have air/ground layered a number of species. This is the first time I have tried these techniques to improve/propagate species for bonsai, so I thought I'd put them here so I can refer back to this thread if any of them warrant their own threads in the future.

Juniper
First up is a squamata juniper that I purchased from the South Australian Bonsai Society annual show in 2018. I let it grow for a year and then put the layer on in October 2019 as shown here https://www.ausbonsai.com.au/forum/view ... 93#p271293. The layer was removed in February this year https://www.ausbonsai.com.au/forum/view ... 59#p278759 and potted up exactly as shown.

I repotted this tree over the weekend to remove the sphagnum moss. Didn't touch the foliage and will let it settle in before any real work happens

Nice result Terry.

Thanks Mel.

Next cab off the rank is glory vine (Vitis vinifera).

Grape vines strike readily from cuttings, so I thought I’d have a pretty good chance of getting a layer to work on our glory vine. I chose a branch I was going to remove at some stage anyway because it was growing under the main canopy and the lack of light had already caused some of the side branches to die off. The layer was set at the beginning of December using the standard method of layering that has been described in many posts on this site (ring-barking, scraping the cambium, painting hormone on the cut bark edge closest to the apex, packing damp sphagnum around the ring-barked section, wrapping with plastic and covering with some foil to keep the light out).

I got a really fast response and probably could have removed the layer after three weeks; I waited four. There were so many roots, it was hard to see the sphagnum. Like the juniper, I potted it up without disturbing the roots and to keep it stable, I screwed it to the bottom of the plastic pot and back-filled with a well-draining mix. I kept the long canes to keep feeding the layer and let them grow.

Once the vine was dormant in winter I pruned the canes to two buds (which is the way I prune the entire vine every winter). In early August, I repotted to remove the sphagnum and branch stub and trim the roots.
This is the vine today, currently at shohin size. Multiple buds have already opened and there are more coming. If you look closely there are also some flowers starting to form. Given this variety is normally sterile, I’m not expecting any grapes, however, occasionally it does produce small bunches, so .

Well played Terry - gotta be happy with these results. Thanks for posting.

Another beauty! You've got some nice gnarly shapes in that one.

Love that grape vine Terry, very interesting shape. My nonna has some very old gnarly vines; I'll need to ask if there's a bit she wouldn't mind me stealing.

Well done Terry. That vine came up really well, you've got a nice base to work with. I'm off to check out my grapevines for potential material...

Agree... that vine is super interesting. Nice job, thinking somewhat out of the box with that one.

MJL wrote: ↑September 15th, 2020, 6:25 am Well played Terry - gotta be happy with these results. Thanks for posting.

Thanks Mark.

melbrackstone wrote: ↑September 15th, 2020, 7:57 am Another beauty! You've got some nice gnarly shapes in that one.

The pruning each year is as quick as I can manage with no thought to shoot direction. Some shoots live, others die but it does lead to some interesting shapes.

greg27 wrote: ↑September 15th, 2020, 8:33 am Love that grape vine Terry, very interesting shape. My nonna has some very old gnarly vines; I'll need to ask if there's a bit she wouldn't mind me stealing.

As long as you don't mess with the yield of vino too much, I'm sure nonna won't mind

Matt S wrote: ↑September 15th, 2020, 11:53 am Well done Terry. That vine came up really well, you've got a nice base to work with. I'm off to check out my grapevines for potential material...

From some angles, the result is very "S" shaped but hopefully I can hide that a bit by selecting a good front and changing the planting angle. I have plenty more to choose from if I like working with this species. Good luck on your search.

Ryceman3 wrote: ↑September 15th, 2020, 1:28 pm Agree... that vine is super interesting. Nice job, thinking somewhat out of the box with that one.

Cheers R3

terryb wrote: ↑September 15th, 2020, 1:42 pm As long as you don't mess with the yield of vino too much, I'm sure nonna won't mind

I wouldn't dream of messing with the home brew!