Doing air layers different from now on...
Posted: February 21st, 2015, 11:14 am
I'm over Sphagnum moss as a medium for AL. This season I did 12 layers. Half I used sphagnum and half a nursery pot filled with bonsai soil. The sphagnum ones that came off is good but the roots are so brittle, it cant be worked. Almost impossible to separate the roots from the moss. I just planted them in containers as is. I will just have to wait a season or two before I can work them further....
The ones that came out the pots were far superior. The roots are flexible and hardened off as it came out a bonsai pot. Some I washed the soil off, trimmed it similar to doing a repot or bare root planting. The roots are healthy, ready to be manipulated and already established....
I could get in right under the topside of the layer and separate it there. With the moss ones I had to separate it at the bottom of the layer.
I have two moss layers on a Acer osakazuki that didn't grow any roots at all. The muck (according to Ray M technique) is still on there and moist.....
I had a pot filled with soil on a different Acer osakazuki tree, and that grew roots right out the pot....
That set me thinking and this is what I came up with. I found these colanders in a $2 shop. They are 200mm square by 75mm deep. I cut threw one side and wrapped it around the trunk of the osakazuki. Tightened it up to different places on the tree so it don't move, and filled it with bonsai soil. I'll leave it on until next year until it forms roots....
The ones that came out the pots were far superior. The roots are flexible and hardened off as it came out a bonsai pot. Some I washed the soil off, trimmed it similar to doing a repot or bare root planting. The roots are healthy, ready to be manipulated and already established....
I could get in right under the topside of the layer and separate it there. With the moss ones I had to separate it at the bottom of the layer. I have two moss layers on a Acer osakazuki that didn't grow any roots at all. The muck (according to Ray M technique) is still on there and moist.....
I had a pot filled with soil on a different Acer osakazuki tree, and that grew roots right out the pot....
That set me thinking and this is what I came up with. I found these colanders in a $2 shop. They are 200mm square by 75mm deep. I cut threw one side and wrapped it around the trunk of the osakazuki. Tightened it up to different places on the tree so it don't move, and filled it with bonsai soil. I'll leave it on until next year until it forms roots....
