Garden Of TomorrowGarden Tips and Information

Air Layering is the same basic principal of Layering, that is, to get a branch or vine to root into a growing medium so it can be cut from the mother plant and grow on it’s own. Air Layering is exactly the same thing, except it’s not done in the ground, it’s done in the air!

The first step is to get everything together – A pocket knife, saran wrap or other plastic, zip ties or similar, and a growing medium (most people use a wet peat moss, possibly add some root hormone to it).

Make 2 horizontal cut all the way around the branch about 1 inch apart where you want the roots to grow. Make one vertical slice into the bark, connecting the two previous cuts. You should now be able to peel the bark back pretty easy. Don’t go too deep, but you do want to completely disconnect the outer layers of the bark. Water and minerals from the roots will still be able to go up the tree, but the sugars and stuff from the leaves won’t be able to travel down through layers right under the bark. Add to that a dark and moist environment and the branch should start growing roots!

Wrap your growing medium around the incisions, wrap that in saran wrap firm, but not too tight, and if it needs support zip-tie the ends of the saran wrap to the branch.

I prefer saran wrap to aluminum foil because you can see the roots when they grow big enough!

It’s best to work with at least a 1/4 inch diameter for trees and stuff, but for vines and smaller thing, just be careful cutting or you might cut too much.

I suggest trying to Air Layer with just tiny scrapes on a portion of the vine, or just try it without cutting – Things like Honeysuckle and Blackberry will already root where ever a vine hits the ground. It’s best to do a little research on the particular plant first if you can, but there is always the fun of just trying it however you want and seeing what happens!

I know this is hard to explain, so I made this image to help illustrate. Click to view the larger picture.

 

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Propagation: Layering

I find that layering is the most effective and risk free type of propagation for just about any plant. Layering is where in the middle of the branch you strip away any leaves or other shoots, make a few small cuts to the branch in the middle (where the roots will grow from), bend that part down to the ground and cover it with dirt, then the end of the branch comes up out of the dirt. You may even try to apply some rooting hormone to the area of the branch with the cuts.

While the branch will continue to receive nutrients from the mother plant, the wounded area will start to grow roots of it’s own. When the roots of the branch are strong enough to support the end of the branch you can separate it from the mother plant with a clean cut and it should be able to survive on it’s own.

Layering is great because if the plant is a slow grower, it has all the time in the world to grow those new roots!

 

 

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