Japanese Maple Air Layer FAILS!
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- Опубліковано 9 вер 2023
- Sometimes your Japanese Maple air layers just don't make it. This video reviews some of my air layering and potting failures and lessons learned. It also contains some tips that you might find helpful.
Air layering is a great way to propagate Japanese Maples to create stock for bonsai or grow new garden trees.
Cultivars mentioned:
Acer palmatum generic green maple (yama momiji)
Nishikigawa (pine bark maple)
Mikawa yatsubusa - Навчання та стиль
Kudos to You for showing and telling what no one wants to own; happy talk and videos can/are deceptive to earnest disciples
Thanks! I feel like I learn something from every plant I kill! I’m helping to keep the Mr. Maple brothers in business.
Thank you for this information.
Thanks for sharing the ones that didn't work 👍 so many people just show the ones working out so it's hard to learn about what to look out for and what not to do.
Thanks! I’m still learning new things every season!
Thank you. As a grower of rare maples as well, I do have some failures with air layering under my belt and it's refreshing to see someone sharing failures and lessons learned vs just a photos of great looking root balls. Also, people hardly ever talk about their aftercare, and yet I found over the years that in aftercare is where most mistakes are made and plants die. A few suggestions I would like to add - when you carry the air layers, specially bigger ones - always try to have one hand on the roots. Second, what I found useful is to have a very shallow water tray under the air layer for the first few weeks. This way they will always have some moisture. This would obviously be removed before cold season. Finally, I would suggest putting your air layer somewhere out of the sun and wind once taken off, at least until you see new growth appear. I use greenhouses, under benches, but if you do not have those, i would place it up against the structure and maybe even place a small fence around with plastic to protect against wind. Good luck with your air layering and thank you for the video.
Your advice is super good and helpful! I’ve started wrapping the bare root balls with light wire (twisty tie wire) while moving it around and then cutting off the wire once the root ball is supported in the pot with some soil and the branch tied down. Not taking any chances! Protecting the leaves from sun and wind is also critical as you noted. I’ve tried spraying down the leaves frequently to help reduce moisture loss - but that’s often too much diligence for me! I will try the tray of water suggestion - I assume that would work with regular maple potting mix - as opposed to using (expensive) sphagnum moss?
what i do is, leave the sphagnum moss in the ball as it was on the original tree, and add regular bonsai mix all around it in the new pot. i do add some lava rock on the bottom for drainage. Once spring repotting comes around, I carefully repot those airlayers and at this time remove the moss to be reused on less valuable caltivars. when its really rare maple i sometimes would plant into moss until spring or even for another season,, specially if roots are still immature
Thanks for recommendations!
It is really easy to kill new small roots 😢
I totally agree with you!
Hi, good video! I’m in Calif zone 9b, I’ve had failures and successes, I’ve noticed that most failures are trying to air-layer on too small of a JM branch(3/8” or smaller) there seems to be a sweet spot around 1/2” to 1” for success. I’ve tried different rooting hormones(I really don’t see a difference), a lot of my fails have been because I don’t add water into the covered moss as often as I should, I need to check them twice a week. And don’t ask me why some attempts just swell up and callus over, when I discovered the callus, I’ve made small cuts on it and covered it in more hormone and rewrapped it but they still don’t put out roots🤬 other varieties of trees have sooo many roots in a couple months I detach them and they don’t miss a beat! Keep up the work my friend!👍🏻
Thanks for your good insights! I’ll keep posting as I learn more about what works and what doesn’t work with air layers. 😀
What is the best season to air layer?
Great question! For the Pacific Northwest, I’ve started air layers as early as late March through late May. The best times for me seem to be just before through just after Spring leaf out. I cut off the branches when the roots look strong enough - typically after mid-August.
nice films !!! ...plant doesn't produce heat so insulation works poorly ,,,
I'm in zone 9a. About how long does a pinky sized air layer take to grow roots?
It’s hard to say because the variety and the weather conditions make this different. I don’t think I have seen the first sign of roots sooner than 8 weeks. By mid-August, you should be seeing a fair amount of roots if it is going to work out. Make sure to squeeze out any excess water if you see any accumulating in the first 2-6 weeks. You want to see condensation droplets on the inside of the plastic, not water logged sphagnum moss.
@@NWMapleBonsai Thank you for the tips.
Do you remove the moss or plant it?
I just leave the sphagnum moss on so I don’t disturb the roots. When I repot in a year or two, I usually remove some of the moss and recycle it if it is still in reasonable shape. Thanks for the good question!
You got scammed out of 80 bucks!