Friday, October 30, 2009

Air layering technique

Cutting taken from branches that have grown as thick as your fingers stand little if any chance of taking. They have to be rooted by a technique known as air layering, whereby the roots of tne new plant develop while it is still attached to the original plant. The young plant is removed from the trunk of the original tree only when it si self supporting roots atached to the parent plant. You can prune it and wire it if necessary. It is a method that can produce a lovely mature looking specimen quickly.

Select a particularly attracitve branch from your plant. Several weeks may go by before any new roots appear. Keep testing that the moss is still moist. and if necessary, add a bit more water to the polythene sleeve from above but it is depending on the species of plant, enough new roots will have formed after six to eight weeks for the new tree to live itself. The branch now can be sparated from its parent plant by cutting it of beneath the original point of incision. Plant is immediately in a pot, without removing the moss of peat or you can put it straight into a suitable bonsai pot.