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😂 yes we realized too late. But we also didn’t know at the start how much we would take off. Thanks for watching!

Thanks! Not technically a tree but they can look really neat. I like the flowering trees. I have a few cherry blossom trees now, but I’m going to try a few different fruit trees as well.

Good luck to you as well! I’ll bet that it will do fine. All this time later and I’m not seeing roots through the bag on mine yet. It might be time for me to open it up and see what’s happening in there.

@@willbreeze397 I did not want to open it. But I did want to redo it. I try to keep it wet every couple days. I made sure the bottom can drain out, I used regular soil. If you have a large branch it can take longer.

It fell out at one point too but got back in through the drainage holes. I ended up moving it to a pot of apple sprouts 😂

It’s always hard at first. Maybe she needs an inexpensive tree to practice with?

I’m glad I started air layering with something that big. The smaller ones never seem to work as well. I think it’s because there are so many leaves above which caused the roots to generate so quickly.

I ended up doing the massive cut taking out the old thick leader, then a little later I shortened the smaller leader. I guess in general that’s going to create some taper, but not so much movement. That was captured in two different videos. The tree is starting to push some new buds in weird places, so it has survived so far.

I’ve been trying to decide what part of the back yard to take over for growing bonsai in the ground. I have a spot in mind. The cherry is also still in moss. I guess I need to wait until next spring to do the root work and get rid of the moss.

Grüße! (I had to look that up 😂)

I’ve seen people say that a tree can die back from the point of the cut, but I’m not sure why that is. I noticed there was a lot of moisture coming from the cut. It wasn’t dripping but it was wet. So maybe without the cut paste, it dries out further down the trunk? I don’t think it could kill the tree, but I like to leave some leaves somewhere so there is still some photosynthesis happening. Some trees will backbud out of seemingly nowhere. I saw a neighbour cut a maple to the ground, and it didn’t take long for it to start sending up shoots all over the stump. I guess it also depends on how healthy the tree is. It has some capacity to store energy somewhere to use in an emergency.

Definitely some interesting ones out. I hear the robin quite a bit, and lots of chickadees around, but there was one I don’t recognize.

Excellent! It’s definitely a fun way to propagate a good sized tree! If you haven’t had experience air layering before, I would definitely recommend watching some videos from different people. Everyone has different little tips and tricks, and I don’t know if I explained it well enough. I hope it works for you! Good luck!

Woohoo, Thanks! I see you have a few subscribers yourself ;-) looks good, I’ll check it out!

Fingers crossed… that was three weeks ago, hopefully I’ll see some signs of roots soon!

Same. Here in our MN woods we have a variety of maples. I need to do a better job of identifying them.

Thanks! Yeah I guess that’s the handy thing about making videos about them. If I forget what it is I can look back at the videos 😂

And now… we wait.

Ahh… good idea thank you! That was a really frustrating experience.

Thanks! I think it’s heading in the right direction now.

Well, maybe I will give it a try. Put a tile under and away it goes. I need to clear out the moss and cut the stump, so I guess that will be next spring on this one too.

Yup, I definitely wish I had. I will have to wait until next year now. I’m curious how air layers heal on the underside. Do they heal over just like a wound on the branches?

Thanks, I guess I should do some testing and give it a try.

I’ve been using pumice, coco coir and a little sea soil. Some people use lava rocks, but I only ever see tiny bags of it around here.

So as soon as I say there isn't small lava rocks around, I find some reasonable bags at my local nursery today :-) I'll start adding in some lava now.

I think you are right. I should have developed the roots more. I was too eager to get a few trees into proper pots. I have lots of other skinny trees to develop though. I should probably stick a few in the ground to thicken them up.

@@willbreeze397 dig a hole,put a big tile underneath and fill it up with good soil and cut the roots around the tile once in a while but not all of them at once...while you leave it in the ground for 3 to 4 years ,you can style the tree as you like, the cuts will fast heal over...after 5 years you have a great tree to put in a pretty pot🤷‍♂️

@@willbreeze397 I made this fault alot myself by being impatient🤷‍♂️

Sounds like it’s doing well. Good luck!

Hi! That's awesome that you have a tree mission! I'm not aware of any limits on how big of a branch you can air layer. The trick will probably be that you need enough roots to support the size. Often when I take the branch off I will reduce it quite a bit to make sure there isn't too much demand on the roots. I also don't know about how many you can do at once. I've only ever done a few, but I've seen others on TH-cam doing a dozen or more at once. Sorry about the beaver problems... I have no idea about that. I've seen trees before with a thin sheet metal collar, is that for beavers? Perhaps if you cover it with something they can't chew through?

@@willbreeze397 Thanks for the reply. The metal sheet idea is a great idea! I never thought of that and it is perfect for me, because I purchased 2000 pounds of thin aluminum sheet metal that was at my local Restore. I had planned to use them for roofing and siding, but I can sue some of them to save my trees from the beavers! I will be air layering nine 1.5” redbud trees all from the same trunk. It is growing in a place that I don’t want it to grow, so my goal is to move it. If it works I will post the video so others can do the same.

Yeah it was pretty funny. I took a look at the screen after I was done and it was zoomed in way too far :-) I cut most of it out so you didn't have to watch... lol

Nice! If you have a chance, try and pick an area right below some interesting features. What I’m noticing now in my potted tree is that it’s just too straight. I keep thinking I’ll have to cut it down further to make for a more interesting bonsai. On the other hand, it’s still super nice as a regular tree in a pot. It doesn’t have to be a bonsai.

Hey, glad you liked it. Thanks for watching and subscribing.

Your welcome bro

Thanks! That’s too bad, I wonder if shishi is more difficult or if we were just unlucky.

Thanks!

Just have to keep trying. So far I have been lucky with the failures because they seem to give me a second chance. Sorry yours didn’t make it. I’ll definitely try keeping the moss less wet and see if that helps.

@@willbreeze397 a few of the air layers I placed seem to be going strong. Honestly it’s really trial and error with me at the moment and no big loss bc the branches in air layering would have been pruned off anyway. I’m using a large lace leaf acer garden tree that has been growing for years and now I have to do some structural work before the tree suffers. I’m considering drastically reducing the tree and then air layering it above the graft

Thanks Christopé, I’m sure this time will be better!

Thanks! I have a pot full of sphagnum and hadn’t really paid too much attention to how moist it was. When I was redoing that one I stuck the moss in water and squeezed it out fairly well. Hopefully thats not too wet. I have a crab apple on the deck I just did last week (but didn’t record) and the dogwood I did last week and I just did a trident maple. Hopefully they all take, but I guess I shouldn’t assume such a high success rate 😬

Yeah that’s a good point. For the cherry I had a very thick plastic from a soil bag and there were opaque sections on it. I’ve definitely seen some people say that darkness doesn’t matter (especially given the moss is opaque) but maybe I should go back to using cut up soil bags instead of sandwich bags.

Oh wow! That’s pretty cool. Grafting is something I’ve never really done much of. I think I tried something simple years ago (might have been a bud in a T cut) but without much research and it didn’t do anything.

So Pokeman_official1… I was at a garden Center in maple ridge today and they had a Yoshino Cherry. The place was called Amsterdam’s… do you have a truck? you should drive out to get it!

@@willbreeze397 oh, I’m in Toronto. It is really hard to get them here but… I got one! Last week I drove about 2 hours to a nursery to get my yoshino cherry. I’m planning on propagating and selling new trees cause there’s lots of demand for em here… I think I’ll try air layering or grafting onto rootstocks

@@Pokeman_official1 oh I’m glad to hear that. I was thinking I would have to get it and mail you a cutting or something. 😂

@@willbreeze397 haha 😂 it didn’t have to come to that lol thanks

Nice! I like the ficus Benj… I have a variegated one that I wanted to take cuttings from, but it never seems to grow. I probably have it in the wrong soil or something. For my climate, that’s strictly an indoor plant. I bring almost all the indoor plants out for the summer, but I heard that ficus benj. lose their leaves when there is too sudden a temp change so I’ve been too nervous to take it outside.

I’m not sure when I did that, but it was last year. Maybe late spring? I would normally expect 6-8 weeks before we see roots in the bag.

@@willbreeze397 thank you🙋🏻‍♂️

I’ve been looking for one for a while. The guy I bought it from had grown them from seed, so I guess there must be somewhere to buy them online.

You can do it! It helps to practice on a tree that is forgiving. I'm finding with my two cherry trees that they seem to back-bud out of nowhere.