Alain BERTRAND
Mame
It is better to let the trunk dry for a few days before putting the substrate around the ring. This is both a personal observation and and advice from a well known Japanese master.
Progression of Acer palmatum ('Sango kaku' coral)
- Thread starter parhamr
- Start date
MrWunderful
Omono
I too have better success when doing this. However, I let the rooting hormone sit on there for the same 24 hours.
parhamr
Omono
Yep!
Enfield Snapper
Mame
Do you think you'll try to work with the stump?
Ming dynasty
Shohin
So don’t immediately apply root hormone and spaghnum moss?
Srt8madness
Omono
I wonder what happened with this tree.
Waiting a day or two would have no noticeable difference. There is a great write up here on Bnut (i think by the Nut himself) on the science of air layering. There is nothing that would be gained by letting the layer dry. It's going to have a moist substrate against it for weeks, likely months.
coltranem
Chumono
I believe the intent is to make sure if there are any stray bits of exposed cambium they die. Sort of additional insurance against bridging.
parhamr
Omono
Taking a peek under the plastic wrap was on my to-do list this year. Ultimately, life caused other trees to be prioritized higher on the list.
Here it is, hardly recognizable without any pruning or pinching done this year.
It’s been a doozy: deaths in the family, buying and renovating a home, heatwaves, a promotion, etc. I just might be able to separate the layer this year. We’ll see.
Here it is, hardly recognizable without any pruning or pinching done this year.
It’s been a doozy: deaths in the family, buying and renovating a home, heatwaves, a promotion, etc. I just might be able to separate the layer this year. We’ll see.
parhamr
Omono
Last year I did some light root work to continue encouraging its callous tissue to produce an even root spread. The callous is fully radially distributed but not all of it had yet converted to root tissue. It’s growth in 2023 was okay but seemed to reflect that its root mass wasn’t yet as good as it can be.
This year the foliage growth is much better than last year and so I’m thinking the roots are better overall. Next winter I might poke around at the roots again to see what’s needed.
In May I did some structural work to clean up dead branching the tree had sacrificed during the transition to the layered roots.
May before
May after
This year the foliage growth is much better than last year and so I’m thinking the roots are better overall. Next winter I might poke around at the roots again to see what’s needed.
In May I did some structural work to clean up dead branching the tree had sacrificed during the transition to the layered roots.
May before
May after
parhamr
Omono
It’s now in this stunning blue oval from Randy Doughty of Bent Pine Pottery. I messed up the orientation a touch — it’s about 10 degrees too far clockwise. Ugh!
The strong new growths are visible in contrast to older, finer twigging. This reflects a VERY strong root that’s feeding most of the tree. I might still need to do more ground layering or root grafts to make the nebari more radial
The strong new growths are visible in contrast to older, finer twigging. This reflects a VERY strong root that’s feeding most of the tree. I might still need to do more ground layering or root grafts to make the nebari more radial
