Question on Air Layering
- Thread starter August44
- Start date
Yes it turns into salicylic acid and it is maybe as good to spray your cuttings with it. If you want to get just a a small amount of salicylic instead of buying powder go to the facial soap area in Walmart etc, and buy skin clear salicylic acid ASTRINGENT not the soap, and that is a better dissolved solution than you can make yourself using either salicylic powder or aspirin. Clogged sprayer right when you are about to do something fun is not cool.
Jrmcmich
Chumono
This video shows this being used but not for air layering but when transferring from dig (field grown) to a pot
Bonsai Nut
Nuttier than your average Nut
Named after salix... the willow genus... from which it was first derived. You will get the same effect if you soak willow branches in water and use the water for your propagation purposes. Personally I would just use a topical rooting hormone directly on the air-layer site, since the sphagnum moss should be damp and not soaking wet.
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Cajunrider
Imperial Masterpiece
This reminds me of the time I soaked dozens of willow branches in a bucket to get willow water. Then I forgot about the bucket for a while and they all became willow trees.
In another case my friend cleaned up willow branches broken by a hurricane. He out them in a pile near a lake bank. Now it is like a mini willow forest. Be careful with willows, they can be very invasive.
Sorry for going off topic but yeah willow water is good for air layer.
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All very interesting comments and thanks for the help and advice. I do have a liquid hormone that I just purchased called Hormex with vitamin B1 and Hormone. I can certainly use that or go cut some willows and soak them. Are we talking about small willow branches seedling size or bigger pieces? How long do I soak them in the water, and do I use that water to dampen the moss or soils the whole time I am air layering or just at the start?
Wires_Guy_wires
Imperial Masterpiece
Hormex is fine to use.
Salicylic acid is the molecule itself, aspirin changes to it by releasing the acetyl-group in the presence of water.
Hormex contains indole-3-butyric acid and that is a stronger rooting hormone than salicylic acid; salicylic acid helps plants in a lot of ways, one of which is wound healing and growing more cells, in rooting there are just a few tried and tested ones that are classified as auxins - salicylic acid is not considered one, yet.
Mosses can take up hormones and aspirin and might use it for their own benefit or biochemical pathways instead of releasing it to your plant. This is something to take into account. The timing of your air layer is also important, because you want to make use of the naturally increased levels of auxins and add some on top to get the strongest response.
I do have to point out though, that I've seen in a bunch of the thousands of experiments I've done with plant hormones, additives can sometimes work counter productive.
Think of it as giving a person six beers every evening after dinner for a year, and then trying to get them drunk on four beers on a sunday afternoon.. Their body has adjusted to these high levels and they don't respond to it anymore. Plants can have a similar way of responding to hormone levels and become unable to root from there on forward. I have some plants from areas that were treated with agent orange and they are just about the only plant I have never, ever, ever, been able to multiply. Not even in tightly controlled tissue culture settings, and not even with 300+ media compositions with various hormones.
My junipers for instance, respond better and faster without the use of rooting hormones. I believe I'm seeing the same thing in my maples.
Salicylic acid is the molecule itself, aspirin changes to it by releasing the acetyl-group in the presence of water.
Hormex contains indole-3-butyric acid and that is a stronger rooting hormone than salicylic acid; salicylic acid helps plants in a lot of ways, one of which is wound healing and growing more cells, in rooting there are just a few tried and tested ones that are classified as auxins - salicylic acid is not considered one, yet.
Mosses can take up hormones and aspirin and might use it for their own benefit or biochemical pathways instead of releasing it to your plant. This is something to take into account. The timing of your air layer is also important, because you want to make use of the naturally increased levels of auxins and add some on top to get the strongest response.
I do have to point out though, that I've seen in a bunch of the thousands of experiments I've done with plant hormones, additives can sometimes work counter productive.
Think of it as giving a person six beers every evening after dinner for a year, and then trying to get them drunk on four beers on a sunday afternoon.. Their body has adjusted to these high levels and they don't respond to it anymore. Plants can have a similar way of responding to hormone levels and become unable to root from there on forward. I have some plants from areas that were treated with agent orange and they are just about the only plant I have never, ever, ever, been able to multiply. Not even in tightly controlled tissue culture settings, and not even with 300+ media compositions with various hormones.
My junipers for instance, respond better and faster without the use of rooting hormones. I believe I'm seeing the same thing in my maples.
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