Lou, What a brilliant idea! Now I know what to do with my wife's discarded diabetic syringes. Always the possiblitly that it was the rooting solution, but you would need more tests and different controls to be sure. This Spring I did two air-layers on my Marseilles and ended up with differing amounts of roots, just like in your case. The heavily rooted layering was totally exposed to the sun, and the one with just a few roots was constantly in the shade. Normally I cover my air-layers with foil, but in this instance I didn't. You could tell a big difference in the temp inside the plastic sleeve just by touching each air-layer. However, a small sampling like this is really inconclusive....

Lou, could you please explain how you did your air-layering along with materials used. what was the soil composition of the rootball shown.

Lou, Realizing what you wrote is most likely the case but
I believe I'm going to try it again. There is still time.
Just for the record both of the trees where in the same location and I turned both trees to have the air layering facing south to try and get the same amount of sun. I had to do that one for my friend because I promised him one from this past winter. ItÂs too bad that my other trees are small yet. I only have three I can tinker with but them I am also giving up some of my harvest for this season.
Lou NE., PA

mjmisgka to answer your question. I used a wad of sphagnum moss that I let soak in a bucket of water then before applying around the tree limb I squeeze most of the water out of it. Because it's hard to handle I did like elder said way back I use string to wrap around the moss a few times and tie it off just to keep it on the limb. Once that's in place I use clear plastic wrap and cover the moss completely. I tie off both ends so water won't leak out that easily. I end the process by covering the whole thing with heavy-duty foil. If it's still cool out I also will cover that up with a dark black plastic as well to help absorb heat. I remove that when the days become longer and sunnier.

I had tried this a long time ago but had no success doing it then elder encouraged me to give it a go again and so far so good. I had success on my Meyer Lemon tree back then but not on the fig trees.
Lou NE., PA

Lou,
You asked what do you think?

I think you just about outdid your self on this airlayer :)

I thought the other one was good, and it was, but this one is "something else"

Now, I have a question for you, do you intend to pot up this plant "as is" or do you intend to spread the roots out
when you plant it?

Keep up the great work!
Cecil

Cecil as I mentioned above I soaked the root ball in cold water for two hours. Well when I removed it from the water it loosened up some of the moss on the outer roots. Then when I gave it a good shake to get more water out the more of the external roots became loose. I squeezed it as well because I was packing it up to mail out. Wanted to get out as much water out as I could. The person I sent it to has no experience dealing with these matters. I wrote and told him to just soak it for an hour then plant as soon as possible also water it often abd to keep in a shady spot for at least a week then slowly introduce it to the sun. I also told him that when it comes time to step up in container size then he should try and loosen up the bottom roots as well as the ones growing in a circular pattern. I think if he follows those instructions it will be just fine.
Lou NE. PA

Thanks Lou,

As usual you are thorough in explaining procedures !

We are learning from everyone!

Cecil

Lou,

This is a great experiment with lots of potential. I too have noticed a great difference in root growth based on the location of the layer (shade vs full-sun) and probably other factors I haven't considered, yet.

Elder,

There are 100 units of insulin per ml and there are five ml in a teaspoon. It becomes clear with an insulin syringe, you will need to refill 20 times to make a difference (hopefully it becomes clear to you, I sat out there with my syringes for hours injecting water... LOL). After a while I smartened up and found a turkey baster with an injector tip. It holds about a tablespoon and a half.

When I start my layers, I soak my growing mix in a SuperThrive solution. Once I start seeing roots, I use a VERY dilute fertilizer solution to inject. After I inject the liquid, I squeeze the bulb on the baster a couple of times evacuate the old, stale air and force new air in.

~james

Lou, thanks for all your experiments, it shows you are thinking. And when you share with the rest of us it adds to our sum of knowledge.
James - clear as a bell. So, unless I do really small air-layers guess I still don't have a use for all those old syringes.

LOL... I'm not sure if I should tell everyone what I've used mine for.

I use a 50 milliliter bovine syringe and large bore needle from a farm supply place. I lost two of my air layers as I did not use light sphagnum. As I unpacked it to plant, the soil/peat ball was heavy and dropped off, taking all of the roots with it, so be very very careful how you handle these. I managed to save one of the two air layered cuttings. All of my other air layers (about four) worked out well as I handled them with great care. I came to the conclusion that wrapping them with cheese cloth, before the plastic, would keep everything secure as one can plant the cheesecloth wrap and not lose anything, as the roots can get through easily.

John.