My first air-layering attempt

12 years ago

I got inspired from a posting in this forum, but I can't seem to find it. Anyway, I'm hoping this works. My tree is approaching 6 feet tall and I'd like to get it down to half that.

Here are the photos of the experiment.
{{gwi:1189057}}From Garden 2011

{{gwi:1189058}}From Garden 2011

{{gwi:1189059}}From Garden 2011

{{gwi:1189060}}From Garden 2011

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Comments (12)

irun5k
12 years ago
Cool! You might be referring to Dave's post, it encouraged me as well although I haven't tried it yet. You did everything I was going to do. I wasn't sure how far around to go when removing the "skin", it looks like you played it on the safe side which was smart. Good luck! Anxious to see how it works.
sunseeker53
12 years ago
Looking good!
I just did this too. First time ever! I have some plants that don't look very good (too leggy but nice tops) so I experimented with 2 of them; it's been a week now and the tops don't look any different (not wilted - even the blooming inflo is OK) so I think I'm OK to proceed with a few more. Here are mine. I was told it takes 4-8 weeks for the roots to develop. I can't wait!
In the pictures the wrappers are plastic, but I later added aluminum foil around them to prevent the new roots from heating up.
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Hi, Need2SeeGreen! At first I did not understand your question, but I've realized now that I may have used a confusing term to refer to the part of the plant I meant. As I understand it, a Terminal Bud Scar is a scar left by side buds that have fallen after the main one continues to form a branch. After this, what you end up with should look like the diagram. Please notice that a terminal bud is different to a terminal bud scar, you want to find a Terminal Bud Scar. Other terms that I found for this are "growth rings" or "annular rings" but looking this up brings up mostly results of the rings formed by a tree's bark and from which you can tell it's age... which we do not care for much at the moment. There doesn't seem to be much of a solid term to refer to it, so I found TBS the most appliable. TBS can be appreciated as several "stripes" or "bands" that ,in roses, are usually located where an older cane branches out into newer stems, usually, every one of those has their own set of growth rings/TBS right where it is attached to the older cane. The way you describe air-layering has possibilities of working, but when you do it like that you're just getting the peat to make contact with maybe two or tree nodes, a TBS is actually a lot of nodes squirmed together, every node anywhere in the plant is capable of developing "callus" which is the undifferentiated tissue that can turn to roots if the surrounding environment is in fact, appropriate for roots (damp, dark, and not too cold nor too hot). By using a TBS instead of a single or a couple nodes, you have more chances of getting a node to form callus, since there are many more nodes in that area. I hope to have answered your question, if not, please rephrase it and I'd be happy to help you. And yes! Midnight Blue is not only pretty to the eyes, the scent is really something! It is usually described as clove, but I and several other people I have shown it to think it is a lot like agua de jamaica, (which in some recipes actually has clove in it, but well, there's more to it). Seeingreen, I really wish it was like that year round, on the hotter months it will open to a more reddish, wine color, but at least the great scent is still there.
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Andrew Scott
12 years ago
Hi Sunseeker,
Great idea with wrapping the tin foil around the plastic rap! That way not only are you protecting those young fragile roots but you can still remove the tin foil and see if you have any new roots growing!!

I am VERY excited about this air layering. Tonight while surfing for pics of other plumeria, I came across a posting on the MPG about air layering. I actually saved it to my favorites for reference.

I had been thinking about trying this prop. method for a while but I wasn't sure how it would work because of the way they "bleed", if they get cut or if you break a leaf or inflo.

When I got my Jack Orange(thank you again James!) from JJ's, I was thinking that I would want to propogate this as soon as I could but then again, if that cutting didn't root for me for some reason, I would have a heart attack..LOL! Now I know how I am going to prop. it!

Andrew
sunseeker53
12 years ago
Andrew, I got all the information to do this (including the use of aluminum) from some very helpful folks on the MPG forum. Now that the 1st week has passed and the plants seemed to do fine, I am very encouraged and ready to use this method on many more trees, instead of cutting off the branches. The main reason why I investigated about this method was because I wanted to keep the tops growing and blooming while they are rooting (I DREAD cutting off inflos! It's like torture to me!). As a bonus from using this method, after you've cut the top portion off, you are left with a trunk that can be used to graft a cutting onto, which eliminates having to root the cutting in soil.
Andrew Scott
12 years ago
Hi Sunseeker,
Yeah I agree with you, it really seems like it's a win win situation! I wish I would have done this with my 'Jenny'. I just cut it. I hadn't seen it bloom yet but it was getting really lanky and I was afraid of the branches eventually breaking. I could have supported them but Laura wanted one of these so one of them is headed to V.B. on Tuesday.

What variety is the plumeria in the 1st pic with the light pink flowers? Looks like a nice flower!

Andrew
Andrew
jandey1
12 years ago
Dave, good luck with that! Let us know how it turns out.

Sunseeker, you might even consider cutting out a center piece to graft onto an even shorter trunk, then you'd have a nice thick center-cut to root as well. In fact, you might be able to air-layer at two spots on the trunk, one about a foot above the other. That would be a good experiment.

And to answer your question from the other post, yes, I did lose that inflo on Makaha when it got grafted. It was awful because the buds were so close to opening but the cutting was getting horribly shriveled and I was afraid I'd lose the whole thing. Now I have to wait another couple years to see those gorgeous buds again, which looked sooooo promising!

The air-layering posts on MPG came up shortly after I discovered this on my multi-tip Intense Rainbow:

For some reason it wasn't covered with latex though I found the break after only a day or so. Don't know what happened and if it was ball play damage, no one here is fessing up to it! After reading about someone's borer experience I freaked a little and quickly covered it with masking tape to discourage any boring critters that might want to make a home there. The break goes about 2/3 of the way around. I checked it after a couple of weeks and it, too, is starting to swell to form roots, but I decided instead of air- layering I would just let it heal and grow over like a graft since I'd rather have just one Intense Rainbow with several tips.
Andrew Scott
12 years ago
Hi Jandey,
I saw that JJ in Thailand offers plumerias that are mulit grafted with diffrent varieties.

have you ever tried that before? I thought that would be a great alternative for people like me who have limited space and live in an area where we have to bring them in every winter.

My concern is that you would really have to know your plumerias, meaning that you would have to make sure that the varieties grafted would all have to have the same growth pattern.

The pics that JJ's had of these multi variety trees were really cool. I had NEVER seen that before until I saw it on there web site.

Andrew
sunseeker53
12 years ago
I visited Upland Nursery today (in Orange, CA) and saw several multi-grafted plants there. They are gorgeous, but boy are they EXPENSIVE!!! You're talking hundreds of dollars. I am experimenting with grafting (just grafted a Samoan Fluff cutting onto a NOID plant). If it goes well maybe I'll try a multi-graft! I have a few strong NOIDs that I can use as hosts!
The multi-graft is such a great idea, whoever thought of it. It totally makes sense not only for people like you Andrew who need to move plants in and out, but also plumie-gluttons like me who just can't have enough plumies around me :-)

Jen: the break on your Intense Rainbow looks very strange. I've never seen a break that looks so clean but only goes thru part of the branch, and with no sign of latex. I hope it heals for you.
Andrew Scott
12 years ago
Hi Sunseeker,
I don't get it...if it's easy to graft, why charge so much for a multi grafted tree? I wonder how many of them they sell.

Speaking of Uplands, James had told me to check them out. I had never checked out there site until a little while ago. I now wish I had NEVER checked them out!!! They too have some awesome plumerias.

I would like to here from someone who has done mail order with them so I can here what there experience was.

Andrew
tdogdad
12 years ago
Andrew- from my experience grafting is not easy. I have had nothing but problems. Also, consider if you took three quality cuttings ($$) and then grafted onto a several year old plant so you have three decent branches ($$) and you get a costly plant. I thought of multiple grafted plants a decade ago but I sucked at grafting so it never came to be. Maybe I will learn some new techniques that will work in the future.
Dave in NoVA • N. Virginia • zone 7A
12 years ago
Grafting is not particularly difficult, but it helps a LOT to have experience and a controlled environment -- like a greenhouse -- to control all the elements like watering, temperature, humidity, air circulation, etc.

Outdoors, there are many variables that can lead to failure, like excessive movement from winds, moisture invasion from rains, tampering from animals (squirrels, chipmunks), heat buildup within graft area, etc., etc.
sunseeker53
12 years ago
Andrew, I think part of the high price is just like any other "instant gratification" items. You have a multi-grafted tree that is blooming with 2 or 3 or 4 different colors, so you pay a high price for it if you want it right then and there. I can imagine that there is a lot of time involved in producing such trees, as you have to wait for all the scions to take, then wait some more for each branch to grow bigger and flower. To me paying $400 for a multi-color tree is hard, even though I didn't have any reservation when paying that much for the 10 or so plants I've bought lately.
I didn't mean to say that grafting is easy, but I'd like to try it. My 1st try several months ago actually looked like it might have been successful, as the scion seemed to have merged into the host except for the cambium area around the edge, but I accidentally broke it off from the host when trying to put some tape and a splint back on it to let it heal some more. Since I have several NoIDs with strong roots, I can afford a few experiments and failures. We'll see! Maybe with some persistence I'll end up with a multi-grafted tree someday!