beany.. i have read this 5 times.. i have no clue what you are getting at ...

you start by air layering the trunk ??? .. and then immediately call it a branch ... whats that all about ...

if you cut off the trunk.. the single trunk.. on most trees ... it will regrow two or three new sprouts.. and you have to reduce to one trunk.. if thats the form you want ..

i have no clue why you would air layer such ...

i have never heard nor thought about air layering.. in this situation.. maybe you need to tell us.. more specifically ... about what you are thinking about doing ... beside butchering your young tree ....

this better not be another pear post.. lol ... [which is usually how you do it.. when you dont want the screeds ... lol]

bottom line.. maybe you ought to give this plant a few years.. to actually branch.. before you dream about propagating it ....

ken

I mean what i wrote, if a tree such as a little gem magnolia, which has a single trunk, is air layered, will that rooted branch grow to be the new trunk and have branches growing off of it or will the roots put out a new stem and the tree continues to grow from new stem?

Basically does the rooted branch, once planted act just like if it was a seedling. Will it continue to grow vertically and new branches extend from it?

Yes, with that type of propagation, the rooted branch will become the new trunk.

There are some exceptions, but they are in the minority. Norfolk Island pines (Araucaria heterophylla) is one, for example; unless the cutting is taken from the terminal growth, it will proceed to grow sideways, like a branch.

Some propagation techniques (more often for other types of plants) take stem cuttings and place them flat on the soil mix. Then the roots tend to go down into the soil mix and new vertical growth will form the main stem. Much in the same way a fallen tree will sometimes produce vertical growth that acts as a new trunk(s).

If the trunk of a tree is rotten and you are trying to grow a new trunk through air layering I would think it would not gain sufficient size in time to support the tree. you can clone the tree that way though.

Air layering is done with a section of growth that is of a certain age. Just going by memory, I think for magnolias, it is branch growth that is between the very soft new growth and the firmness where the branch would snap-break. It isn't used for growing a new trunk (?) for an existing tree.

Some of you are misundertanding my question. I dont mean grow a new trunk for an existing tree. I asked if the rooted cutting would continue to grow once planted and have branches growing off of it?

Or, if the roots of the rooted cutting would send up a new shoot that would become the new tree?

I think falcon is the only one who understood.

Also, what happens if the rooted and then planted cutting was missing the terminal bud?

beaner,

Are you still mucking around with that volunteer callery seedling you noticed growing near the highway underpass?

Cripes, man (or woman); dig up one or two of the thousands of other callery seedlings that are bound to be growing in proximity to this one, take some cuttings, and graft it onto them.

It's a seedling pear. It might root. You might be able to air layer it. If you do, plant it. It'll grow. Terminal bud missing? It'll push growth from buds below. It's up to you to train it in the shape you want it.