Airlayer rootball

Moose

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10/09/09
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Is this airlayer ready to be removed ?:confused: Borgy230 checked it last week and said to wait. Two heavy saturations of water and the quantity of airlayer roots seems to have doubled. :) Should I continue to wait ?
 

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What's on the growing end??? This amount of roots will support a small head; if it is a large head of leaves, I'd wait esp since the root ball is growing quickly
 
Moose mix up some of the watersoluable firtilizer in a hose end sprayer. Spray the heads that you have air layerd. The water with the fertilizer will seep into your rootball and the roots will just explode.

Also when we cut our air layers we soak them "foil and all" in a bucket of water for several minutes just to give the roots a chance to soak up as much water as we can. It also makes it easier to remove the foil from the root ball.

To clarify someting; when Judy pots the air layer she only dusts the cut end of the air layer and not the cut end of the plant.

A quick funny story: One aftenoon in the Keys Judy & I are doing air layers. A young neighbor boy waked over to asked what we were doing. I looked at the young lad and said that Judy and I were making babies. I told him that he could watch, but he just smiled and walked away.:eek:
 
I agree, leave it on the plant for another couple of weeks and let those roots fill out in the moss. Only if the stem had broken off, you would then remove it and pot it up. W/ those roots, it would support the plant if had to. Two weeks ago my first air layered plant(Applause), broke and was barely hanging on when I found it. I waited 3 days to see what it would do because the leaves were still turgid and not wilted. But, by the fourth day, the leaves were beginning to wilt and therefore I removed it, potted it up and put it in the mist house . It had a fraction of roots compared to Ron's plant shown above in the photo. Today, it looks great and off and growing.
 
Thanks for everone's help. These are my first airlayers. Had Rob look at them last week to get his opinion. Jim, today is 14 days since it got hit with the water soluble fertilizer. I will hit it this evening so it stays on the leaves longer for absorbtion.

Phil - The airlayer is on Black Beauty. They seem to be on the slow side so I am trying to get some bigger ones. I am nervous because the new owner has not closed yet. The tenting for termites might kill it and I want to save some of it so it is not another lost cultivar. :)
 
Moose mix up some of the watersoluable firtilizer in a hose end sprayer. Spray the heads that you have air layerd. The water with the fertilizer will seep into your rootball and the roots will just explode.

Also when we cut our air layers we soak them "foil and all" in a bucket of water for several minutes just to give the roots a chance to soak up as much water as we can. It also makes it easier to remove the foil from the root ball.

To clarify someting; when Judy pots the air layer she only dusts the cut end of the air layer and not the cut end of the plant. :eek:

A quick funny story: One aftenoon in the Keys Judy & I are doing air layers. A young neighbor boy waked over to asked what we were doing. I looked at the young lad and said that Judy and I were making babies. I told him that he could watch, but he just smiled and walked away.:eek:
:eek::eek:
 
Thanks for this post I have been playing with airlayers and you have answered question I was going to ask
 
I,ve been trying airlayers with peat moss instead of sphagnum. I would advise sticking with sphagnum.Peat breaks apart too easily when checking the layers.
 
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