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The biggest challenge for me with new nursery stock has always been the question of how to style the would-be bonsai. In other words, what's the design that's lurking there that I'm having trouble discerning. As has happened a number of times in the past, David Johnson suggested that I shorten the tree and start turning it into the literati that I wanted. The trunk, though an inch in diameter near the base, was still amazingly flexible, and could easily be wired into a more distinctive shape. But shortening the tree by chopping off the top foot or so, was absolutely out of the question. What was obviously called for here, if the tree were willing, was some air layering. In discussing air layering techniques with David at some other time, I remember him mentioning to me that one of his teachers recommended against stripping a loop of bark off an evergreen tree where you wanted roots to grow. Instead, the recommendation was to apply a loop of wire tightly to the trunk so that it cut into the bark and cambium layer, and then proceeding in standard air layering fashion. And this was what I decided to do. |
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I selected the place I hoped to force new roots to grow and stripped off some of the branches for about a 6" section of the trunk. Next I took a piece of wire and twisted it onto the trunk with pliers so that it dug into the bark and cambium layer quite deeply. The plan was to have new roots grow on the trunk above this point. |
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I made a few, inch long, vertical cuts with a sharp knife above the wire and rubbed some #3 rooting hormone into them as well as on the ends of the stubs left from trimming off the branches. Next I took a plastic bag, large enough that it could be slid over the top of the tree without breaking its branches, and cut out its bottom. I slipped the bag over and down until its bottom was a little below the wire, and fastened it tightly to the trunk with some string. the resulting pouch was of a good size to hold a quantity of sphagnum moss, moistened with water and "Superthrive", another vitamin-based rooting stimulant. Then when the plastic pouch was full, I tied its top tightly to the bared trunk well above wire. And that was that. Time will tell of my success or lack thereof. |
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********* Never one to miss an opportunity to grow new trees, I took the branch clippings from the tree, and prepared them for potential rooting as well. here the process was obviously going to be different and simpler. The branches ranged in length from 2 to 10 inches. The longer ones were cut in two, and all of the branches had half to three quarters of the lower needles and branchlets removed. |
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I selected a 6 inch flower pot that seemed large enough to hold the cuttings and prepared it by filling it with a mixture of sand and soil-less growing mix, roughly of even proportions. I gave this a good watering to really saturate the medium. Now it was time to get out the #3 rooting hormone powder again. I dipped the bottom of each branch into the powder and shook off the excess. Then I inserted it into the flower pot so that all of the lower bare section of each branch was below the growing medium. I then gave the cuttings and rooting medium a good spraying with a solution of "No Damp" to ward off the evil fungi and molds that thrive in moist places such as this. |
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Into the middle of the pot I then plunged a short bamboo planting stake which was several inches taller than than the highest cuttings, and slipped a good sized plastic bag over the top of both cuttings and pot. I secured the bag to the pot with a rubber band to provide an airtight seal. |
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Last, but not least, I placed the pot onto a large saucer that would keep the rooting medium moist. Pot and saucer are now waiting for nature to take its course with the extra addition of some bottom heat provided by a simple lamp-operated heat box. |
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Talk to me in the fall about this experiment, and I should by then know of its success or ... |