Have you ever air - layered?

coolhull

I'm interested it trying out air-layering a few young-ish shrubs and decorative trees. I've looked it up and they say to put a bag of damp compost over a 'wounded' part of a young branch about a third of the way down. All sounds simple enough, but the problem is.... How do I get the plastic bag of compost down over the top of the branch without damaging or breaking the upper leaves/ stems?
Have you any tips? I probably haven't explained the problem too well, but hopefully you know what I mean.
A photo or two would be very helpful if possible.

Latro

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qviLRmiqrs8

coolhull

Thanks for the link, Latro. I particularly like the plastic bottle option. I would never have thought of that!

_Brian

I tried with low growing branches.
Cut an x across the bottom of a 2l pot a plant had come in.
Slit it down across the branch I wanted.
Filled with compost. Put a stake through to keep it pinned to the ground.

Did this in autumn and by following autumn I could cut branch below pot and had a new cutting to plant on.

Actually - reading that it's not really air layering !!

coolhull

_Brian wrote: »

I tried with low growing branches.
Cut an x across the bottom of a 2l pot a plant had come in.
Slit it down across the branch I wanted.
Filled with compost. Put a stake through to keep it pinned to the ground.

Did this in autumn and by following autumn I could cut branch below pot and had a new cutting to plant on.

Actually - reading that it's not really air layering !!

No, that's usually called ground -layering! Works well if the branches are close enough to the ground to take root. Either a pin of some sort or even a heavy stone should hold it down