What is air layering?

[Smokin Moose]

ITEMS NEEDED:
PLANT!
matchstick or toothpick
tape
razor blade
rooting hormone (Clonex)
tweezers
plastic wrap
scissors
pin

(1)Sterilize all tools before using them.

(2)Cut a branch that is at least 1/8 inch thick with at least two nodes.

(3)Select area from which roots will sprout. This area needs to be midway up the main stem, with enough room on each side of the cut to fasten the bag.

(4)Use the Razor Blade to make a 1-2" lengthwise incision along the stem. Cut all the way through the bark, to which the phloem is attached. Don't cut into the xylem, which is the layer under the bark.

(5) A ring of bark is removed from around the stem. The phloem and cambium are attached to the inside of the bark, so when the bark is removed the phloem is also removed. This leaves the central cylinder of xylem and upward water flow unaffected.

(6)Get clonex and apply it to the exposed xylem. For increased stability, you may tape a toothpick or matchstick parrallel to the stem.

(7)With thumb get some grow medium. (perlite, peatmoss, whatever) Pack the wound carefully with the soil.

(8)Attach plastic wrap below incision with tape. Tape the vertical seam where the ends meet. The effect of this should be a funnel shaped plastic wrap enclosure.

(9)Pack with grow medium. Be sure to leave enough "slack" at the top so that it may be taped to the stem above the incision.

(10)Fasten closed with tape.

(11)Use pin to create holes in around bag. This will allow soil to breath.

Use an eye dropper to keep the soil wet. Do this every day. After 2 weeks, your cutting will have roots and will be ready for propagation.

 

[Aardvark]

MMJ, I am unsure whether I understand this process, particularly the cutting & stripping part. Are you saying that there is 1-2 inches of bark removed all around the stalk? Or the other possibility was that the cut was supposed to only be a strip of unknown width. Is there a hydroponic equivalent to this method?

Thanks!

 

[Enr0n]

Attempting to see if anybody uses this technique. This thread has been dead for years and I am attempting to revive it for discussion.

This seems an interesting way of cloning a plant. Here again going back to my bonsai training I have air layered Japanese Maples and Chinese Elms so the technique is not foreign to me and I know that it will work.

I have plans to make a mother/daughter clone by air layering a limb. The advantage to this is that both plants will be on the same light cycle and the daughter theoretically has enough viable root system to continue the grow. Both plants will have recovery time so the procedure might prolong the grow.

I believe the daughter will have less overall bud weight but it probably would be more that if it were a branch.

 

[Koolbudz]

This seems like a more complicated way of scraping the stem, but many now say not too but when I did the roots grew from higher on the stem than just the cut, not all did this but may be due to uneven scraping or not enough... Either way I will just go with the 45 cut and call it good, lets the plant do what it do.

 

[Enr0n]

Fair enough at least I have 1 other person show showed interest.

Did the roots start in the covering and grew out or did they start outside of the covered area?

 

[Koolbudz]

I was just speaking of the skinning process, it seems to be for the same purpose, to allow the inner layer to do something (I forget the supposed science behind it or what it's called). We were told to lightly scratch about 1/2" of the stem top layer above the 45 cut, this you remove the entire top layer, just seems like too much work, would probably be better suited for woody stems rather than cannabis since cannabis flesh is very thin and the removal would be a pain

 

[Enr0n]

For other plants and trees the slicing of cambium (outer bark) to exposed the phloem a layer of cells) is required due to their tough bark. For a young limb on cannabis all you would have to do it scrape enough away with a clean razor blade.

Make sure to leave a strip of cambium (about 1/3 of the branch) to allow the plant to feed the branch. After that apply root powder/gel wrap in damp sphagnum moss cover with a piece of saran wrap making sure that the entire area is sealed and tie off with bread loaf ties or similar material.

Just a thought and a technique I am going to try.

 

[SEO Parasite]

ITEMS NEEDED:
PLANT!
matchstick or toothpick
tape
razor blade
rooting hormone (Clonex)
tweezers
plastic wrap
scissors
pin

(1)Sterilize all tools before using them.

(2)Cut a branch that is at least 1/8 inch thick with at least two nodes.

(3)Select area from which roots will sprout. This area needs to be midway up the main stem, with enough room on each side of the cut to fasten the bag.

(4)Use the Razor Blade to make a 1-2" lengthwise incision along the stem. Cut all the way through the bark, to which the phloem is attached. Don't cut into the xylem, which is the layer under the bark.

(5) A ring of bark is removed from around the stem. The phloem and cambium are attached to the inside of the bark, so when the bark is removed the phloem is also removed. This leaves the central cylinder of xylem and upward water flow unaffected.

(6)Get clonex and apply it to the exposed xylem. For increased stability, you may tape a toothpick or matchstick parrallel to the stem.

(7)With thumb get some grow medium. (perlite, peatmoss, whatever) Pack the wound carefully with the soil.

(8)Attach plastic wrap below incision with tape. Tape the vertical seam where the ends meet. The effect of this should be a funnel shaped plastic wrap enclosure.

(9)Pack with grow medium. Be sure to leave enough "slack" at the top so that it may be taped to the stem above the incision.

(10)Fasten closed with tape.

(11)Use pin to create holes in around bag. This will allow soil to breath.

Use an eye dropper to keep the soil wet. Do this every day. After 2 weeks, your cutting will have roots and will be ready for propagation.

I'm going to try this
After watching a few videos it's a really good way to start a cutting and establish a good root system.
Thank you

 

[Enr0n]

and please post your results and thoughts.

 

[Enjoil]

Fair enough at least I have 1 other person show showed interest.

Did the roots start in the covering and grew out or did they start outside of the covered area?

I’m going to experiment with this. I will let you know how it goes. Right now I have a ogkz that is air layering itself.

 

[Stunger]

Hey Enr0n, Thanks for reviving this thread.

I am not far way with starting this year's outdoor grow (I'm in the Southern Hemisphere). This year I wanted to make an attempt to reverse sex my girl/s and make some feminized seeds. I was going to try this by selectively target spraying a couple of branches of them with colloidal silver. I plan on growing 3 or 4 girls on my balcony. However someone recently suggested to take cuttings (I'll be topping the plants anyway so I can use those) and grow out the cuttings and then attempt to reverse the cuttings to use them as female pollen donors to the main girls, which makes good sense. I am not quite clear on the scrapping or removing of the layer from end of the cuttings, but I will go search for some pictures/clips to be sure. I guess the plastic wrap is to keep the moisture for where the roots will hopefully grow from. Would you keep the whole cutting in a humidity dome of sorts too?

 

[Enr0n]

You are going to let the branch remain on the plant until you see signs of root right? The plant looks healthy enough and appears to have growth attempting to root more.

For other plants and trees the slicing of cambium (outer bark) to exposed the phloem a layer of cells) is required due to their tough bark. For a young limb on cannabis all you would have to do it scrape enough away with a clean razor blade.

Make sure to leave a strip of cambium (about 1/3 of the branch) to allow the plant to feed the branch. After that apply root powder/gel wrap in damp sphagnum moss cover with a piece of saran wrap making sure that the entire area is sealed and tie off with bread loaf ties or similar material.

Just a thought and a technique I am going to try.

I don't know where you are planning on making the roots and clone but the application is the same wherever you choose to do it. For a reference on how to make the cuts I did some amateur coloring on your photo. The green area is the area you want to remove leaving a strip of bark so the plant can continue providing nutes to the branch.
Air layering Bonsai would be a good search phrase.

 

[Kodiak420]

Hey Enr0n, Thanks for reviving this thread.

I am not far way with starting this year's outdoor grow (I'm in the Southern Hemisphere). This year I wanted to make an attempt to reverse sex my girl/s and make some feminized seeds. I was going to try this by selectively target spraying a couple of branches of them with colloidal silver. I plan on growing 3 or 4 girls on my balcony. However someone recently suggested to take cuttings (I'll be topping the plants anyway so I can use those) and grow out the cuttings and then attempt to reverse the cuttings to use them as female pollen donors to the main girls, which makes good sense. I am not quite clear on the scrapping or removing of the layer from end of the cuttings, but I will go search for some pictures/clips to be sure. I guess the plastic wrap is to keep the moisture for where the roots will hopefully grow from. Would you keep the whole cutting in a humidity dome of sorts too?

Very cool idea, I'd definitely like to watch how that would play out.

 

[Enr0n]

@Enjoil
@Stunger
@Kodiak420

Started and air layer on a lower stem today. It is on my plant I am going to make into a mother and trying that technique to make clones. Feeling lazy so here is a link to the post in my journal. Mother of Gold

It's 420

 

[Stunger]

That's really great Enr0n, love to watch how it goes, thanks!

 

[Weaselcracker]

I tried it once on a plant when I was having cloning issues. Wrapped a bunch of rockwool around the stem and kept it damp for a couple weeks. It worked alright though it was a bit of a pita, but then the way I was doing it was probably sort of hokey.

Air layering

• Weaselcracker
• Apr 22, 2019

 

[Enr0n]

Hey at least you learned something so it wasn't a total wash.

 

[Enjoil]

I tried it once on a plant when I was having cloning issues. Wrapped a bunch of rockwool around the stem and kept it damp for a couple weeks. It worked alright though it was a bit of a pita, but then the way I was doing it was probably sort of hokey.

Air layering

• Weaselcracker
• Apr 22, 2019

Sweet bro! Hey I have a flowering house plant that spits roots out it’s branches sometimes. I just gave a few away to a buddy cuz he got a new place. Did you use rooting gel or just wet rock wool? I nice work bro!

 

[Enjoil]

Sweet bro! Hey I have a flowering house plant that spits roots out it’s branches sometimes. I just gave a few away to a buddy cuz he got a new place. Did you use rooting gel or just wet rock wool? I nice work bro!

I had twins! I made some beans and the dirt one I Popped was twins!

 

[greenjeans]

Interesting thread!! I tried this and only had success of 1 out of 4. Didn't follow all the tricks mentioned here but still not a very good try for me but I also have not had a lot of success with regular rooting either.