Air Layering now, terrible idea?

Good day,

I have a Acer P Bloodgood i bought from a nursery. Its that time of year when everything is 50% off.
I repotted from the nursery pot into a training box.
There are a few extremely long branches (I would only try to air layer 1 at a time) way out of proportion for the tree. I would hate to whack them off since they are nice healthy branches and not try to use them for something else. Should I begin an air layer now? Wait till the leaves drop and tree goes dormant? Wait till spring when it starts to bud again?

I read a lot of threads and post that answered when the "best time" is. But is it a terrible idea to do it now?
Is there even an advantage to doing now as opposed to spring time?

Thank you for everyone's wealth of knowledge. Also willingness and patience to pass that knowledge on.

C. S. Budzi

CSBudzi wrote:Is there even an advantage to doing now as opposed to spring time?

None that I know of.

Note...no leaves = no root growth (on airlayer). Even if you get some roots, it will most likely freeze to death being up high un-insulated. Wait until you have leaves (not just buds), then airlayer.

Hey man, I know the feeling of not wanting to waste any decent branch of your trees.
I also try to airlayer potential bonsai's as well.

Anyhow, it is widely recommended that you apply airlayers during early spring, as all the stored energy in the roots are already
migrating towards the swelling buds. And once the leaves pop and harden they will send the required sugars and such to the wound
which would propogate roots.

However with saying that, I am in the southern hemisphere and i airlayered 2 japanese maples during our autumn, but before leaf fall.
I left it on over the winter with no additional protection from the cold, which got to around a minimum of -4 degrees celcius.
And they did successfully grow roots and I just removed one of them 2 weeks ago and it seems to be growing strong.

So, yes you could do it right now. But you may have to protect them from the cold, depending on how cold it gets.

I didn't consider much the insulation. That's a really good point. Thanks for the advice. I've also read that after a repotting its good to wait a whole season/year before air layering to make sure tree is really well established especially coming from crappy nursery pot and soil. Is that true? If so should I wait till late spring and prune then bury the branch in soil and try doing a cutting instead?
Everyone on this forum is great. You guys are so helpful, and so quick to reply. Thanks again everyone.

Your goal should be to have a healthy tree always.

Styling and propagation is secondary so the answer is yes if the tree is stressed. If it is healthy then you don't have to wait but it is always better to err on the side of caution.

To a tree, having an airlayer is like you or me having a roommate who used to pay his/her share then decided to just keep all his/her earnings but continue to feed of you and occupy the same space.

hi,

one acer bloodgood will be more than enough ! so I would just cut the branches off, get on with styling and learning from the material and save airlayering for making bonsai from well shaped and aged branches you find on mature material trees.

I say this because they have big leaves, very long petiols and nodes and thick twigs so are a difficult tree to make a bonsai in scale unless you plan a very large tree. I would concentrate on one, make it a large one and not worry about propogating from material that will fail to satisfy in future years.

just an alternative view to the others

cheers Marcus

I would wait until I knew the tree was healthy and adjusted to the repotting. Around here the 50% off trees are sometimes neglected a bit as the end of year stock doesn't get the attention it would have received in june. I know that sometimes at the local discount store nursery the guy who has to water doesn't always want to go out when it is 90 F to water and the neglect stresses the plants a great deal. From my limited experience my best success was after complete leaf out as seasonal growth begins. I have never had success on layers started after memorial day in my zone.

Poink88 wrote:Your goal should be to have a healthy tree always.

Styling and propagation is secondary so the answer is yes if the tree is stressed. If it is healthy then you don't have to wait but it is always better to err on the side of caution.

To a tree, having an airlayer is like you or me having a roommate who used to pay his/her share then decided to just keep all his/her earnings but continue to feed of you and occupy the same space.

Hahaha! Been there with the roommates before. Nicely put.

one acer bloodgood will be more than enough ! so I would just cut the branches off, get on with styling and learning from the material and save airlayering for making bonsai from well shaped and aged branches you find on mature material trees.

That makes a lot of sense.
It's a shame though because the branch I want to airlayer would almost be the same size of the remaining tree in height.

I would wait until I knew the tree was healthy and adjusted to the repotting. Around here the 50% off trees are sometimes neglected a bit as the end of year stock doesn't get the attention it would have received in june. I know that sometimes at the local discount store nursery the guy who has to water doesn't always want to go out when it is 90 F to water and the neglect stresses the plants a great deal. From my limited experience my best success was after complete leaf out as seasonal growth begins. I have never had success on layers started after memorial day in my zone.

This was the case here. Brown curling tips. not enough water, etc. 50% off. But had quite a few new shoots and new healthy beautiful leaves and good trunk structure, so I took a gamble. I'm brand new at this so i figured worst case scenario i learn a $20 lesson. When i repotted it pleasant surprise lots of fine feeder roots! I was expecting a mess of long circling roots in there.