Air-layering a Ficus - Making 4 trees from 1
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- čas přidán 5. 09. 2024
- My 30-year-old Ficus benjamina is overgrown and the original variegated plant has reverted to regular growth at the top that is taking over. I'm air-layering sections in preparation for pruning this spring when it goes back outside. This lets me get new trees from parts of the tree that I would otherwise just prune off and throw away.
I started 3 air layers on a ficus microcarpa using this method today. It's mid autumn so fingers crossed!
Good luck. It is less likely to work when the tree isn't growing fast (like in autumn), but even so you can probably just leave the layer on until next spring if you don't see roots by winter. Keep us posted.
did it root?
@@moro8274 yes it did, I checked it early spring and it had put out roots. Winter was mild though, no freeze..
Cutting the bark doesn’t starve the plant above the cut. It prevents the Downflow to roots. This spawns the branch to root in the wet spag.
Don't you use rooting hormone ?
I don't find any need to with ficus. I only use rooting hormone for harder to root species.
Any alternatives for sphagnum moss? Can we just put potting mix ?
Overall I find sphagnum moss to be the best at generating roots quickly, but you can certainly be successful with a good potting mix. I've done it with my fruiting fig rees. The great thing about air layering is that the part you are rooting is kept alive by the tree so if it takes a little longer it is okay vs. rooting a cutting where you are in a race to get it to root before the cutting dies. I will do an update of the air layers in this video soon. All three air layers are showing roots and one, in particular, is just packed with new roots.
@@GardeningwithZiggy Thank you for the elaborate answer 👍 ..will get the moss added. And yeah! super excited to see the updates :)
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Here is part 2 where you can see the results czcams.com/video/9sET_dmnimA/video.html