Air Layer Success!

About 3-4 weeks ago I set about a dozen air layers on several of my fig trees. Well, some of them are ready to be removed from their mother trees and potted up! Air layering is a fantastic way to produce clones of your successful fig trees. It is very easy to do. I will put out another video sometime in next week or so showing how simple it is to set up air layers. The day I set these it was raining so I didn’t get any video. Air layering is a great way to duplicate productive plants. You can keep those plants as duplicates, give them to friends or relatives, trade them with other growers for varieties you don’t have, or even sell them!
In this video I show a Paradiso Bronze tree that I have. It’s an Adriatic type fig - green on the outside, red on the inside. There are a number of Paradiso cultivars out there and the “Bronze” in Paradiso Bronze is actually a cultivar identifier. It’s misleading because one might think it is describing the color of the fig, but in this case, it is describing the color of little flecks of color on the green fig (they start white and turn bronze as the fig ripens). Ross the Fig Boss has a great blog article describing the various Paradiso cultivars. I have a link to that article below.
Once I remove the air layers from the mother tree, I pot them up with my potting mix, water them, and place them in the shade. Even though they have been in full sun, I will baby them a little to ease the transition to life “on their own”. The other thing that needs to be done is to remove the couple of figs from the air layers. I hate doing it, but I just keep telling myself to think of the long game. I want the plants to focus on roots and green growth, not wasting their energy on fruit production. After a week or two in the shade (longer if I think they are struggling) I will start to transition back into the sunlight.
That is it! It’s not rocket science. I don’t have tons of experience with air layers, but I will try anything once (or several times because I can be a little hard headed!). If I can do this, so can you! I promise!!! There are a TON of videos on CZcams about air layering figs. I girdled the branches I air layered, used rooting hormone, used Orchid Moss Potting Mix as my rooting medium, and rooting balls. The Orchid Mix and Rooting Balls came from Amazon. Then just leave them alone! Don’t be messing around with them checking on them every other day. Spring is the best time to do this but as long as the sap (or latex) is flowing in the trees you can air layer. Later in the summer you will have to know your growing zone and frost dates. For example, you don’t want to set an air layer in mid-September if your frost date is mid-October. There are some growers who over-winter big air layers so they will take off in the spring, but that is probably not practical for hobbyists and backyard growers.
Share your experiences air layering figs in the comments. If you have any additional questions, post those too. If the video helped you at all, or motivated you to try air layering, be sure to hit the LIKE button! If you really enjoy this content, SUBSCRIBE to my channel and smash the 🔔 so you can be notified whenever I post new content.
Ross the Fig Boss article about Paradiso Fig: www.figboss.co...
18 Pack Tree Root Growing Box from Amazon
Lanccona Premium Dried Moss from Amazon
Clonex Rooting Gel

[@muhammadsharif2878]

Thanks for sharing and good hobby.

[@littlebexarfarm]

Awesome video! Great info!