RE: Air Layering

Well Jim... now that is interesting!

You are saying that even after time in the ground, something that was
'air layered' will never get a tap root? How in the world can they
survive for any length of time without one?

I have to admit I know nothing about air layering other than a 1/2 hour
special that included some highlights among other things. Not enough
info to really understand the process or how it worked.

I am majorly confused here. ... nothing new:)

Donna
Hum... must of us got here.... like some of us didn't? LOL!

> I've done some air layering, Jesse, but not a lot. It is the way most
> litchis, macadamia nuts, and rubber plants [Ficus elastica], and, I'm
> sure, many other plants are usually propagated. The Royal Horticulture
> Society's propagation book [AHS published it as "Plant Propagation"]
> has very good instructions in how to air layer stuff.
> 
> The one disadvantage to air layering [verses propagation by seed or by
> grafting scion wood onto a seedling] is that the air layered clones
> will not produce tap roots. Most of the commercial litchi orchards in
> south Florida were simply blown away by hurricane Andrew because the
> trees had no tap roots.
> 
> I think the general rule is that any plant that can be propagated by
> cuttings, can also be air layered, but there are other plants--the
> afore-mentioned macadamias and rubber plants--that do not [or only
> rarely] respond as cuttings. Cuttings have the same no-tap-root
problem
> that air layers have but generally they are easier to propagate and
> require a whole lot less time to do so. I usually try cuttings first;
> then air layering; then seedling and grafting [provided, of course, I
> have seedlings and access to scion wood].
> 
> Sometimes I do just seedlings. "Just seedlings" is always a crap
shoot,
> but sometimes it's fun to see what sexual reproduction has cooked up
> for you. I mean, hey, that's how most of us got here!

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