About a month and a half ago I air layered a 4 ft long branch on my favorite seedling and I already see some roots showing (arrows). (It is my first attempt at air layering.) How long should I wait before severing the branch from the tree?
I went ahead and cut it about a week after posting, after watching some YouTube videos from Peter Chan about how to handle airlayered maples. After separating it I put it in a pot with more sphagnum moss, placed the pot in a tray with water and secured the tree so it doesn’t move too much when winds are strong. Left it like that for 3 weeks. Today I took it out and planted it into a larger pot with soil from the yard to fill the space below and around the sphagnum moss. Roots have exploded in growth for the three weeks in sphagnum (last picture). The air layering on the right is from another seedling, but since it was very close to the ground, I just cut a plastic pot, filled it with soil and tied it with wire. Surrounded it with stones so it doesn’t move. It was done at the same time (beginning of June). I cut it today and potted it up the same way. I didn’t use rooting hormone for either air layering. It appears to work just fine without it.
That is some serious root growth!! I've currently got three air layers in place on a very mature Sango kaku, and two on a pretty old Osakazuki at work. Only one showing roots so far but fingers crossed!
