Air layer beech didn't go as planned

[Cable]

In late May I did an air-layer on a tri-color beech. Today I checked on it and it doesn't look that great. Huge callous on the top but certainly not what I was expecting. I think I see some roots starting but can't be sure. At this point I'm thinking I leave it alone over the winter and see what spring brings.

 

[just.wing.it]

Beech?
Funny looking bark.

 

[papymandarin]

not unusual with beeches to need two years for a layer to be successful, in spring cut the bottom half of the callous and let the layer another year

 

[Cable]

not unusual with beeches to need two years for a layer to be successful, in spring cut the bottom half of the callous and let the layer another year

What does cutting the callous do?

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Callus in this state is just reproducing and producing more callous tissue. When you cut it, parts of it want to heal and go into conversion mode, those patches will be able to produce roots.
Callous tissue has serious issues with forming veins and other transport channels. By removing pieces, you give the plant a chance to retry.
If this would have been mine, I would have removed all the callous tissue. But that's a personal experiment I wouldn't want others to try.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

If this would have been mine, I would have removed all the callous tissue. But that's a personal experiment I wouldn't want others to try.

If a tree that I owned had developed this much callous without forming roots, I would wait for the appropriate time of year (spring) and remove all of the callous, recut the edge of the girdle, and try again.

I do not have any experience with "two year" air-layer attempts, so perhaps this is not the best approach with beech(?)

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

If this amount of callus freezes, it will break up, tear, and start decomposing before spring arrives.
I did some experiments with vegetable callus tissue and low temperatures. As soon as it starts to look glassy and sand-grain-like (by lack of a better word) it's just callus copying itself and multiplying. That's an infection waiting to happen. Since there's not much vascular tissue and not a lot of cell-to-cell signaling, any infection could spread rapidly.

White and solid callus has potential, the stuff in the pic could even be inhibitory to root formation: it's pushing cytokinins instead of auxins, that's why the callus is producing more of itself. If it behaves like any other plant callus tissue gone berserk, it should be very brittle right now. Most likely, the "bad" pieces will easily fall of when some pressure is applied. Cleaning that up a little could(!) be sufficient. Air exposure could help a little, shutting down some extreme copying processes that are going on here.

Is there a way to prevent this in the future? No. It just happens. Unless you've been spraying cytokinins, but that would be weird to do with an air layer.

 

[JudyB]

Is this on a container tree, or a tree in the ground? Just wondering as if it's a container tree, you may be able to protect it over the winter and the recommendations may be differing dependent on that.

 

[Cable]

It's a tree in the ground, @JudyB.

I'll take another look at it when I get a chance. The little tendrils I thought were roots were coming from the callous. You can see them in the third pic.

 

[Dav4]

If this were in my yard, I'd take a sharp knife and cut the bottom off of that mass of callus, apply rooting hormone, rewrap, and check again in early October... you might be surprised by what you find.


...and make sure there's no way the swelling callus will allow the layer to be bridged...

 

[JudyB]

Since it's an in ground tree, I fear that restarting it now may not work in our climate. Depends on how important this is to experiment with this late in the season.

 

[Cable]

So, guys, I got bored and decided to remove the callous. IT WAS FRIGGIN PINK!



Seriously, what the hell?

I used a knob cutter to remove the callous and it looked to me like it was bridging anyway. I wrapped it in fresh moss for safekeeping and I'll try again in the spring. Weird.

 

[JudyB]

Maybe that pink stuff would make it's own alien plant if you stick it in the ground. That's almost creepy!