Air layering substrate and container

[SeanS]

If you use chopped sphagnum it comes out very easily.

I do use chopped sphagnum, but some of my layers have produced so much new footage it was stuck deep within the new rootball

 

[Lorax7]

Until you separate the air-layer, the media plays no role except to keep the emerging roots moist (not wet) and allow access to oxygen. It is probably best to use a sterile media like perlite or pumice, or else sterile media with peat or sphagnum, which has anti-fungal properties. I have used sphagnum in the past, and it definitely works, but it is a terror to try to remove it from the young roots when you go to separate the air-layer. It can be done... but it is definitely a job for tweezers.

Note that you definitely want to avoid potting soil, or any overly organic mix.

Is it essential to remove the sphagnum before potting the harvested layer? Or can you just put that whole ball of fragile new roots and sphagnum into a pot with a suitable bonsai substrate and just remove the sphagnum at the next repotting when the roots are a bit more robust and you don't have to be quite so careful with them? I've previously done a few air layers with bonsai medium instead of sphagnum and didn't have a very high success rate, so I used sphagnum for all of the air layers that I started this spring, hoping to get a better yield.

 

[leatherback]

Or can you just put that whole ball of fragile new roots and sphagnum into a pot with a suitable bonsai substrate and just remove the sphagnum at the next repotting when the roots are a bit more robust and you don't have to be quite so careful with them?

This is the most common recommendation. Just be aware that it will typically stay wetter than the rest of the medium

 

[Henryparson]

Until you separate the air-layer, the media plays no role except to keep the emerging roots moist (not wet) and allow access to oxygen. It is probably best to use a sterile media like perlite or pumice, or else sterile media with peat or sphagnum, which has anti-fungal properties. I have used sphagnum in the past, and it definitely works, but it is a terror to try to remove it from the young roots when you go to separate the air-layer. It can be done... but it is definitely a job for tweezers.

Note that you definitely want to avoid potting soil, or any overly organic mix.

I've a question. MY air layer on my Trident Maple failed and I imagine i left some cambium as its my first air layer fail. Can I use the same area again and gently remove the surface with blade, hormone powder and do over?

 

[bwaynef]

I've a question. MY air layer on my Trident Maple failed and I imagine i left some cambium as its my first air layer fail. Can I use the same area again and gently remove the surface with blade, hormone powder and do over?

Yes. Some folks recommend an alcohol swab to help kill off the cambium. I've never used it.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

This is the most common recommendation. Just be aware that it will typically stay wetter than the rest of the medium

+1 Remove what you can without damaging the roots, and then pot up the rest. The sphagnum will rot eventually.