Dogwood Airlayer Attempt it can't be harder than sweetgum 😁

[Darth Masiah]

i cut extra deep with my saw and then went back over the cut with the razor. stripped it down really aggressively, too. threw some Clonex on the cut and wrapped it with fresh collected moss from nearby dipped in Recharge.
4/21/21

 

[Darth Masiah]

7/1/21
looks promising

 

[Perrywinkle]

How's it doing? Don't see Cornus florida used much in bonsai.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Cornus florida does get used occasionally as bonsai. Bill Valavanis has, or had a couple different specimens at one time. One was fairly tree like, with a wide mass of foliage. Another was tall and very literati like, relatively few branches, made a very elegant statement in bloom. But you are right, you don't see them often.

 

[Darth Masiah]

still just callus

 

[hinmo24t]

i have propped multiple kousa dogwood from cutting. saplings grow well i collected. never tried air layer but that callous might root if you plant it up.
not positive with how much time before freeze. dogwoods have been one of easier trees to grow for a few seasons for me.
i have 3 rooted cuttings, two on their second year, and my larger one i got off craigslist backbudded everywhere during a hardcut and got dense too.



good luck with yours, theyre one of my favorites

 

[Darth Masiah]

i have propped multiple kousa dogwood from cutting. saplings grow well i collected. never tried air layer but that callous might root if you plant it up.
not positive with how much time before freeze. dogwoods have been one of easier trees to grow for a few seasons for me.
i have 3 rooted cuttings, two on their second year, and my larger one i got off craigslist backbudded everywhere during a hardcut and got dense too.

cool. I'll have to try some cuttings, too. what time of year did you strike them?

 

[hinmo24t]

the cuttings were struck in early summer or late spring and then put in their own 4" pots mid summer and have continued
to grow

i think i put a few cuttings into other plant's pots and possibly stayed there until following spring then
separated them to their own pots


the cornus florida is the pink/white version of the white 'flower' ones i consider or reference as Kousa, love the ones with pink/white flowers that youre attempting, and in the south, maybe you have different time to play with these than me. our freeze is in like 6 weeks

those kousa/white flower ones are what i work on



ride along sapling been seperated from this pot, and the main tree is thriving

 

[WNC Bonsai]

I suggest you remove the moss and check for any bridges, scrape them if necessary, reapply rooting hormone and put it all back together. I had to do that with my zelkovas this year and they rooted right away after the followup treatment. Also 2 years ago I tried a couple of hawthornes and they took 2 years to form roots, but still failed adter beong separated. So make sure you get a really good set of roots before removing the layer.

 

[Darth Masiah]

I suggest you remove the moss and check for any bridges, scrape them if necessary, reapply rooting hormone and put it all back together. I had to do that with my zelkovas this year and they rooted right away after the followup treatment.

i was thinking of doing just that. frost usually hits the 1st week of November, so i have plenty of time.

 

[WNC Bonsai]

I don’t know whether it is better to remove a layer that late or leave it over the winter. On the hawthorns I left them for 2 years and ended up pulling them in September. They both pushed new growth last spring then one died and the other held on for a couple of months then it collapsed and died. The autopsy showed not enough roots to support them so I guess I should have left them into the third year to get more roots. So don’t be afraid to leave the plastic in place if they don’t have a mess of roots.

 

[Darth Masiah]

well, it popped one root out I'll cut it off later.
here's after slicing through the bottom of the callus.
doesn't look like it bridged. it definitely swelled out waaaaay past the original trunk line underneath



put some more rooting hormone and bagged it up. you can see new shoots starting to come off the stump below.

 

[Darth Masiah]

i love the white cornus bracts, which apparently is about all you get when starting from seed. sounds perfect to me
24hr soak

the drupes from my work woods were falling off the trees just like the ones at my house, but look a bit different. probably weren't really ready, but we'll see.




only time will tell if these Japanese dogwood are really the smaller variety native to japan and if the Chinese dogwood is really chinensis.

 

[Darth Masiah]

the cornus florida (work woods) had a lot of tails out, along wth a few of the jbp, so i went ahead dumped them outside.

 

[Crazy Diamond]

You put them in acid? I think they need acid scarification to germimate well

 

[Darth Masiah]

You put them in acid? I think they need acid scarification to germimate well

I've seen mention of this animal gut substitute, but not in conjunction with cornus seed propagation. probably missed it. after the hot water soak, i filled the tubs with sand and stuck them in the fridge, so they got a good 5 and 1/2 month winter for this attempt. we'll see what happens.

 

[Gabler]

You put them in acid? I think they need acid scarification to germimate well

What kind of acid? Vinegar?

 

[Crazy Diamond]

What kind of acid? Vinegar?

usually diluted hydrochloric acid or sulfuric acid, to imitate the pass through birds or other animals stomach

 

[Darth Masiah]

i was in a hurry and forgot to take a pic of the callus, but it's definitely bigger and starting to look like it's going to push some roots. the muddy moss was too compact and smelly, so i rigged up some mostly coco coir/perlite mix for a little more aeration but still moisture retentive. we might out strafe this dogfaced cornus soldier, yet

 

[Darth Masiah]

i saw bonsai shinshi use an epoxy putty to fill a big chop scar and figured it'd be perfect to protect the underside of airlayered species that were slow to callus like oaks. would the water weld be overkill for under the trunk?