Forsythia airlayer semi failing

[colley614]

Hi Everyone,

I started an air layer on a forsythia last spring. All through spring and summer it seemed to really struggle. I removed the airlayer every month or so to check the sphagnum was damp and misted. Then at the beginning of autumn it started to push a little root from one side.

I had give up on the idea of the layer surviving so when it did push root I decided to go for broke and removed the layer from the tree. I planted it in some bonsai soil and started to foliar spray the few leaves it had with rhizotonic.

I've been and checked on it today and it appears that half the trunk is dead with a live vein up one side alive. The two long branches on the tree are still alive. But with the half the trunk dead I'm unsure of its success as a potential bonsai as I've read that forsythia tend to rot pretty quickly.

Has anyone got any advice on how to give the tree some intensive care and what I can potentially do once it recovers with regards to styling a mostly dead forsythia?

 

[sorce]

. I removed the airlayer every month or so

What does this mean?

Pics!

Sorce

 

[penumbra]

Honestly, forsythia has such soft pithy wood that it is useless as a deadwood feature. It is very likely, almost certain, it will rot and I would trash it. Was this a large air layer? I wonder this because it is just about the worlds easiest plant to root. Any reasonable cutting taken in spring and simply placed is a glass of water will root. It alaso makes a terrible bonsai.

 

[colley614]

What does this mean?

Pics!

Sorce

It was meant to read I removed the bag around the airlayer to check the sphagnum moss.

 

[colley614]

Honestly, forsythia has such soft pithy wood that it is useless as a deadwood feature. It is very likely, almost certain, it will rot and I would trash it. Was this a large air layer? I wonder this because it is just about the worlds easiest plant to root. Any reasonable cutting taken in spring and simply placed is a glass of water will root. It alaso makes a terrible bonsai.

It was a rather large airlayer probably about 6-8cm thick and about 2 metres long. I think the section I airlayered wasn't doing very well before I put the airlayer on.

 

[sorce]

It was meant to read I removed the bag around the airlayer to check the sphagnum moss.

Ok.

I have been on a kick lately of being aware of "cross talk" and how this cycle of communication actually effects the work we do and how our work effects the cycle.

Regularly, with a healthy top to layer, I'd bet you'd have roots full within one month. With a properly cut ring bark. (Pics?)

With an unhealthy top, it would make sense that the layer, properly cut, takes a bit longer.

Which brings me to what I believe the problem actually could be, simply removing the pressure from around the rooting part.

It takes a lot of cross talk between the top and the roots/futureroots to decide whether or not they will invest energy into our layer adventures. This includes "feeling" the place they will grow roots at. So changing that pressure there will start a new cycle of cross talk, figuring out whether our not that energy should still be invested.

So you end up sending 99 yes's up the cross talk, then that one no.

A healthy top would better ignore the no.

Sorce

 

[defra]

Honestly, forsythia has such soft pithy wood that it is useless as a deadwood feature. It is very likely, almost certain, it will rot and I would trash it. Was this a large air layer? I wonder this because it is just about the worlds easiest plant to root. Any reasonable cutting taken in spring and simply placed is a glass of water will root. It alaso makes a terrible bonsai.

Hmm.
I have this big fat forsythia trunk in my front yard and there is this big shari on the trunk.
Its been like that over 10 years and its rock hard wood that apears not to decay at all ...