North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[rmelrose@danvilleVT.net]

Thanks Lon and Hans. I was thinking of this foil approach as a little
easier than traditional airlayering as you describe -- which I have done
long ago with houseplants. My problem is always time, and I thought that
wrappying ten branches in foil in late winter (which as I remember is the
suggested approach) would not take long! As I recall, injury and/or girdling
were not suggested as part of the idea, just that the exclusion of light
eventually induces a tendency to root. Of course it would be a full year
between start and rooted cutting.

Richard

> From: "Lon J. Rombough" <lonrom@hevanet.com>
> Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Layering not
> To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>,
>       rmelrose@danvilleVT.net
> Message-ID: <6c3ef1b673dbf67e423558edf836c890@hevanet.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
> 
> Years ago there was product sold that looked like very heavy black 
> rubber tape with grains of coarse sand on the outside.  You were 
> supposed to remove a ring of bark from a shoot and wrap the girdled 
> area with the tape.  After a few months there was a large callus under 
> the tape and you cut off the shoot just below that and planted it.  The 
> callus would produce roots very quickly and grow.  I had some and used 
> it on a number of plants, some of which are still growing here after 
> nearly 40 years.  However, none of what I used the tape on was 
> especially hard to root from cuttings, so I don't know if it was really 
> effective or not.
> The actual method you are describing sounds like a modification of air 
> layering.  Air layering was a method used before grafting was common to 
> reproduce favorite apple and pear trees, and it certainly would work on 
> quince.  In those times a clay pot was used.  A shoot was fed through 
> the drainage hole and cut or partly girdled, then the pot was filled 
> with soil.  The wound made callus and rooted more readily so that by 
> the end of the season the shoot was rooted and could be cut loose as a 
> small potted tree.
> -Lon Rombough
> Grapes, writing, consulting, my book, The Grape Grower, at 
> http://www.bunchgrapes.com  Winner of the Garden Writers Association 
> "Best Talent in Writing" award for 2003.
> For even more grape lessons, go to  http://www.grapeschool.com
> For growing supplies and more;  http://www.grapegrowersolutions.com
> 
> On Feb 1, 2007, at 6:58 AM, rmelrose@danvilleVT.net wrote:
> 
> I have a `have you ever tried' question. Somewhere, unfortunately I do 
> not
> remember where, I read about a modified layering technique. Basically 
> the
> claim was that if one wraps a small branch (I think preferably low 
> down) on
> a woody plant in foil for a season it (so light is excluded but so that 
> it
> does grow out of the tip) it tends to revert to a juvenile state and can
> then be rooted much more readily than a straight Fall hardwood cutting. 
> This
> certainly has a name which I have also forgotten.
> 
> As I say, has anyone actually tried this as a way to produce own-rooted
> trees? I was thinking of trying it on quinces -- as an alternative to
> grafting them.
> 
> Richard
> 
> 
> Message: 5
> Date: Thu, 01 Feb 2007 17:55:08 +0100
> From: Hans Brinkmann <hans-brinkmann@t-online.de>
> Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Layering not
> To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Message-ID: <45C21B6C.1040905@t-online.de>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
> 
> Hallo Richard,
> 
> let me just add two links to the very nice explanation.
> the second link has photos only.
> 
> http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/extension/ornamentals/airlayer/airlayer.html
> http://www.fug-verlag.de/on1575
> 
> I made this interesting method e.g. with. Cydonia (Quince), Acer, 
> Magnolia, Quercus, Wisteria.
> Anyhow not all cultivars! are possible. Cydonia is also different, up to 
> the variety.
> One major mistake is, to start too late in the year.. and only one trial...
> 
> ciao
> hans
>