Air Layering Bonsai Trees

Air layering will allow me to reduce the size of the tree and create a new leader to produce the taper required.

Air layering bonsai trees. Air layering works best when the roots have the summer growing season to form. This means you can use air layering for several purposes. For deciduous trees air layering should be carried out in late spring just as the new leaf growth is beginning to harden off. Choose a branch from last season s growth that s thicker than a pencil.

Layering shares some things in common with rooting cuttings but had a more complicated process. Air layering is used in bonsai design as a technique to improve the quality of the bonsai tree. Look for branches that point up and are at. With any luck i will also get a second tree off the top.

Sometimes a long trunk is shortened or a new prebonsai is won. Exposing the wood 1. The concept of layering is to force a tree or branch to form new roots at a certain point by interrupting the stream of nutrients from the existing root system. Remove the foliage and twigs 3 inches 7 6.

Air layering is a propagation method dating back over 2 000 years. Layering is often done when a portion of a branch or a trunk is desirable for bonsai but the rest of the plant may not be. Air layering can be used to shorten a trunk and create a new root spread. There is no real taper to the trunk and not enough branches to work with.

A bad root basis or a malformation of the trunk is more often corrected by air layering. It will also stimulate dormant buds low down on the tree giving me more branches to work with. Evergreens should be left until a little later.