Air Layering

Hello everyone,

I'm not sure if this post belongs here, but it will be in a journal type format. I'm getting ready to go into flower in a couple weeks and decided i'm going to give it a go. I will be doing this on 2 plants and if it doesn't go well ill just take more clones the common way before the flip. The plants are Gorilla Glue #4 and White Widow.

I decided to prep materials before cutting any leaves off the plant. Most of the information I see on the topic recommends anything from peat moss to straight soil, and aluminum foil to sandwich bags. I took a rockwool cube and cut it into 4. I soaked this in a mix of Calmag/Liquid Seaweed/GH Rapidstart - 350ppm/pH 5.9. I took a small piece of aluminum foil, put some FFOF soil with a little Mykos, and put the rockwool cube in the middle.

Since i've never done this before, I decided to go for the bottom shoot on both plants in case they didn't make it. I started off by clearing the branch the first 2 or 3 inches away from the main stem. It worked out well that there was 2 nodes forming right by the main stem. Then scraped about an inch of the stem with pruning scissors until the green skin started to come off revealing the white interior. Applied a heavy dose of CloneX, and wrapped the foil/rockwool concoction around the bare stem. I watered it until saturation with the same mix in paragraph 2, and then compressed the foil at each end to secure everything.

I'm hoping to see roots and transplant by Sunday, but we will see. Feel free to post here if interested, I don't see a lot of people talking about this.

I think it will take a little more than 4 days to see roots. While I applaud your efforts and can say with past experience with air layering citrus trees, it does take time to do.

Its neat to see roots grow from branches

blake9999 said:

I think it will take a little more than 4 days to see roots. While I applaud your efforts and can say with past experience with air layering citrus trees, it does take time to do.

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I'm overly optimistic for the first effort. I travel for work very frequently and am leaving Monday morning, that's why I am hoping for the 4 days. If they aren't ready then I can have my wife do the transplant but I would rather do it myself.

What kind of trees have you done? I see this is very common with fruit trees and bonsai. How long did it take for yours to root?

I did two Mandrin tree cuttings from one of my trees a few years ago. Took two months to see roots develop.

I could see a real woody branch taking longer then a mj branch though

Cold$moke said:

I could see a real woody branch taking longer then a mj branch though

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Yeah... but four days? come on.

Yeah they have much longer lifespan as well. I have seen from other mj air layering journals anywhere from 3 days to 2 weeks. There are many variables here. I dont think it would hurt it too bad to transplant before its showing roots but the right way to do it is to wait. I'm not in a rush, just optimistic

I;d say give it a week to a week and a half then hope for the best.

blake9999 said:

Yeah... but four days? come on.

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I didnt say four days
id say 2 weeks more or less

I have decided that to make this more interesting and overall better experiment I need to compare them to other clones. I took 1 clone each from the bottom branch of the other 2 plants in the tent (same strains). I have them in a humidity dome in rockwool cubes now soaked with the same mix, just at 5.0ph. Also they are under 23w CFL in a separate tent.

The cuttings are about the same size as the air layered ones, just pruned a lot.

Well I said I was going to check out the root growth today, but i'm beginning to wonder if it is a good idea to disturb the mass.

I seen some people using syringes to inject them with moisture every once in awhile. It would be nice to open it up and check the moisture and root development, but for now i'll just soak them from the outside.

I done this once as an experiment. I wanted to try the plastic Easter egg method. My plan had 4 weeks of veg left before they flipped, to give it enough time to root. I used a bottom branch and plucked every single leaf, from the main trunk out, off of it except for the last fan leaf and the growth tip. I measured the diameter of the branch about 5 nodes from the tip and used a drill bit that size to drill sideways through the plastic egg on the seam. Packed each half of the egg with moist soil, skinned the branch, dusted with rooting powder and snapped the egg closed around it. I used string to support the branch from above. Didn't touch it for 3 weeks. When I did crack it open to peek, roots popped out. It was stuffed full.
I say ALL that bc it does work but it's alot of work and cutting a branch and sticking it straight in moist soil like regular works just as good. I would be usful for the real finicky to root strains like some old blueberry cuttings or something. I just like trying goofy crap and a plastic egg works great. Have fun!