# Air layering vs. cloning - any experience?



## ZeroTransFat (Aug 3, 2008)

This post was taken from SivaRyan on hg420. Does anyone have any experience with this method? It involves rooting clones while still attached to the mother plant.





*Clone Via Air-layering* 
Air-layering is a cloning method that roots the cutting fully before its ever cut from the mother, allowing massive clones to be taken without any down time- they vegetate and root simultaniously. within 2 weeks you can take a cut thats a fully rooted, thick stalked, lushly vegetated, almost 12in. tall plant, stick it in dirt and grow it. 
Air layering is not a new tech, it is used often to reproduce trees, shrubs, and other plants for landscaping and agriculture. But ive never known anybody to use it on ganga(i am sure many people have), partially because of the labor involved and partly because of the lack of connection with the rest of the ag world outside of ganga that most of us have.
I have been experiencing wonderfull results in my testing of this tech, every air-layer i?ve done has taken in a week- no losses yet.
So i will outline the pros and cons of this technique and give a detailed description of how you can try this for yourselves.
I?ll try to get together a day-by-day pictoral guide if enough interest develops in the information.
From here on i?ll abrieveate "air-layering" simply as "AL", for ease.
Hope somebody can use this!

Dissadvantages(lets get the unpleasantries out of the way):
the biggest dissadvantage to AL is that you could take 10 clones in the time it takes to do 1 AL, and it takes a semi-carefull hand for alot of the work, it?s not cut-and-plug simplicity.
Also, the size of mother plants and their branches must be larger than in a normal cloning system. longer vegetation is needed between time when cutting are reaped from the mother, to produce big thick branches. it also takes a bit to get the mother to where it can produce many cuts at once. you trade an endless supply of little cuttings for a few nice plants.
so, AL is far from a good idea for commercial opperators, and maybe not for the clumsy or care-lacking either. 
I?m sure you will think of others.

Advantages:
for a small grower who is limited in space, and wants just a few top-health plants for there head this allows for AMAZING clones to be taken and despite the work it will save time on your cycle.
here in the states we have plant limits on Medical permits- someplaces, like Cali, go by county regulation but most go by state regs. many people can only have 7-12 plants legally to give them there medicine...you see where i?m going, right?
untill you cut the clone from the mother its still only one plant, say you have 1 mother; 3 early flower; 3 late flower; normaly you can?t have more on your permit(and timing small harvests is a BITCH), well now you can have 6 more fully rooted plants on your mother just waiting for the first to harvest. great loophole if you ask me.
so combine the time saved on your cycle with the ability to have all your cuttings ready to plant when you harvest without risking breaking the law... and you have alot more smoke, more regularly, worry free.
furthermore, after the ALs have been set-up, they are very low maintanance and you don?t need to worry about them much- they grow vigerously.

So heres how its done:
materials you need= multi perpose clear plastic sheeting(a huge roll can be bought at a wal-mart or hardware type store for about $6), scissors, cloning gel(i use Olivias that ive doctored with a little rootone, my one exception to pure organic), twist ties, scotch tape, a small paint brush(a stick/popsicle stick works fine), some Rapid-Rooter plugs(there are many other ways but ive found this the easiest), a syringe(optional), and (oh, yeah!) a healthy female ganga plant!
Directions=
1. prep. cut a number of pieces of the plastic sheeting to about 3in. by 4in.
poke small holes it the plastic for air exchange, i use an exacto and place 
holes in a 1/4in grid pattern.
Take rapid rooter plugs equal to number of ALs wanted, and, placing the scissors though the top hole of the plug to the bottom of the plug, cut the plug so that there is a open slit up the side.
2. select your greenery. find strong branches that can support weight and 
are in good health with plenty of nodes and leaves. i recomend trying smaller(5-6in.) cuts the first time till you get used to the feel.
3. prep the greenery. find a node grouping that is close to the main stalk of the plant, but obviuosly not the closest(if you want the branch to veg again)
and remove the leaves from that section of the branch. you shouldnt remove material from a section larger than the length of 1 of your plugs.
take your fingernail and GENTLY scrape away the thin outer layer of this section of branch, so that you expose the thin layer of slimey green just under the surface. again, don?t expose more than can be covered by your plug. NOTE: for ALs larger than 6in. i use 2 plugs and expose twice as much stem/nodes accordingly. this gives the large ones the root mass they need to transfer w/o complications.
4. using your paint brush or stick coat the exposed plant area with your cloning gel generously. don?t leave any area that you?ve scraped open for contamination, this isn?t common but better safe that sorry.
5. wet your plug completely and, opening it by the slit, wrap it around the exposed branch.
6. wrap a plastic square around the plug so its touching the plug all around, and covers back over itself a lttle(1/2in or so). take two twisties and secure the plastic around the plug at both ends, so the whole thing looks like big tootsie roll suspended on a stick.
take a small piece of tape and place it so that it holds down the plastic where it folds over itself(this prevents too much moisture from being lost at the seam).
7. every 3-4 days you may need to add a little water to your AL (if you poked too many/big holes it your plastic, or have a hot or very dry room-done right no watering is needed for at least week 1)
this is done easily by sticking a blunt-tipped syringe carefully into the ALs plug and squeezing out a little water.
8.this is the good part.
After about 2 weeks(depends on strain) your little AL should be nearly rootbound in it?s little pouch. cut it from the mother just below the pouch and cover the open wound(on the AL) with your cloning gel.
unwrap it, stick it in the dirt, and wait a few days before fertilizing.
thats it. it may look shocked the first couple days after transplant(may need to be in indirect light for this spell, depends on your lights), but by day 3 it should be happy and then.....BOOM......no more turn around, just pure uninhibited growth.

If you follow all these directions I am certain that even a cloning newbe can end the 2 weeks with a(or many) beautiful, lush 6in. tall, 7 tier, branching plants.
you just cant take a clone that big without losing time(and alot of clones), none of my freinds with pricey top-end cloning gear can. not that fast. just think about how friggin long it takes to get a seedling that big.
there is no other way to get these results. the new rootmass is fed directly by the mother-soil and the branch never stops vegging in full direct light. it?s rooting/vegging/feeding/photosynthesizing all the time. no break in continuity.....hmmmm..... that reminds me- NOTE: when selecting your branch keep in mind it may be much larger by the time you cut it off!!

well, i think that covers it. please ask questions. I hope there are people out there, particularily Med growers, who can benifit from this incredible technique.

Maholo, Sivaryan


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## ZeroTransFat (Aug 3, 2008)

bump??????????????


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## OnSolomonsGrave (Aug 3, 2008)

I am also curious about air layering, Once my bonsai moms are vegged up I will try it.


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## ZeroTransFat (Sep 15, 2008)

Here's an easier description from the good 'ol GrowFAQ:

*What is air layering?*

Contributed by strawdog 

ITEMS NEEDED: 

*PLANT! 
matchstick or toothpick 
tape 
razor blade 
rooting hormone (Clonex) 
tweezers 
plastic wrap 
scissors 
pin* 

(1)Sterilize all tools before using them. 

(2)Cut a branch that is at least 1/8 inch thick with at least two nodes. 

(3)Select area from which roots will sprout. This area needs to be midway up the main stem, with enough room on each side of the cut to fasten the bag. 

(4)Use the Razor Blade to make a 1-2" lengthwise incision along the stem. Cut all the way through the bark, to which the phloem is attached. Don't cut into the xylem, which is the layer under the bark. 

(5) A ring of bark is removed from around the stem. The phloem and cambium are attached to the inside of the bark, so when the bark is removed the phloem is also removed. This leaves the central cylinder of xylem and upward water flow unaffected. 








(6)Get clonex and apply it to the exposed xylem. For increased stability, you may tape a toothpick or matchstick parrallel to the stem. 

(7)With thumb get some grow medium. (perlite, peatmoss, whatever) Pack the wound carefully with the soil. 

(Attach plastic wrap below incision with tape. Tape the vertical seam where the ends meet. The effect of this should be a funnel shaped plastic wrap enclosure. 

(9)Pack with grow medium. Be sure to leave enough "slack" at the top so that it may be taped to the stem above the incision. 

(10)Fasten closed with tape. 







(11)Use pin to create holes in around bag. This will allow soil to breath. 

Use an eye dropper to keep the soil wet. Do this every day. After 2 weeks, your cutting will have roots and will be ready for propagation.


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## NotMine (Sep 16, 2008)

yeah thats really good info good looking out i'll try it next time myself


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## dmshizzle (Sep 17, 2008)

definatly gonna try this one it sounds some what simple and i really dont like using rockwool, its always caused problems for me in the past with cloning. Got any pics of the rapid rooter plug around a stem?


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## DragonPhoenix (Sep 18, 2008)

Since you made the post I'm sure you know this however I think you failed to mention it. The reason air-layering is done instead of taking a cutting is that some plants are very difficult to get to root via taking a cutting (Japanese Maple for example). In this case you would want to use air-layering but if the plant roots via taking cuttings somewhat easily then taking cuttings is definately the way to go.


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## ZeroTransFat (Sep 19, 2008)

DragonPhoenix said:


> Since you made the post I'm sure you know this however I think you failed to mention it. The reason air-layering is done instead of taking a cutting is that some plants are very difficult to get to root via taking a cutting (Japanese Maple for example). In this case you would want to use air-layering but if the plant roots via taking cuttings somewhat easily then taking cuttings is definately the way to go.


I did not know that but it makes sense. It still seems like a fun experiment though. 

None of the posts are my words or ideas (I cited my references) I'm just curious about the technique. I'm going to give it a try when my moms fill out and post my results. Have you tried this method with any plant?


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## ZeroTransFat (Sep 19, 2008)

This is that part that made me want to try it. Again, taken from SivaRyan on HG420:

Advantages:
for a small grower who is limited in space, and wants just a few top-health plants for there head this allows for AMAZING clones to be taken and despite the work it will save time on your cycle.
here in the states we have plant limits on Medical permits- someplaces, like Cali, go by county regulation but most go by state regs. many people can only have 7-12 plants legally to give them there medicine...you see where i?m going, right?
untill you cut the clone from the mother its still only one plant, say you have 1 mother; 3 early flower; 3 late flower; normaly you can?t have more on your permit(and timing small harvests is a BITCH), well now you can have 6 more fully rooted plants on your mother just waiting for the first to harvest. great loophole if you ask me.
so combine the time saved on your cycle with the ability to have all your cuttings ready to plant when you harvest without risking breaking the law... and you have alot more smoke, more regularly, worry free.
furthermore, after the ALs have been set-up, they are very low maintanance and you don?t need to worry about them much- they grow vigerously.


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## las fingerez (Feb 10, 2011)

yeah i'm in the uk and worry about numbers its a great idea. trying it out for the first time tonight 

Las


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## Rcb (May 4, 2012)

I learned this method from a buddy in LA he said they been using it for years to get around plant laws


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## doobered (May 4, 2012)

haha im gonna do it...


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## polyarcturus (May 4, 2012)

there really isnt a big difference between air layering and cloning the only real difference is the area to be cut benifit from still reciving water from the main plant, basically giving you a fool proof way to clone if done correctly, the dowside is really speed, how fast an air layer goes. it can take ut to 2 weeks to get first root that a while, and it consumes space on the plant and it will stunt the plant for several weeks. all in all air layering is an advanced techniqui for saving rare genetics from flowering strains with a fool proof method.


as far as saving numbers, well it could work for the small grower with few plants and lots of time to veg. so they can have nice big plants to works with out of every clone adn keep the numbers down while not having to try to root 15 clones and only 7 survive. but it takes a steady hand and a little bit of knowledge. ive only done it once, i was successful ,but it was just for practice. i wouldnt do it becuase plain and simple i need more plants than that in an sog that yeilds every 1.5 weeks


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## doobered (May 4, 2012)

haha i just did it! with rockwool
let you know whats going on along the way


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## doobered (May 4, 2012)

polyarcturus said:


> there really isnt a big difference between air layering and cloning the only real difference is the area to be cut benifit from still reciving water from the main plant, basically giving you a fool proof way to clone if done correctly, the dowside is really speed, how fast an air layer goes. it can take ut to 2 weeks to get first root that a while, and it consumes space on the plant and it will stunt the plant for several weeks. all in all air layering is an advanced techniqui for saving rare genetics from flowering strains with a fool proof method.
> 
> 
> as far as saving numbers, well it could work for the small grower with few plants and lots of time to veg. so they can have nice big plants to works with out of every clone adn keep the numbers down while not having to try to root 15 clones and only 7 survive. but it takes a steady hand and a little bit of knowledge. ive only done it once, i was successful ,but it was just for practice. i wouldnt do it becuase plain and simple i need more plants than that in an sog that yeilds every 1.5 weeks


it has super potential
think instead of clone you have a teeny bopper rockin and rollin for you.
use a plant to just clone and get it like 5ft and you can pull decent girls off that mother!


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## lokie (May 4, 2012)

doobered said:


> it has super potential
> think instead of clone you have a teeny bopper rockin and rollin for you.
> use a plant to just clone and get it like 5ft and you can pull decent girls off that mother!


An interesting idea. veg to 12", air layer the top, top, veg plant until topped plant heals. flower
Continue vegging new clone. Repeat and you may have a 1 plant perpetual grow.


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## Rcb (May 5, 2012)

lokie said:


> an interesting idea. Veg to 12", air layer the top, top, veg plant until topped plant heals. Flower
> continue vegging new clone. Repeat and you may have a 1 plant perpetual grow.


this exactly!!!^^^^


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## charles lewis (Mar 26, 2016)

I have a question if you fellas are still around. How long did you wait to put the newly rooted lady into flower and was their a noticeable differences due to a smaller root mass? I was wondering because I have an overgrown lady that needs to be broken down and put into flower. I'm a little worried about putting them in flower with small roots.


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