This article first appeared on the ABBA website in 2004, it has since been updated and edited...click on the photos for larger images
It is a good idea, but not
100% necessary, to remove some of the hard wood between the two cuts. This will make much less
likely for the two
cut sections to join up together again and ruin the root development.
Next
comes something which
I hadn’t tried before and wasn’t a
brilliant
success but I learnt from it so
in many ways it was. In
order to create
a nice nebari right from the start, the roots which are hopefully
going
to form
must be trained to go laterally. This
is
to be done by creating an aluminium skirt to put just below the upper
cut. This will stop
new roots from the top joining
back up with
the bottom edge, as well as guiding the roots outwards. To
make the skirt I cut a
square from a sheet of 0.4mm thick aluminium. In the middle a 50(ish)mm
diameter hole was cut and the
outer edge
rounded off.It
looked like this.Fixing
it proved to be a
bit of a problem.I
tried wire, nails,
and screws but all to no avail.In
the
end I used two staples to fix it in place. It wasn’t very
secure but it won’t be
moving or under any stress so it
should be ok.
After fixing the skirt, a piece of polythene air packing was attached at the bottom of the air layer and uncut wet sphagnum moss was packed in like this...
The moss had been sat in a bucket of
“Willow Water” for a couple of hours.
This is probably an old wives tale but I can see the logic and I have
seen some good results from it. Willow water is supposed to
help improve rooting in cuttings and aid repair to shocked
trees. It acts in the same way as Rootone to induce rooting
as Willow contains naturally high concentrations of the same chemical
(IBA). It also helps to activate SAR or “Systemic
Acquired Resistance”, which is a fancy way of saying the
plant’s natural defence system against disease.
Willow water acts as aspirin for the tree, helping to calm it down and
help it recover quickly…which in fact is exactly what it is,
Aspirin. To make this mysterious concoction, cut up
the ends of Willow branches, about the thickness of a pencil, into 3-6
cm lengths and put them into a plastic bottle. Pour In
boiling water and leave to steep for at least 24 hours. It
will turn translucent and a bit mucky. You can then use this
water to soak the moss in or inject it into the air layer
afterwards. It will keep for two or three months if
refrigerated. There is some scientific evidence of this
technique working, but equally there are some who pooh-pooh the
idea. My jury is still hung.
Finally it was wrapped into a ball like this. A small enough gap was left in the top to allow Oxygen and water to get in, but not so that the roots could be disturbed.
