Prunus #21 successful air layering

The crown of this tree was very good right from the beginning. The nebari was lousy, but wide. Two very fat roots going down with an empty space in between. So it was decided to air layer the tree by the end of March of 2015. As you can see it worked very well, much batter than most of the time. After cutting off the old root pad the tree was planted back into the pot by Josef Mairhofer. Now it is a very fine twin trunk. The further development will be reported.


Many will ask why I did repot now, in the first week of September, way too early, and why I left the foliage on and certainly, why did I not cut back the long growth at least to 'balance the tree'.
Now, first week of September is VERY late for repotting here. Only a couple more days and I have to stop it. It should be called 'late summer repotting' instead of 'fall repotting'. The foliage and the long growth was left on because this is the ONLY source of energy for the roots. The more leaves, the better for new growth. Now with great medium temperatures and also moisture the tree will grow fine roots within the next six weeks and then be ready for winter.  In spring it will start right away and grow much better than if I had repotted it then.



The old roots I planted into a plastic container. Possibly they will throw shoots and I will have a group in a couple of years.