This next tree, an Acer Palmatum “Atropurpureum”, is standing at my parents house for 25 years. Since I always liked the tree and am a fan of free stuff I decided to try an air-layer on one of the branches.

Here’s the tree in it’s full spring glory.



The leaves are red now but will turn green in summer.



Good thing I had the right tools in my (rather big) backpack…

After looking around for a decent branch to air-layer I found a good one in the upper area of the tree. There were a few smaller branches in the area where I wanted to make the cut so I came up with the idea of a daughter trunk. I selected 1 of the smaller branches and pruned of the rest so I could make the air-layer cut.



The little branch in front of my hand would make a good daughter trunk.

Stripped off the bark, removed the cambium layer and made a clean cut on the upper part of the stripped area.

A plastic freezer bag was used to hold the sphagnum moss.

The bag filled with wet sphagnum moss.

A piece of black plastic was used to protect the new roots from too much direct sunlight.

Find the air-layer!

So from now on I have to make sure the sphagnum moss stays wet until September. That’s the time I’ll probably remove the branch from the mother plant. If there are enough roots ofcourse. Until then, fingers crossed.