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Air Layering for propagating difficult to root strains in hydroponics · Hydroponics Daily

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  Hi, welcome back to the Hydroponics Daily. Today we're talking about another
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  propagation technique called air layering and if you're watching this on social
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  media you'll see the world's worst diagram.
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  If you're on a podcast thank yourself lucky you don't be able to see this and
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  this is my attempt at drawing air layering.
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  So air layering is in-situ propagation on the mother plant just like we talked
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  about layering where you bend the stem under the ground.
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  This one you don't do that you cut the bark
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  off the stem in a section just below
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  the cutting or that you're going to make it's
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  not really a cutting but and then you leave the center of
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  the stem where the xylem tissue is so that that new plants can get plenty of
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  water it's always getting water supplied by the mother plant it just by taking
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  the bark off you're stripping away the area that's going to take the sugars
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  and the critically important the auxin the rooting hormone down to the mother plant,
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  now for roots to develop in that area obviously it's going to need to be moist
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  and the plants are going to need to think it's soil so you pack that area with
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  sphagnum moss or other some form of.
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  Of airy moist tissue you
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  might you could potentially use mineral wool rock wool you could
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  potentially use cotton wool and then you wrap that
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  keep that attached to the plant with something like a cling
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  film plastic film and then normally tied
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  at both ends to keep that secure you don't want
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  it to be boggy in there and and
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  stagnant water you want it to be moist but
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  not not stagnant water and then you might have to
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  repack that a few times check it every couple of
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  weeks making sure it's nice and healthy and
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  then once roots have formed in there just like in layering you
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  cut it off and you've got a new plant the disadvantage of
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  air layering and layering is that you can
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  only do one or two plants it's not a mass
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  propagation technique like cuttings can be or seeds it's
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  something you would use for a very very important variety or plants that you're
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  struggling to get clones from but it is it's a good technique it's it's used
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  widely in fruit crops and roses and things like this so air layering is an option
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  if you want to try it thank you very much.