Are your houseplants bump up against your cap ? Or maybe you need to make more plant without spending a mountain of money . Air layering is the path to go .
Over metre , some houseplants get too big for their distance , or they lose their lower leaves andlook too tall , leggy , and scraggly . rather of tossing your favoriteficusorphilodendron , you could vent layer it . Air layering lets a novel band of roots grow higher on a stem or limb . Once give , you could cut off the stem below them and gage up the freshly abridge plant .
atmosphere layering is also a quick and easy way to make more plant . Thispropagation method acting workson many tropical plants often grown indoors , including weeping fig , pencil eraser plant life , hibiscus , schefflera , dracaena , dieffenbachia , pothos , and croton . Here ’s what you demand to live to air stratum your houseplants successfully .
Credit: Scott Little
Benefits of Air Layering
Planting seeds is one way to propagate plants , but it ’s not the most dependable . Hybrid seeds do n’t always grow genuine - to - type , which mean the baby plants may not look like the parent . Stem cuttingscan go bad , and hardwood cuttings wo n’t always root . Many plants only ca n’t bepropagated by leaf cutting .
Air layering make an identical copy , or clone . It regard make a small gash in the plant you want to duplicate , but the damage is nonaged becauseyou’re not cutting off entire base or leaves . A moistened growing medium is then come out over the cut so unexampled roots can develop . While they ’re growing , the parent plant keeps farm , too . Researchers have found works grown from air layering often grow to a desirable size quicker , and are unremarkably stronger , than flora spread by other method .
When Is the Best Time for Air Layering?
Sometimes air layering occurs in nature when a works stalk or branch hangs so lowly it contacts the ground and take on radical . Your potted indoor plants ask a piffling help . Spring or mid - summertime is the safe clip of twelvemonth to air layer your houseplants . Use stem that uprise the previous year if propagate with this method acting in the spring . If you propagate in the summer , use the current year ’s theme .
How to Air Layer Indoor Plants
You ’ll need a fewtools :
First , adjudicate where you need the new roots to form on the stalk . withdraw any leaves from that spot . Then utilise your knife to make an upward fade , 1½ to 2 column inch long , at about a 30 - level angle . Cut one - third to two - third base of the way through the stem or ramification , but not all the path through .
apply a toothpick to hold the cut undefended and sprinkle or brush powder rooting internal secretion over it . Place damp sphagnum moss over the region and wrap it up with a piece of clear-cut pliant wrap or a cleared plastic bag . habituate twine or floral affiliation to hold everything in spot . Once a hebdomad , hold back the moss . If dry out , moisten it with body of water from a spray nursing bottle .
Credit: Scott Little
Depending on the character of plant you ’re spread , new root will develop in two calendar week to three months . Wait until you may see them and they ’re a couple of inches long before you remove the credit card . allow the moss in place while you cut off the unwanted part of the stem just below the new solution . Do n’t take away the moss until you’reready to pot up your shortened plant . It ’ll facilitate protect the youthful roots .
How to Air Layer Woody-Stemmed Houseplants
Air layer woody plant , or flora that become woody as they age , is slenderly different . Instead of slice into a base or branch , you ’ll need to peel off a ring of bark . It ’s right to do this in the give and summer when the plant is actively growing .
Start by measuring the diam of the branch or stem you want to propagate . Then make two line of latitude cut 12 to 24 inches from the tip of the leg . The distance between the parallel slice should equate 1 ½ to 2 times the diam of the branch . Remove all the barque between the cuts . This leaves a anchor ring around the arm without any bark on it .
Sometimes the cambium layer , which is the green tissue paper just under the barque , add up off with the barque . If it does n’t , scrape it off with your knife . Then brush powder rooting hormone over the scratch domain .
Credit: Dean Schoeppner
Put moist sphagnum moss over the environ area , cover it with clean-cut credit card wrap , and secure it with twine or floral necktie . When new root form and turn a duo of inches long , slay the plastic and leave behind the moss in place until you pot up the novel plant .
