CLONE Your Favorite Plants & Trees | AIR LAYERING | Simple Propagation Techniques | BEFORE & AFTER

I'm Charles Malki, biologist and plant expert with Ivory Organics 3-in-1 Tree Guard Paint where we grow cool plants. And today we're gonna be talking all about air layering. Air layering is a method that's been used by farmers and orchard growers around the world for centuries. Air layering is a method of actually propagating plants and creating genetically identical clones of exactly that same plant. And today we're gonna be showing how to do that. This method actually works for pretty much every tree and every plant with some exceptions. For example, you can see here behind me, I've been working on my Eureka lemon tree. And I've actually got my first fruit, if you wanna come and take a look over here. We've actually got our first fruit that we're gonna be harvesting in the next couple of weeks. As you can see, it's just getting ready to ripen. And this Eureka lemon tree just a year ago bore about 10 lemons. And then this year it's got at least 50 lemons on this tree. And we're expecting at this rate to have over 200 lemons by next year. What I wanna share with you is, this here is my air layer. And I'm gonna show you exactly on how to do it. But this is gonna allow me to propagate and create a genetically identical Eureka lemon tree from its origin, which is actually originated here in Los Angeles, California back in 1858. So this Eureka lemon tree, which I planted only two years ago here in my garden and grafted on a semi dwarf rootstock is these leaves and this plant that's actually above the rootstock is actually from 1858, making this plant 158 years old. So once we remove this plant from the parent plant, which is the bottom part, we'll have a brand new tree, but the wood is 158 years old. Within the first year, and for sure by the second year, once the roots get established, it can now support fruit, unlike growing a seedling. A seedling will have to take anywhere, growing a lemon seedling or any other citrus from seed can take anywhere from five to upwards of 10 years for it to actually bear fruit. This is a very fast way to actually create genetically identical fruit. So you know you're getting the superior quality, yield and flavor that you're looking for. And that's why we've actually done this for our Eureka lemon tree. Let me give you some other examples of trees that can actually be propagated similarly. You can air layer a hibiscus. You can air layer an Oro Blanco grapefruit. You can air layer a Fuerte avocado tree. You can air layer an apple tree. You can even air layer vines such as passion fruit, as well as grapes can be air layered. But you cannot air layer a banana. It just won't work. You also can't air layer strawberries. Why would you? They propagate by runners. You can create genetically identical plants by these runners that are actually running off this potted strawberry. Let's get started. So the materials you need to get started for air layering are as follows. We're gonna need some scissors. I've also got some pruners. We need some twine, some string. I've also got some sphagnum moss, which is right here. And then I've also got some rooting powder. I've got this plastic empty bottle. I also brought a razor blade. And I got some tinfoil. And I'm gonna show why, and if you don't have these materials, how you can easily substitute them for other stuff. And the first thing we're gonna do is we're gonna get started. I'm gonna show you how we're actually gonna accomplish this method using a fig tree. So this here is a green variety of fig. The name of it, I believe, is the... So this here is a fig tree. I believe it's of the Codota variety. And what I've got labeled here is a piece of paper that says auxin, which is the plant hormones that are generated typically by the leaves and the tips of the plant. So the auxins are created by the shoots. And then at the bottom here, I wrote cytokinins, which are the root hormones. This actually flows from the roots and then travels up the plant. The auxins, again, start from the top of the plant and work their way down. There's both auxins and cytokinins throughout the entire plant, but the concentrations are different depending on where you are. More auxins near the top, more cytokinins naturally near the bottom. And depending on how that balance and depending on how you prune it will actually affect the fluctuation of hormones and ultimately the plant growth. I'm sharing this with you because this is kind of the science behind what's happening and it's actually gonna create the root formation that we're trying to accomplish. So I'm gonna take this off here as it's in the way. But I wanna share with you also, if you come in a little closer, you can take a look here that at every node, so this was the node, and at every node there was a fig and here another leaf and the node and there was another fig right here and here's another node. And what I like about this fig tree is I can also share with you that there's these breathing holes around each of the nodes. If you can take a look at those little dots that basically go around those nodes. Those dots are actually called lenticles and they're actually breathing holes that allow the bark to actually breathe. It actually brings air from the outside into the cambium tissues and exchanges gases from the cambium tissues back out. So these lenticles will actually be places that are more likely or not to also result in root formation. So keep that in mind as we actually go through preparing our air layering to this Codota fig variety. So the first step in preparing this is we're gonna have to remove some of the bark. We're actually trying to interfere with the flow of the hormones through the plant and to accomplish this, we're gonna remove the bark below one of the nodes. We have identified this node and this will be actually a little bit too close to this leaf, so I'm actually gonna go down a little bit further. We'll identify this node over here and all of these white dots that actually are growing around the plant, you can actually see right here at the nodes, one white dot, another white dot, another white dot will ultimately form into the roots. And what I'm gonna do here with my razor is I'm gonna cut right underneath it, about a quarter inch, and I'm basically gonna cut all the way through and around. And you can see here comes the sap. So what I'm doing here is I'm actually cutting around the bark down to the cambium layers. I'm not cutting through the wood and the sap is carrying waters and sugars and it's also transporting those hormones. The cytokine is from the bottom and the auxin is from the top and by interfering with this fluctuation, we're gonna cause it to root. I'll explain how in just a minute. So we've just cut here. We're gonna do our second cut. It could be right above the next node. I wanna just wrap it around like so and then we just gotta create an opening for us to get into. And then we're gonna open the bark like so and we're gonna, it peels just like it's clothing coming off. It actually is quite loose. Here it is. You can see all that green is the cambium and the living tissues of the plant. And what we're gonna do now is we're just gonna scar and make sure that all of those vessels that are transporting the waters and the sugars and those hormones up and down the plant are damaged. And that'll be it. What's gonna happen at the top now are the auxins are gonna come flowing down and there's no cytokinins to dilute it on this top part of the plant. And what the auxins do is increase root development. So it's gonna encourage these nodes to now develop into roots. What we're gonna now do is put some rooting hormone around this zone. So we're taking our rooting hormone or rooting powder and we're just going to brush some of that on it and put it around the node. I wouldn't recommend doing this with your finger. You should have gloves on or maybe use a brush instead. But I'm just gonna do that. I'm gonna wash my hands right after this step. And as you can see here, we just put this rooting hormone on it. So the next step is we gotta create now some soil or give it some soil medium to basically offer the plant for it to develop its roots. And what we're gonna use to accomplish this is the sphagnum moss. And we're just gonna put that in some water to absorb. And it allows us to actually form it around the plant a lot easier. And while this is happening, I'm gonna prepare the container that's gonna support the soil. And what we're gonna do is just basically take our water bottle. I just took off the lid here. And I'm going to do over here what we're gonna do next. I'm just gonna take the bottle over here and I'm going with my pruners. We're just gonna cut it like so all the way up. And that's the reason I got my two pruners. I use my heavier pruners to cut the thicker lid. And now I'm using just my regular scissors, my paper scissors to cut up near the top. And right at this button over here, I'm just gonna open that up into a little circle as well. And that'll hold right around the tree. So you can see what I've now created. Here's my water bottle. We've split the end that you drink from apart. We've tore all the way up the side and we've created a little opening for the branch to actually come through. What we're gonna do now here is just wrap this around the plant like so. And then we'll take some of our twine to secure it in place. Again, this tie is only gonna be here temporarily. I never, ever, ever encourage knots to be formed against the tree. But this is only gonna rest here. It typically takes anywhere from as little as two weeks, so as much as eight weeks, maybe up to 10 for this process to work. And again, I just want to reiterate, this process can be used on pretty much everything. I've got a ficus tree here to my right. That's my neighbor's. You can work on your ficus tree. You can work on an elm tree. You could work on your, pretty much, you name it. Oak trees, just on and on and on. If you see magnolia trees, if there's anything that you see that you like, you can actually create the genetic, identical clone of it through this method. What we're gonna do next is now take our moss. It's now absorbed the water. We're gonna take some of this. We're gonna squeeze it. Some people say to squeeze it really hard to make sure you get all the water. But you can see that I've created, it's got so many openings. It's naturally gonna dry out. So now we're gonna put the moss inside the container. You can squeeze it just a medium amount. You can allow some water to stay within it. And we're just gonna fill the container like so. And you're just gonna want to make sure you get the moss all around it. You don't want to pack it too tight and nor too loose. You're gonna be the judge of this part. But you just want to make sure that it's in contact with that particular node. That's gonna be the key. We're gonna cover the wound that we created and about a quarter inch to a half an inch above the node. The nodes are gonna form the roots and basically fill in this media of soil. And you can see using this sphagnum moss, it's quite easy to work with. It could work with any other type of soil. So in regards to improvising, if you have to use something else, it could work. But the moss actually is just really easy to work with. That's it. I'm gonna spin this around so you can actually see what I've done. You can see the tear over here. The moss is kind of bulging out of the plant. What we're gonna now do is just take our string and we're just gonna secure it in place so it doesn't move. If it moves while the plant is trying to root, it's gonna damage the roots. So we gotta make sure that it stays where we want it to be. Tighten that up. And then what we're gonna do next is take a little bit of tinfoil. And what I'm using the foil first is to basically help the bottom of the container contain the liquid. So we're just wrapping it near the base and we're just pressing that down. Again, we haven't created an airtight seal and you'll see why in a minute. And then we're gonna take some more foil and what we're gonna do with the rest of this is basically trick the plant into thinking that this area is underground. You wanna make it dark. You don't have to use foil. You can use paper. You can use any other thing. But the logic behind it is you're trying to create a dark environment which is what the roots are used to growing into. And that's the reason we created this shield. And now the last step is I'm taking my little watering can here and I'm gonna add this product over here which is Super Thrive. And what it is, is it's basically like a vitamin D1 solution. It helps with any transplant shock. It's also got a little bit of nitrogen in it and that'll actually encourage some growth. And we're just gonna put a couple of drops of that in here and water the top. So we got all of those vitamins, all of this good water going right into the plant and you can see that the water's passing right through and dripping down the plant. There is no water being trapped in this area and nor should there ever. If it's actually an airtight seal and I've seen people using Saran Wrap and I've seen people using other more airtight methods and the risk of that is you're causing mold and mildew and disease and rot to actually occur around the plant. By actually allowing the airs to pass through, it actually will encourage a more healthier root development within this area. So you can see that the water's still just dripping down and coming out of the plant. So we're gonna add water to this plant and most people do it so airtight that they never add water and they just come and revisit it a few weeks or a month later and the roots are there. But the healthier way to do it is to actually allow it to breathe and just water it. Hopefully if you've got the time to visit your plants twice a week, add some water and open the results about four to six weeks from now and you'll be surprised. Let me show you what I've accomplished over here. So here we are now again. My Eureka lemon tree. We're just going to, let me put my scissors away. We're just gonna unwrap the foil here. First take a look and you're gonna see more as I continue to unwrap it. But take a look at all the roots over here on this side. Take a look at all of that. So this was formed about six weeks ago and you can see how much root development we've accomplished in that short period of time. Here's the lower foil that was helping to keep the waters in place. We're gonna unwrap this at our table behind me. What we're gonna do here is we're just going to sever the plant that we've created from the parent, which is the lower part. And what we're gonna do is we're just gonna follow this leaf. You can see that it's already starting to bud. As we discussed earlier, there's more cytokinin hormones at the lower part. It's encouraging now the next branching to come out. We're just gonna cut about a quarter inch above it and at an angle. And you can see this here is now the pruned end. So over here is where we just pruned our air layering plant that we've created. And we're now gonna seal this end with an ivory organic three-in-one tree guard just to add water, a natural tree trunk and branch barrier, protection against damaging sunburn and insects and rodents for use on your roses, fruit and nut trees, ornamental trees and shrubs. And it's a non-toxic, environmentally safe and organic product. We're using color white, but it's also available in brown and green. And I'm just gonna mix it to make sure that all the oils and the paint are in contact with one another. And I'm just gonna take my brush and just seal the end as this wound will take anywhere from a year to a couple of years to close. And by sealing it, I've now protected against pathogens, bacteria, viruses, and then the more obvious, termites, wood-boring beetles, and so much more. And we've used it down below. This was applied when we installed the plant about two years ago. And you can see that it's starting to fade off the plant, but it's still offering the light protection. But once upon a time, there was a lot more sun before it created its canopy to shade the lower trunk from the damaging sunburn. A citrus is particularly susceptible to damage from sun. So here we are now. We're gonna open our surprise. We're gonna take off this tie and take off the lower foil. And then here it is. We're just gonna open it up here. And you can see how easily we've just created a new plant. We're gonna try not to disturb the soil medium around it. And now what we can do is just bring our pruning to a little closer to where the roots are. And now we've created a new plant with plenty of roots. And what we're gonna do now is plant it. And I'm gonna give you a few quick planting tips. What I'm most excited about with this plant is it's now a genetically identical cutting to that plant that grew from a seedling here in Los Angeles in 1858, as we explained earlier. The Eureka lemon tree is of an Italian heritage. So it actually came from some seeds that were apparently brought from Italy, grown here successfully in Los Angeles, and became such a popular lemon in regards to just being a heavy-bearing, delicious, quality lemon. And it's actually made its way into many grocery stores across the world. And again, another thing that's of particular interest is it's now growing on its own rootstock. So this lemon is actually growing on its own rootstock, which means this lemon will grow to a standard size, being anywhere from 20 to 30 plus feet. We can naturally prune it to control its size, but otherwise, this plant will grow to a very large lemon tree size as it's not grafted. So its root is not gonna be restricted to allow the plant to reach its maximum height, unlike the lemon tree that's behind me, which is grafted on a semi-dwarf rootstock, which will keep its root between eight to as much as 15 feet. Again, this one will grow from at least 20 to upwards of 30 feet. And I'm gonna try to find it a nice home. And the other great thing I love about this is it's a multi-branched lemon. So we're gonna grow it as a bush, and it's just gonna be a giant bush, and each branch is gonna support a lot of lemons. And all we gotta make sure is that the branches don't cross one another, but we'll do a pruning lesson on that later. Let's actually pot this real quick. So I'm just gonna set this plant here in the shade so the roots are not exposed to the sun. And what we're gonna do here is we're gonna start off with a pot like so. You gotta make sure it's got a hole at the bottom so that the water can pass through. And again, you wanna make sure that the plant gets air. It's gotta breathe. It's gotta breathe even at the root level. So what we're gonna do first is we're gonna put some rocks. I've also got some broken clay pot materials that I found around the property. And I've also got next to me wood chips. And I just wanna make this point that you do not wanna put wood chips at the bottom as it will rob the soil that we're gonna put in here of the nutrients, and it could potentially rot and actually kill the plant. So you wanna use something that's actually gonna help with drainage, and rocks is a great option. So we're just gonna put that at the bottom of the pot like so. We can even put some of these clay materials in there as well. And what this is gonna do is once we water, it's gonna force the water to come out and get out of the pot so that, again, the roots are not surrounded by water and drowning. So this is gonna help with the flow of water. What we're gonna do next is I've got a perlite and vermiculite and peat moss mixture, and it's basically one third part of each. So what we're gonna do is, and I've got over here a bag of perlite, which is just more of the whiteness, and this actually helps with increasing drainage as well. And what we're gonna do is I'm gonna add a little more perlite for what's gonna be the bottom mixture of this pot. And the reason is, again, to further encourage water to pass through the soil quickly. And then we're, now we've got equal parts of the vermiculite, perlite, and moss that'll be going into the rest of this. And now we're gonna put in position our lemon, and that will go in here like so. We'll cover the rest up, position that in place. And then I'm also gonna take, again, another handful or two of perlite because I want, again, increased drainage, and that'll actually form not just the bottom two inches, but also the top two inches of this plant. And we're just gonna put that around. We wanna make sure that we don't cover the root ball by more than a quarter of an inch. So I'm trying to find the lowest. Here's the moss right there at this point. We wanna make sure that we don't cover it. So I'm gonna probably have to stake it as well to hold it in place as these roots get developed. That's gonna be done. With the wood chips that I brought, we can actually put that around the plant, but keep it away from the stem so it doesn't cause any stem rot. As the wood decays, you don't want it to be decaying the plant's trunk. So we'll just put these wood chips around it. And again, pull the wood chips away from the plant's trunk. And the wood chips, again, will offer more minerals as well as help retain the water. I'm gonna put the saucer back in place. And now we just gotta water it. So I've got here my watering can, and we're gonna add to it this fish fertilizer. Fish fertilizer is very high in nitrogen. It's 5% nitrogen, 1% phosphorus, which we don't need fruit development right now, and it's also got 1% potassium, which also helps towards strengthening the roots. But again, we do want something that has a lot of minerals, and fish fertilizer has a lot more than just these. These are the macronutrients, and it also has micronutrients. We're gonna mix that up, add it to some water. So we just put a couple of tablespoons in there. And then I'm just gonna put a few drops, again, of this Super Thrive, which is, again, a vitamin B1 with a little nitrogen in there. And what that's gonna do is help with the transplant shock as, obviously, we just did a lot to this plant. It's also gonna help encourage root development as well. We're just gonna water the plant like so. One other thing I'm gonna do real quick, I'm gonna try to sneak this guy in on the side. I've got this strawberry plant, and the strawberry plant is part of one of the plants we select in what we call the Wimpy Plant Test, and I'll put the link to that down below. I'm gonna put this in place, and I'll show you what we did in a prior video. We're just gonna take this strawberry plant like so. Got the roots. We're just gonna squeeze that in here to the side and insert that, roots and all. And there's our little strawberry plant. And the reason for the Wimpy Plant Test is actually gonna help us determine when is the next time to water it. As long as the plant isn't wilted, then we know not to water the plant. If the strawberry plant begins to wilt, then we know it's time to water the plant. And the other reason for using the strawberry plant is it's got a pretty weak root system. The roots usually only grow a few inches compared to other herbs and vegetables and flowers that actually might have a stronger root system. And we've also determined that it's pretty sensitive to restricted water. When it's not watered, it actually stresses and begins to wilt, whereas other plants, especially succulents, don't indicate any stress at all. Let me show you the plant we did behind over here. So this here was a Meyer lemon that we potted a few weeks ago. We, again, used the strawberry plant for our Wimpy Plant Test, and you can see now down below, we've got some beautiful strawberries to now enjoy. In addition to, we've got a super healthy Meyer lemon tree. Take a look at the lemons. We've got it fruiting over here. We've got the lemons. And if you come up a little higher, you can actually see some more lemons. And we've also got now some blossoms that are coming out as well. And we've also got a new flush of growth that's gonna be starting probably in the upcoming weeks. I can see the small leaves that are just starting to come out of it as well. So the last thing we're gonna do now is create a foliar spray. We're gonna use the Ivory Organics 3-in-1 Tree Guard Paint and gonna mix that again and make sure we get the oils as well as the paint together. We're just gonna add about a teaspoon or two to our spray bottle. And then, shake it and spray it. And what this is gonna offer is a sunblock to the plant as well as it's got the oils to repel any insects from harming the plant while its root system gets established. And if you zoom in a little closer, you can actually see the foliar organic white spray that we use to basically keep the plant cool as the plant gets established in its new home. We'll position it now in a place which will get light for half the day and it'll be in the shade for the rest of the day. And that pretty much concludes it. The air layering method for propagating pretty much every single type of tree that you desire. I hope you found this video informative and if so, be sure to like it and most importantly, subscribe down below so you'll be connected to all the other educational Ivory Organics 3-in-1 Tree Guard Paint videos. Thanks again for watching. Happy gardening.