How to Layer a Plant

By eHow Home & Garden Editor

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Some plants either grow too tall for their allotted space or grow into an unattractive shape. Layering your plant will give you the opportunity to reshape the plant and get a new cutting that can be planted separately from the original one. The air layer technique is often used to stimulate root growth for cuttings from plants with thick stems. Many people have success layering azaleas, dieffenbachia, lemon trees as well as other fruit and nut trees.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

Knife
Toothpicks
Twist ties or twine
Plastic wrap
Sphagnum moss
Water
Aluminum Foil

Step1

Choose a plant stem that is at least the diameter of a pen or pencil.

Step2

Cut a small slit, on a diagonal in the stem. For best success, make this slit just below a leaf or another stem joint to ensure proper plant growth.

Step3

Remove the leaves above and below the slit. Hold the slit open with a small piece of wood. A toothpick will do for most plants with small stems. You will need a larger piece of wood for a fruit or nut tree.

Step4

Soak a handful of sphagnum moss in water to moisten it. Squeeze out the extra water so the moss is not dripping wet. Wrap the moss around the layer cut that you made, leaving the toothpick in place.

Step5

Wrap the stem and moss loosely with plastic wrap. Use enough plastic to go around the moss twice. Use twist ties or twine to secure the plastic wrap to the stem at the top and the bottom of the moss ball.

Step6

Cover the entire plastic covered moss ball layer with aluminum foil and crimp the foil edges above the plastic to make it watertight. You can open the foil briefly to check on the plant's root growth from time to time.

Step7

Wait at least six weeks for the roots to develop on your layered stem. Cut the new plant off the old plant 1 to 2 inches below the root ball. Remove the foil and plastic. Plant your cutting in a new container.

Tips & Warnings

For best chance of success, layer in the spring, using stems produced last season. Use new growth when you air layer during summer.
Sphagnum moss and peat moss are often confused. This technique will not work if you substitute peat moss.
Be careful not to cut the slit so deeply that the stem separates from the plant.
Rooting hormone can be spread in the cut that you made to speed up the roots growth process.
Larger plants can take as long as 6 months to develop roots. Be patient.