How to Air Layer Fruit Trees

Fruit trees provide a beautiful and delicious addition to your garden. By using a technique called air layering, you can propagate trees such as citrus, apple, pears, plums, peaches and pecans. Air layering encourages roots to form on a branch of a mature tree. You can then remove that branch for planting. The new air layered trees are virtually identical genetically to the parent tree. The best time to do this is in the spring, when new growth is emerging.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Sphagnum moss
• Sharp knife
• Rooting hormone powder
• Plastic wrap
• Electrician's tape
• Aluminum foil

Air Layering Your Fruit Tree

1. Soak a large handful of sphagnum moss in water overnight.

2. Select a woody stem on the plant at least 12 inches long and cut two rings in the bark around the stem about 1 inch apart. Peel the bark and green cambium layer away, leaving that part of the stem bare.

3. Dust the bare stem with rooting hormone powder. This will stimulate the stem to sprout roots, as time goes by.

4. Squeeze the sphagnum moss until it is damp but not wet and place the moss around the bare stem.

5. Wrap the moss in place on the stem using plastic wrap, completely covering the moss.

6. Wrap the top and bottom of the plastic wrap on the stem with electrician's tape.

7. Wrap the entire package of moss, plastic wrap and tape with aluminum foil.

8. Wait patiently. Over the next few months, the branch will begin to develop roots in the air layer package.

Harvesting Your New Fruit Tree

9. Remove the aluminum foil, tape and plastic wrap to examine the air layer package around the beginning of fall. If the air layering has been successful, you will find roots in the sphagnum moss.

10. Cut the stem off below the air layering with a sharp knife to harvest the propagated fruit tree.

11. Loosen the roots a bit and plant the propagated tree in a pot with a mixture of peat moss and sand.

12. Water the plant regularly during the first year of growth.

References

• Purdue University Cooperative Extension Service
• Texas A&M University