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| Separating a triple Acer air-layer http://weetrees.co.uk/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=15493 |
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| Author: | Gary Jones [ 12 Mar 2018, 14:46 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Separating a triple Acer air-layer |
It just feels like another post is about to arrive....................................... I can't wait any longer what happened? |
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| Author: | nstansbury [ 12 Mar 2018, 14:52 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Separating a triple Acer air-layer |
Low and behold a few months later... Attachment: IMG_3538 copy.JPG Attachment: IMG_3542 copy.JPG
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| Author: | nstansbury [ 12 Mar 2018, 15:00 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Separating a triple Acer air-layer |
Then finally by the end of April.. Attachment: IMG_3558 copy.JPG Attachment: IMG_3559 copy.JPG The leaf size was beautifully small - I assume because of the number of bud sites and the amount of root mass available to support them. They both suffered a lightening of their chlorophyll later the year that I put down to an iron deficiency due to our hard water, but come autumn they both gave a spectacular orange and pink display before dropping. Here I am again one year on, with plenty of bud sites waiting to pop again, but lets face it - butt ugly trees. So the question is what do I do with them, I think I badly need some styling advice to make this air layer experiment a worthwhile one. Ideas very much appreciated! Cheers, Neil |
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| Author: | Brendan [ 12 Mar 2018, 15:06 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Separating a triple Acer air-layer |
Wow. Speechless. That's the biggest pair of layers i have ever seen. I suspect your problems are just beginning. For sure you will have a nice flat root collar and hopefully good root spread. But then you also have these great fat trunks that are column straight . On maples. Are you heading somewhere like this, in which case the first one will be impressive:  2018-03-12_02-03-13 by BrendanR2012, on FlickrBut the second one eludes me. Maybe if it was upright again as a sort of twin trunk? |
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| Author: | Gary Jones [ 12 Mar 2018, 16:08 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Separating a triple Acer air-layer |
Well done with these - fantastic. Well perhaps obviously there's some dead wood to remove from the stumps. You can either remove it back to where the tree has compartmentalised the wound which is safer and more natural or you can carve out a hollow if you fancy being more creative. On the first one I agree with Brendan. You've probably got enough girth on your primary branches on the right so these can start being reduced and the next sections / branches built but the left hand side needs bulking up still. I would be tempted to tilt to the right so the top of the trunk section is upright and the base tilted rather than the way you have it. I think it's more natural to show a tree that grew up wonky in it's youth (due to some accident) and then straightened it's self over time as it grew, rather than a tree than grew all it's life bending over. The second one is much more of a challenge. I can't see how you can keep both trunks. Again like Brendan says you could straighten the left trunk (and remove the big right one - perhaps leaving a very short carved/hollowed stump. The trunks here haven't got any movement and lacks the slight bend in the first tree. I think you've a couple of options to add interest. #1 You could hope for buds to pop all over and build some sort of upright using the varying lengths, taper and movement in the branches that you build to create the interest (an informal upright with a dead straight trunk). Clever positioning of branches can disguise that to an extent. If you gets lots of buds and let them extend you will get bumps and swellings and they could break up the dead straight lines and add age to the look. #2 You could carve the whatsits out of it over time adding hollows and uros all over it to give it an ancient battered feel again with branches at varying heights (you'll need to prioritise the lower ones to get good growth on them). There is a 3rd option to layer it again much smaller to build a sumo broom but that is probably too similar to number 1 tree. If you keep it slanted I don't think it'll be a good as leaning trees are usually slimmer (slim trees can suffer accidents that cause them to lean - hard to imagine it with a thicker tree) - however you could build an apex and incorporate some lower growth from lower down on the left top side if you want to keep the angle. Just my thoughts |
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| Author: | nstansbury [ 13 Mar 2018, 17:35 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Separating a triple Acer air-layer |
Thanks for your thoughts & comments guys. It sounds like I really should have asked early January, as it's probably too late to start doing any significant pruning, so looks like I'm stuck with pinching out early buds until later this year. My first task is to slip pot both of them into some kind of much larger flat bed trays, they got hit by the heavy winds last year and were both blown over so many times I ended up staking the pots in place with tent pegs & bricks. Strangely enough looking at the pic taken today, tree one has actually straightened up - probably because of the wind! The 2nd tree was actually planted vertically, but the wind has ripped the plywood plate through the pot base and so tilted. I'm not totally sure how I'm going to fix them firmly enough until they have enough root mass themselves. I'm not really sure where to start with it, should I consider the main right branch the new crown and chop the trunk to lose the left hand entirely and the fissure or keep both and try to disguise the large wound? Attachment: IMG_4242 copy.JPG Attachment: IMG_4246 copy.JPG
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| Author: | Gary Jones [ 13 Mar 2018, 22:29 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Separating a triple Acer air-layer |
I was thinking back to the biggest branches to form a broom. I think ideally you need three branches rather than two. |
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| Author: | Brendan [ 13 Mar 2018, 23:40 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Separating a triple Acer air-layer |
Take a pic from the top looking down? How far apart on the circumference are the 3 main visible thick branches? Is there a 4th lurking? |
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| Author: | nstansbury [ 14 Mar 2018, 12:10 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Separating a triple Acer air-layer |
@Gary That's really interesting - I guess chop it to a 'V' and effectively split the trunk. @Brendan - sadly not, they're almost 180 apart, there is nothing more than a few stragglers: Attachment: top.jpg
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| Author: | Loufada [ 14 Mar 2018, 16:38 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Separating a triple Acer air-layer |
I recently wondered if there was a limit up to what diameter one can actually airlayer successfully . Well, thanks to you I have my answer! 
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