Ground layering an Acer Shishigashira

A few years ago I bought a small batch of Acer Palmatum Shishigashiras and Deshojo from a grower in the Netherlands. They were all small plants recently grafted on regular palmatum rootstock. Last year I repotted them into larger containers so the trunks could thicken up.

Now it’s time to see if I can ground layer them so the ugly graft won’t be a problem anymore and hopefully we get a nice nebari.

I’m doing a test on one of them this year. If it works out ok I’ll do the rest of them next year.

Here’s the volunteer:

Notice the section where the shishigashira part is grafted on regular palmatum rootstock. This junction will always be visible.

So first thing I did was taking off the bark with a sharp knife where I want the new roots to grow. Always be sure that you take off enough bark so the wound won’t callus over. The roots will sprout (hopefully) above the part where the bark was taken off.

Next thing I removed all of the cambium layer so the nutrition flow from the roots to the leaves is interrupted and the tree will be forced to grow new roots above the wound.

When this is done I cut the bottom out of a small nursery container so it could be placed around the trunk.

Last thing to do is to take some sphagnum moss, make it wet and fill the small nursery container with it. Make sure there’s a good layer of wet moss above the wound so the roots can start growing in a moist environment.

Normally the new roots should have grown by september and it’s possible to remove the air layer. I usually wait until repotting season in early spring to remove the air (ground) layer. More on this next year 😉