Hi all, I'm new to bonsai I got introduced to it by joncoh and decided I would like to train a few trees myself so I read up a bit on bonsai and learnt that one can propagate trees by airlayering. Here are my current projects :lol:

I air layered the ficus about 4 weeks ago, I'm not sure when I should pot it, there seems so be quite a few roots.

Those ficus roots are absolutely MAD

You should wait until the roots fill the bag and start to harden before you separate it from the parent plant.It's better to wait longer to ensure the plants survival. too many roots won't hurt the tree where not enough will.

The roots have nearly filled the bag, this photo doesn't show much. I took a few more pictures with my phone. This time I removed the outer layer of plastic wrap so you can view the root grow better. Oh ya, the roots feel pretty firm.

Here are the pictures

They look so good...and I'm so jealous of you right now. We are smack dab in the middle of winter here. Please, please post the progress for the less fortunate...

Hi MWid,

Your air-layerings are coming along great! Well done! Pinkham has shared some wise advice here. One of the most challenging lessons in Bonsai remember is that of learning patience with your trees. Give it another couple of weeks.

Hi Pinkham, I will definitely post the progressions. Shame winter is horrible, you must be looking forward to spring.

At the rate of growth, I think I should be able to cut the branch off the parent tree sometime next week. I will keep you all posted

MWid wrote: At the rate of growth, I think I should be able to cut the branch off the parent tree sometime next week. I will keep you all posted

The main problem with cutting it off that wuickly is that the roots will all be fairly crisp; A little bending and they may snap right off. Better wait untill you see roots that are not so white anymore, but take an older brown color.

If you want to do trimming on the branch that you are rooting: NOw would be a moment to trim it back, taking advantage of the connection to the main plant, and just ive it another month or so, before separating from the main plant.

For plants growing in the temperate climate some 3 to sometimes more than 12 months are typically required for thourough rooting. Cuting to soon will on the long run take more time: The plant will struggle in the first weeks after transplanting and may stom growth completely for months to come..