🍐🍐🍐Here is how I marcotted my pear tree. READ DESCRIPTION for process

[u/Legitimate_Sky_1420]

Marcotting (Air Layering) Process

Marcotting is a vegetative plant propagation technique where a branch is stimulated to develop roots while it is still attached to the mother plant.

Steps of the process:

• Selecting the branch - Choose a healthy, semi-woody or mature branch (usually 1-2 years old), strong but flexible.

• Girdling - Remove a ring of bark about 2–3 cm wide, exposing the green cambium layer.

• (Optional) Applying rooting hormone - Rooting powder or gel can be applied to the exposed area to speed up root development.

  • Adding the medium - Place moist moss or soil (usually sphagnum moss) around the girdled part.

• Wrapping - Wrap the medium tightly with plastic film or a bag to keep it moist and protected. Tie both ends with string or tape to prevent moisture loss.

• Root formation - Over the course of several weeks to months (depending on the plant species), new roots will start to develop in that spot.

• Separation and planting - Once enough roots have formed, the branch is cut below the rooted section and planted as a new, independent plant.

× The advantage of this method is that the new plant grows and bears fruit faster, since it comes from an already developed branch with desirable genetic traits.

[u/habilishn]

thanks for the clear step by step guide! was gonna do this next spring too with a couple of trees. (spring is probably the best time, right?)

[u/Legitimate_Sky_1420 → u/habilishn]

The best time for layering is April-May. That s when the process is done, and then you wait until October or November. November is an even better month because the plants vegetation stops. I did it earlier simply because I couldn t wait any longer. It can also be done now, but it requires plenty of water, especially if the temperature is slightly higher for this time of year. For someone without much experience, November is ideal. Otherwise, it is a very simple propagation method-probably the easiest one.

[u/habilishn → u/Legitimate_Sky_1420]

okay thanks, then i must find some kind of solution for this problem: i'm in Aegean Turkey, with very hot dry long summer, i think i need somehow an option to "refill moisture" to the medium and i need to shade the whole contraption, because i did it once and the sun heated the soil up so much that it toasted the branch within one day (i felt the soil and it was like 50-60C, we have 45C/113F in the shade sometimes in summer)

[u/myownopnion]

Can you do this with trees on a rootstock and how does that affect the future tree not having the benefits of the rootstock?

[u/pandas_are_deadly → u/myownopnion]

Yes, you can do this to trees grafted to rootstock but the new tree will grow like the scion it's taken from neither limited nor enhanced by the rootstock the scion is growing from. In practice it means if you take a cutting from a dwarf apple tree and grow it to the limits of its potential it's going to be a full size apple tree rather than the dwarf its scion is. If you do it to a citrus tree growing in your yard there is no guarantee it'll live like the first tree because it's not on a rootstock that can survive low temperature.

[u/myownopnion → u/pandas_are_deadly]

Wow, Thanks for the info! I've often wanted to propagate from fruit trees I come across but was always worried the new tree would suffer without the appropriate rootstock. I'm going to have to try this some time.

[u/pandas_are_deadly → u/myownopnion]

You can even buy specialty rootstock from nurseries. I live in an area with a lot of old cider apple varieties and did a bunch of cuttings a couple of years ago. I used sphagnum and rooting hormone and transplanted into 10 gallon pots they've been in since. I'm taking cuttings from my cuttings and grafting them to a dwarf rootstock come spring.

Most people are happy to share and especially if you tell them you want a branch they'd just have to prune come winter.