11-4-15 Successful first layer on a Ronde de Bordeaux

[Sarahkt]

Thanks again to the very generous forum member who sent me a RdB earlier this year!

I put my first air layer on it a few months ago and left it on to keep harvesting figs. There are still a few unripe ones on it but I wanted to remove the layer since the roots were looking very tight and the layer is a gift for a friend. RdB seems to root and layer easily based on what I've read on the forums, so that helped make it a success. I used a water bottle, wrapping tape, foil, and ProMix HP slightly moistened with very dilute MG.

It's huge and healthy, will be sad to remove the figs and maybe trim it a little. I've seen many others say so, and it's old news, but in practice I can see that layering is definitely easier than rooting cuttings, with a more robust result.

[don_sanders]

Looks good.

[Jamie0507]

Wowee! Look at those roots! Id say you can count this first airlayer as a definite SUCCESS! What a great gift this will make too.. Congrats!

[lifigs]

Excellent job. Looks great.

[jmaler]

Congratulations. Those are fine roots.

[Q*]

Very Nice!

[Tonycm]

Great job Sarah! Your friend's getting a nice healthy looking tree.

[greenfig]

Strong work! Congrats!

[AscPete]

Congratulation.
With the size of that root mass you may not need to remove all the figs, just a few of the larger leaves.

[Sarahkt]

Thanks, everyone!

Pete, I've already removed a few of the big lower leaves, and two of the tiny figs on top. Couldn't bring myself to remove any more figs. I'm not gifting it for a while yet, and there's still a chance they will ripen.

[SarinaP]

Gorgeous--what a great gift!

[chauqg]

Very nice work Sarah, Wonderful gift for a friend!

[efletche]

Question Sarah. Like everyone else, awesome roots! Being new, how did you get the bottle on the branch? Did you put it on when dormant and no leaves to get in the way or did you cut down the side of the bottle and wrap it around the branch? The mouth of the bottle is what I am most curious about since it would be harder to cut than the rest of the bottle and I can't see it clearly in the photos.

[Sarahkt]

Thanks! To answer your question, it's the latter -- I cut down the side of the bottle and cut off the mouth where the plastic started to get too hard to cut easily with scissors. It's a regular flimsy water bottle. I used scissors to cut the bottom off so it could be refitted as a lid to keep soil and moisture in. I removed any leaves and fruit from where I wanted to place the layer, and only lightly scraped the mostly green branch with a butter knife. It grew a lot taller during the rooting process, and when I saw the plant start sending out a bunch of green growth beneath the air layer I figured it was going well.

I'm reusing the cuff now on a very late air layer on an LSU Hollier, and made another one to layer LdA. It's late but most of my new plants show no signs of slowing down. If it starts to get too cold I might move those two pots indoors to root over the winter.