lychee airlayering question

[boxturtle]

I tried to airlayer my sweetheart on July 30th of this year.  I opened up the foil and saw this.  the white thing feels hard.  Bark callous? Good or bad? what it is? Another question any I'll effect on a young tree host when you airlayer it?

[fruitlovers]

Doesn't look like bark callous. But if it is then it would be bad. It would mean the cut you made was bridged, the tree is healing the cut, and it's not going to form roots. It also looks to me like you made the rootball too small for the size of the branch.
No ill effect on tree you're air layering, unless you put way too many airlayers on the tree.

[boxturtle]

Oscar should I unwrap and have a peek? would it be ok to rewarp if I see Lil roots?

[fruitlovers]

Oscar should I unwrap and have a peek? would it be ok to rewarp if I see Lil roots?

Don't see any roots in the photo. You can very carefully unwrap. If you see any roots then the cut has not bridged and the air layer should proceed ok. Though it seems from amount of time that the air layer has been on that there should be quite a bit of rooting ocurring already.

[boxturtle]

thanks!

[Jsvand5]

After you removed the ring of bark did you scrape the exposed wood as well?

[boxturtle]

Yups but this airlayer was no good it was bark callous :/

[fyliu]

Sorry to hear that. Maybe try it again but let the wood dry out for a few weeks before wrapping it up. You can check for regrowth. Also maybe make a wider separation like 4 inches so it's more difficult to bridge.

[fruitlovers]

Sorry to hear that. Maybe try it again but let the wood dry out for a few weeks before wrapping it up. You can check for regrowth. Also maybe make a wider separation like 4 inches so it's more difficult to bridge.

Letting cut dry out is not necessary for lychee. This is more common practice for longan.. And even then the cut only needs to dry out for one day before applying moss.
More likely is the cut separation was not wide enough. Suggest making the cut 1.5 to 2 inches wide. Also make sure to very carefully remove cambium layer all the way around. Sometimes you don't see the bottom of cut, leave a little strip unscraped, and that will be enough for the cut to bridge and heal itself, and therefore will not root up.
Make sure to select a branch well exposed to sun. Branches in shade will not root up.
Using rooting hormone on the cut supposedly help the air layer to root up faster. Personally i never use it and still have high percentage root up, but maybe have to wait a bit longer for roots to form?

[boxturtle]

thanks for all the info!  I will try again next year

[Cookie Monster]

One relatively easy way to get rid of the cambium layer is to take a pair of pliers and scrape the bark with the inner serrated portion of the pliers as if you were loosening a bolt. When I was layering lychee, I would simply cut the two circular rings then use the pliers to remove bark + cambium.

[fyliu]

Why next year? Just try again at the same place. I just put airlayers on my longan and a friend's jujube recently. It just takes longer in cool weather. I think it will take ~5 months instead of 3. I did it before with lychee around thanksgiving and it was not yet ready in February, but it won't die from being girdled too long. Heck, my miracle fruit airlayers have been on the tree for over a year and half of them are still not ready, but they are fruiting fine.

[Finca La Isla]

I use pliers too. Depending on how wet/loose the bark is I won't even use a knife. I think that the ragged edge left by the ripping action of the pliers encourages more rooting.
Peter