Anyone Tried Egg Layering?

[shmojojojo]

I wanted to do some air layering around the yard, and in the past I've used old plastic bottles and had some success, but I want something easier and reusable. I wasn't about to spend $30 for a couple of small plastic air layer globes, so I bought some Easter eggs! Now is the time, everything Easter is on major clearance. I bought 20 of the big eggs and 30 of the small all for around $10.

Here are some pics of them on my Nazemetz Pineapple Guava.







They already had the holes for the strings, you just have to make the hole for the branch. A drill is no good as it might crack the egg, so I used a heated up screw driver tip to make the holes. Very quick and easy. Just pack them with moist soil and a little root hormone, snap them together on the branch and tie the string. Throw some foil over them and you're done! If you want, you can seal the holes better with plastic wrap or buddy tape if you're worried about the soil drying out.

[Oolie]

I'm curious to see if you have any success. I've never known feijoa to root easily.

[shmojojojo]

It's my first attempt. I'm just hoping I don't go 0 for 6 Planned to remove those branches, so nothing to lose I guess.

[Daintree]

I LOVE the idea of finding a new use for something common!
Good luck!

[Jaboticaba45]

I have tried that with plastic water bottles and it worked well on my guava tree.

[850FL]

I have tried that with plastic water bottles and it worked well on my guava tree.

Guava tree.. what type of guava tree? Is it a tropical (mexican cream, ruby supreme, etc) or semi-temperate (pineapple, strawberry, etc) variety that you had success with?

[Jaboticaba45]

I have tried that with plastic water bottles and it worked well on my guava tree.

Guava tree.. what type of guava tree? Is it a tropical (mexican cream, ruby supreme, etc) or semi-temperate (pineapple, strawberry, etc) variety that you had success with?

I am not sure... I got it from a nursery in Orlando fl and they said it was a red guava

[roblack]

hilarious and intelligent, love it

[Odenwald]

I've too have used plastic bottles.  Better to put them to some use rather than throwing them away.  I also use the plastic bottles instead of plant pots for germinating seeds and growing seedlings.  It makes a mini greenhouse for them.  Let us know how if the egg idea hatches.

[odin.9]

Michaels has packs of 24 eggs for $0.89 clearance (2.5")... free curb pick-up. I'll give this a try too.

[shmojojojo]

Thanks for the well wishes. Good to see other people trying this. $0.89 for a 24 pack? Nice! 

It's made the air layering process pretty easy, so I've been placing them all over my yard. It's gonna be Easter right on into July lol. Fits in with the wacky theme of 2020 I guess   I'll post some more pics of my attempts on other trees and the results in a couple months.

[shmojojojo]

So I decided to crack an egg open at the halfway point. Soil was nice and moist and it looks like I'm getting roots or at least some white clumps that look like roots. Sorry for the awful photos. Are these roots? Is it normal for them to grow like this? I'm also not happy with how the soil stayed separated in each egg half. I'm worried it will tear the roots away from the scion next time I open them. It's my fault for packing the soil in too hard. Could that also be causing the roots to form the way they are? I opened up a couple more (both had the same white clumpy roots) and removed/loosened some of the soil with a toothpick. Maybe I should do that for all of them

[odin.9]

what plant is that? doesn't look like roots yet to me... just callose that is healing a wound.
did you girdle the tree and use rooting hormone?

I just started a few egg layering experiments and will report back in a few months.

[shmojojojo]

It's a Feijoa. Yes, I scraped the bark and used rooting hormone. I was expecting at least 3 months and I'm at the 1.5 month mark, so I think it still has a while to go. I'm just glad the soil was still moist. Good luck with your eggs