Jaboticaba propagation

[elriba]

A friend of mine studied in Brazil, and yesterday told me he brought jaboticaba seeds from Brazil, and planted a tree about 29 years ago in his father’s house.   The tree has been fruiting for the last 10 years (took 19 years to start fruiting). 

Anyway, his father’s house will most probably be sold in the neat future, and he (and I) would like to propagate that tree. 
Can I air-layer jaboticabas?  Are there any specific things to do or just use a regular air layer?
Can I propagate using cuttings (like figs)?

Thanks…

[K-Rimes]

You can take scions for grafting, which is very reliable.

Air layering is pretty common on jabos and seems to have good success.

There are some people who clone them from cuttings, but it's a bit of a dark art and not many people share their methods. It seems most successful on small branches. Shiloh on here does it, Matthias Thomas does it in Germany, and Shen overseas is a true master.

[elriba]

Thanks for responding.

I don't have any rootstock available, so it has to be air layering or cuttings.    I have been watching videos on youtube and there is (as always) a lot of information, so it's difficult to assess the validity of it.

I found this video which I found rather curious.   It is about cuttings.  I don't speak portoguese, but with the sub-titles and what little I could understand I could make sense of it.

(1) The white powder he applies to the cutting is IBA rooting hormone.
(2) The reason a women's stocking is used to cover the bottom part of the cutting is to mantain humidity.  He says that jaboticabas need a lot of water for rooting, and the stocking helps keep the cutting moist.  On a funny note, I "think" he advises to take the stocking from your wife without her knowing, otherwise she might chew you out over taking it (or something like that  )
(3) You need to water this every 2-3 days.  He says that jaboticabas need a lot of water for them to root.

Don't know if I missed anything else important. 

https://youtu.be/4xNOCBJ0JKY

Check it out.  Don't know if this is valid information or not, but it definitely is a very interesting take on this problem.

[pineislander]

I used the automatic translation from Portuguese to English. He mentions to be sure and open the covering and water every 3 days without mistake. He also mentions at 3 months to add another spoonful of rooting hormone and wash it down into the soil to refresh the hormpone level, and the final project took 5 months.
I will say that the result is about what a 1-2 year old seedling could be. It was interesting.

[achetadomestica]

If the tree is 29 years old it must be huge.
You should be able to try various ways to propagate the tree.
I would try to get some sabara rootstock and graft some scions?
Even if you ask the new owners to come back when you have the
rootstock ready? I have a couple grafted jabo trees and they will fruit
sooner and have less issues on sabara rootstock. I put some red jabo cuttings in a jar
of water and they stayed green for several months before they fizzled
They never rooted
Fruitsy on ebay is selling varigated sabara and Green Crystal Phitrantha
that were rooted from cuttings. He may share his methods with you?
Do you have any idea what type of jabo it is? 

[elriba]

Hi Mike,
I don’t know which type it is.   What surprised me was that it took 19 years to fruit.  I guess some species take such a long time.

[W.]

Hi Mike,
I don’t know which type it is.   What surprised me was that it took 19 years to fruit.  I guess some species take such a long time.

That sounds like Plinia coronata. They can take a long time to fruit.

Air layering is a jaboticaba propagation method used in Central America. I watched a video where a Costa Rican grower was propagating his jaboticabas that way. I think it was one of Pete Kanaris's videos from one of his Costa Rican ag tours.