European Beech – 2017 preparation

I purchased this one for $45 from Rockbank Nursery. It’s a tall straight tree, so I thought I’d try air layering it to get two trees.

European Beech – 2017 preparation
A reasonable tree, but maybe on the bland side.

…and for the record, the documents:

So, after waiting until budding started in November, I put on the air layer.

Spoiler: I’ve yet to make an air layer work.

The leaves are very pretty when they first bud.

almost rainbow colours

Over the next few months I had healthy growth despite the air layer:

Lots of shade.

Then in April 2018 I cut the tree in two. The bottom half stayed in the big pot for a while, while the tops half gets a new home.

As it turns out, I cut way too soon. It had been 4 months from spring to autumn, which I had though was long enough. The tree had started forming these… buds? Calluses? , which I thought would act like proto-roots.

What is that stuff?

Nope. the top half was dead.

That bunch of twigs. Yeah, that’s the dead tree.

So the air layering attempt fails. I’ll try again, with much more patience. No cutting until there’s actual visible roots.

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