Propagation: Can this large branch be rooted?, 1 by seedpicker_TX

seedpicker_TX wrote:
ok...so if you really want to try it, just try to air-layer it to the scale of the tree...LARGE, lol...

I'd suggest you take a three gallon pot, and cut it down one side from the top, down, until you reach the bottom center drain hole. This way you can "hinge open" the pot(you may have to make the drain hole much larger, so that it will fit snugly around the base of the trunk), and then wrap it back closed around the trunk. They have black duct tape now, so you could tape the pot back together, once you got it secured around the trunk, to hold it together.

I'd run a knife around the bark only skin deep(don't cut into the white woody part of the tree, only just into the green cambium layer just under the outer bark). Strip off a section of bark skin a few inches above where it meets the rest of the tree, and then up about 7 inches, or so. Just make sure it will all be covered by the pot.

Then dust the exposed area of this branch with rooting hormone. Pack coir, or sphagnum moss around the "skinned" area, and then wrap or cover it somehow, so that the moss, or coir will not dry out too quickly...maybe a large clear lid of a round take out container, adapted to be a "lid" for the pot?

What I am trying to describe is sort of a homemade, and much larger version of this(scroll down for pictures):
http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/000661.php

An alternate way would be to use a 3 gallon pot at the base of it, like I described, but only score, or scratch vertical stripes in the bark, instead of removing a section of it and then fill the pot with potting soil. This might take longer, but will be less traumatic to the tree. It will hopefully eventually make roots where the scratches are, and the soil will dry out less often than moss, or coir...

Hey, if it works on a small scale, maybe it will work on a large scale, right?

It is worth a try, if that is really what you want to do... :0)