Air layering a dracaena

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kls_01 Champaign, IL(Zone 5b) Apr 02, 2008

Ok, I have two tall draceanas I want to propagate this spring. I was going to just chop off the tops and put them in water/soil and then take cane cuttings until I get it to the size I wanted. Now I am considering air layering because it seems like it might be safer. My question is, can I do more than one cut on a plant? Can I have say, three cuts going on the same stalk? Also, I have some sphagnum moss that I had used in other pots for decoration. I was going to use this. Should I rinse it first in a bleach/water solution? Or, should I just stick with chopping the plant up? This is a plant that my mom gave to me that she's had for quite awhile. I want to get enough cuttings off the two stalks for my mother, sister, and I all to have starts from it. Any help is appreciated!

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WeeNel Ayrshire Scotland, United Kingdom Apr 05, 2008

Not a good idea to take more than one AIR cutting from each stalk at a time, to get the roots to grow into the moss or any other material, you need to make sure the sap is still rising on the stem, therefore if you make more than one cut on the stem, you will stop the flow of sap reaching the upper cuts, but as they say, nothing ventured, nothing gained, as for re using your moss, it is not a great idea as a, the moss is a living plant and it has had all the moisture removed by allowing it to be dry for a while, it may also harbour disease as it is nice and dry and little insects or fungus could be within, so buy fresh moss for the job if you decide to go ahead, I would never use bleach on anything that is going to be wrapped around the stem of plants, sterilised moss is cleaned from spores or germs by steam cleaning usually, but hey, who knows, the bleach is fine for pots etc so long as you rinse them out, there are other sterilising materials you could use and will find them in the garden store. hope this helps a bit. Weenel.

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