Tutorial of layering:
Girdling and Strangulation: An amateur often cut the stem too light to have a good girdling and strangulation. This will make the root come out slower than it should. The right way is to cut at least one milimeter on the top ring and bottom ring, and then cut a stright line between the rings. Then, you can use the knief to pop the shell of the stem. If it is not easy for you to remove the shell, you either not cut it deep enough, or the sap is not enough. You can water bodhi tree before girdling so as to increase the sap. By removing the phloem cleaning, the roots will come out quickly. The following are some Chinese video clips of layering and wrapping with sphagna. The center of the wrapper should be the location of the girdling. This is because the center often has more moisture, which provides water for the roots, and is kept from direct sun ligh, which can inhibit the roots from coming out.
- Material: If you use sphagnum moss to wrap, some people think that it's better to cut sphagum moss into short pieces. This can avoid long sphagum moss from dragging new roots to break accidentally when you try to plant the cutting. However, it requires more effort so whether or not cut it into pieces depends on your own preference. If you prefer to use plastic bag to cover it, you may also use alumninum foil, which may be more convenient while more expensive. You can also cut a small plastic pot to cover it. The plastic pot typically has more room available for roots so it may be a good choice.
- Season: The hotter the season is, the faster new root will grow. Therefore, new root develops the fastest in the summer. In as short as one week the root will start to grow, and there may be enough roots after a month or so. The more roots the safer. However, in the summer new leaves also grow fast, resulting in more evaporation of water and thus dehydration. You must be careful to keep the moisture.
- Length of stem: Usually 20 centimeters is enough from the grindling location to the top of stem. As Bodhi tree grows very quickly, the length of the stem can often be more than 30 centimeters when there is enough root. Long stem may make it more difficult for you to transplant.
Amount of roots: After a while, you will see roots coming out of the wrapper. It is typically safer to wait longer, as the roots you see may be the only roots available and may still not be enough to sustain the amount of evaperation from big bodhi tree leaves. In the beginning, if the wrap is closed enough, you only need to water once in a long time to keep the wrapper moist. When there are many roots, you may need to water it more regularly during hot days. If you want to fertilize bodhi tree during layering, you can feed it with fertilizer with more P or K, as they can high root and stem grow.
- Removal of leaves: After you pot the cuttage, people who do not have much experience better trim the leaves in half, or remove the majority of leaves, avoid any direct sun light, in order to avoid vaporing more water than what the new roots could absorb.
- Air humidity: It is critical to keep air humidity. In the first couples weeks, you must keep the humidity at above 80% at all times, and gradually move it to open environment later on. Otherwise, even if the plant has survived for 2~3 weeks, it can still die suddenly due to dehydration when the air humidity becomes low or when the plant is exposed to direct sun light. To keep high humidity, you can cover the plant with plastic bag for a week or so. To prevent mold, better uncover the plastic bag for couples minutes every couples days to give it resh air every couples days.
- No shaking: If the stem is shaked, there is high possibility that the new roots will break and the plant will die. Therefore, please be especially careful to avoid wind or the shaking of flowerpot during moving. Especially, bodhi tree grows very fast. Therefore, even if the branch is short when you start layering, it may be very long when you cut the branch. Such long branch is especially vulnerable to shaking.
- Based on the above concerns, it is recommendable to put the cuttage indoor for cultivation, so as to prevent it from sudden strong wind's causing root break or dehydration, or direct sun light's causing dehydration. If when you cut the branch, the roots are not very strong yet, it is better to grow it like cuttage. For example, you can use sands as potting media, and put the cuttage in a small pot. After the roots grow very strong (e.g. strength out from the hole at the bottom of the pot), it will be safe to repot it (bodhi tree cuttage together with the sands) into normal soil. This can minimize risks such as too many bacteria causing root rot.