Layering apple tree propagation

[davholla]

Has anyone ever successfully managed to layer an apple tree to remove a cutting with roots?

If so how?

[davholla]

[gp.girl]

I'd graft it, you can buy proper rootstocks and after that all you need is a sharp knife, a large elastic band and some low melting point wax. 1 out of 1 with professsonal supervision  ;)

[davholla]

I'd graft it, you can buy proper rootstocks and after that all you need is a sharp knife, a large elastic band and some low melting point wax. 1 out of 1 with professsonal supervision  ;)

Suppose for an experiment you wanted to try growing on their own rootstock?

[gp.girl]

Sounds fun. Apple trees get very big, have a look at proper orchards!

There's meant to be a new commercial method that doesn't use grafting but keeps the trees small. Saw it a few years ago. Don't know any details though. Have you tried the old bend a branch to the ground and pin it down method? It works for wisteria (another plant normally grafted) but they won't flower for 5 + years  :(

There's a method for 'layering' it up in the air if anyone with more experience knows it?

[goodlife]

Here is article about apples in their own rootstocks..and way to propagate them...
http://www.orangepippin.com/articles/own-roots

[Vinlander]

Layering is fairly straightforward (eg. http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/hil-8701.html)and is used on plants (like many apples) that are rather reluctant to root as cuttings.

However there are two disadvantages to growing apples on their own roots:

Firstly most of the good-tasting apples are naturally large trees (the naturally dwarf varieties used as rootstocks don't produce good apples on their own branches - apples from M9 are particularly tasteless).

Secondly it can take many years for an own-root tree to start producing regular crops, never mind reasonable crops... (I have tested this bit of standard wisdom and it is true).

In general the more dwarfing the rootstock the more quickly the grafted tree reaches its full cropping - and in a much smaller space - and at a height that won't shade out everything you might want to grow nearby.

There are various other considerations depending on your soil but in the UK most people are better off with apples grafted on M27, M9 or M26 - unless you've inherited broad acres and enough money to mean you can follow your whims (and buy someone else's organic produce for the many years before your own come on line).

Incidentally there are some trees (very few) that can be persuaded to grow easily from large (branch) cuttings - for example Egremont Russet will produce root nubs on any lower limbs that are in damp shade - large cuttings that include these root nubs can be pushed straight into soft soil in early winter and will be well rooted by May (providing it isn't a dry year). This is a kind of self-layering process.

There are supposed to be a few trees that can be persuaded to root in a pitcher of water and can then be planted up - apparently this is the origin of them being called 'pitcher apples'.

Cheers.

[jennym]

I've done air layering, and soil layering but not with apples.
The way I did air layering was, in early spring, to select a pencil sized stem with growth buds (rather than flower/fruiting buds) and to the side of the bud, carefully peel away about an inch strip of the top layer of bark. Don't go too deep, you don't want to cut into the white heartwood, you want to expose the cambium layer, the green layer just beneath the bark. Then a good couple of handfuls of moist peat was applied to the stem on the wound and wrapped in black plastic to hold it on, and this was tied in place. I found that bit fiddly. It took well over a year for some roots to develop.
I think you may have problems trying to bend an apple branch down to the ground and pegging it to soil layer. I feel sure that if this was a viable method for apples, the orchards would be doing it. Most of the orchards round here have short sized trees, they are far easier to manage. 
Grafting is worth a try. First, you can propagate rootstock by taking pieces of root (select small roots with fibrous parts attached) and inserting them into a very gritty compost mix into a heated propagator, they do need some bottom heat. Another way is to use any shoots that spring up around the base of a tree from the rootstock, scape some bark from these and mound soil around them, they often throw roots into the mound of soil. You can then sever them from the tree and grow them on. You can then try grafting onto these. You can also buy a cheapo tree and graft onot that once established.
Graft in spring. Some pictures of grafting are shown here: http://wapedia.mobi/en/Grafting and a clear one of bud grafting here: http://wapedia.mobi/en/Shield_budding
This is an excellent video on some grafting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTtXmBVsolY&feature=fvw but it is american, as is this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTqG8-OhElY&feature=related
hope this helps.