Check it, before you wreck it!!!

I'm sorry, this is new to me, what is the point and the final outcome?

Do roots grow under the tape?

The final outcome is multiplication. Roots form under the tape, cut, plant, done!

Pretty cool :)

Do you take tape off ? And if you do what happens to roots?

I think you'd leave the tape on when you plant it and just let the roots grow through/around it.

Do you girdle the branch at all?

Do you have pics that show the results or is this your fist attempt?

You added no details nor comments.  Where did you see this technique?

There is not much on this technique, but it works. Did it this summer on a 1" diameter trunk and let it be. In six weeks or so the tape started bulging out and looked like it was going to give birth to an alien. One thing I know is your cuttings won't rot. It is very easy to do just start at the bottom of a big branch and wrap everything except the buds with a roll of electric tape. I will update later when I unravel the tape. Oh,one more thing, this technique requires no babysitting. (Taking the tape off does not disturb the roots at all)

Cool, I look forward to seeing the results.  Do you have pics of your first go round?

James posted about this a long while back, post is towards the end.

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/air-layering-marathon-pictures-4849944?highlight=tape&pid=41549730

Interesting.

Thank you Matt

Dude, that is crazy! (excuse me, cray cray).
So you can take the tape off eventually and it won't rip off the roots? That is awesome! (Having electrical tape in the warm moist soil of an edible plant probably isn't the best thing in the world. )
I am definitely going to try this idea. Thanks for sharing it!

So when you remove the air layer, do you have sufficient roots to keep the leaves alive?
Especially in your climate, I would imagine the heat and dryness would kill the plant if not enough roots.
Thank you for the idea.

Oh my yes.  I was wondering as well until I read that.

Thank you James!

Thank you for posting fun stuff to do thats easy.

Also from the thread mentioned above. Whats going on in this pic from james.

I was thinking the same thing as Leon.  It seems like there wouldn't be extensive enough root tissue to support the top growth.  Even with conventional airlayers with decent roots I typically remove half the leaves (or maybe more).

James only seems to do it to get the roots to start forming then begins his airlayers, so I would assume after the tape is on for a while , then the air layers can be started.

We will see, I'm going to go straight into cups of 5-1-1 under the cfl's after root formation. During summer when I do air layers, you don't need very many roots forming for a plant to take off in soil. I'm going to try just exposing the one bud above soil line. Air layers always seem to grow faster than cuttings, maybe this is due to the energy lost from cuttings being removed from plant before root formation. This way, (electrical tape) roots form while cuttings are still intact saving energy for the new plant growth. This is my theory, but we will see!!!

Hi,
I would be afraid of the bark rotting under the tape.
But why not !
Let us know what comes out of that experience !

Honestly, I scratched my head in confusion, and then had to read through this whole thread to finally get to some details regarding this technique of starting roots on stems.  I didn't even understand the title, or subject, of the thread.  Without the link to the original postings, and the explanatory photos, I would have been lost.  I have never seen this tape-wrapping technique before, and if it works well, it can be a real boon for those who want a lot of trees, quickly. For every node, a tree.  That's great!

So... the plastic tape is wound around the stems with sticky surface towards the outside....Ummmmmm....I wonder if a thin layer of burlap (strips) can be wound around the stems first, then wrapped with the outer layer of tape.  Then the  plastic tape is ultimately removed after roots form, but the burlap stays wrapped on the stems -which are subdivided into sections- and the roots can continue to grow through the burlap, undisturbed...and into the growing medium.

All, just speculation on my part.  Of course, I'm going to try this next season.  How could I not?


Frank

Good thing we are on the same page, because I also scratch my head in confusion about most things posted in f4f forum.:)