A Yard In Fort Pierce

While I was outside today I noticed that my Silver Dollar Gum Tree ( Eucalyptus cinerea ) was outgrowing it's stake. While I was re-staking and re-tying the Silver Dollar Gum some pieces were removed by accident. I figured instead of tossing them I should attempt to propagate them by air layering them. I just want to see if I can do it, and if so I would love to have 2 of them. I photographed the process to answer any questions.

The first picture is of the piece that I am using. It was the best piece.

The second picture is where I shaved the first layer of the stick off with my pocket knife. I did not want to go to deep but I did want to remove all of the greenish color. Then I applied a powder root hormone to the wound I have just made. Take care not to waste to much time between wounding and hormone and wrapping. You do not want the wound to dry out.

The third picture is of the wrapping. After I applied the root hormone I wrapped the wound with wet Sphagnum moss. You want to soak the moss and then wring it out before application.

The forth picture is placing the wet moss wrapped wound into a plastic bag. The plastic bag is used to hold the moisture in during propagation. The wound must remain wet at all times or else it will callous over and not work.

The final picture is of the final wrapping. After placing the bandaged wound in the plastic bag I wrapped it one more time. This time I used tin foil to block out the sunlight. The wound must remain dark as well as wet. If all goes as planned in a few weeks when I remove the tin foil I should see roots in the plastic bag. Then I can plant the newly propagated Silver Dollar Gum in a pot to grow up and add it's wonderful fragrance to my yard!!