Air Layering / Marcotting Fruit Trees

[Jimmy Tsawo]

I have several neighboring fruit farms. They regularly prune their trees just after winter. I have been thinking of diversifying into commercial fruit farming and brewing. I have been successful with a small number of air layerings (5 small plants). I want to try this on a larger scale (250 trees) by asking / buying and air layering large branches before pruning. Is this possible with fruit trees and nuts, that is, lemons, oranges, almonds and macadamias?

 

[ncguire]

Sure, you can air layer trees, but I think grafting is the preferred method of cloning. Rootstocks are specifically chosen for their disease resistance and more often than not, will have a dwarfing effect, resulting in trees of smaller, more manageable size.

 

[jseyfert3]

So nothing like apples or pears?

 

[cottonwoodks]

If you take air layers, you will be growing the varieties on their own roots, and will get full-sized trees, which may or may not be suited for your area and space. If you want to go into production, you'll want to buy rootstock which is suited for your soil type and local conditions, and then graft the varieties onto them. Doing that will save you a ton of money over pre-made trees, and will be much more reliable than taking air layers.