Just down the street from me, in the corner of some fenced off property belonging to some industrial business it turns out there is a 7 ft. high Flying Dragon tree. Who knows how it got there, but its nice to see. The tree has fruited in past years (though I don't see any this year).

What I'd love is to have a fruiting Flying Dragon of my own. If the owners will let me, I was thinking of trying to air layer a branch.

Does anyone know - is air layering usually successful with Flying Dragon, and if not - is there a good way to propagate it other than by seed?


Thanks,

Pelham

Marcotting is another term for air layering. This would most likely work:

http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=4148728&a=31193555&f=

Thanks for the link Joe. An excellent demonstration.

I'll give it a try!

Pelham

Flying Dragon roots easily. Instead of getting one plant by air layering, you could get many plants from a branch by cutting into 4/5 inch pieces and rooting. At the present time I am rooting 100 cuttings of Flying Dragon. - Millet

When things don't root well for me, air layering always works. Now, I find that when I root the easier cuttings (most citrus)...take the bark off the lower inch or so & dip it in rooting hormone & then in a clear plastic cup of 1/2 peet & 1/2 perlite kept moist but not wet.

Millet,

When you root Flying Dragon, what is your success rate compared with something easy - like Calamondin? And how long before you can tell if they've taken - I know Flying Dragon is slow growing -- I wonder if it is also slow to root...

Like Patty, I seem to have trouble rooting citrus. They either shrivel up from being too dry, or they rot from being to wet. I can't seem to get it figured out just right.

I'll certainly give it a go though. It'd be easy to take some cuttings. If that doesn't work, I could move on to air layering using Joe's example.

Hi Pelham, I've rooted P. Trifoliata (like FD) just by breaking off a branch & sticking it in same pot - no hormone, nothing. The ones that won't root that way, I cut the bark off & use hormone. Maybe you kept them too wet? Use a wooden skewer & keep it in mix. If you want to see how moist it is, just pull it out & besides looking & feeling the stick, roll it over your upper lip or side of mouth. That way you can REALLY feel how moist it is. Just keep the skewr in the pot so you can check again. Don't let it get REAL wet...just damp.

For rooting....
I clip what I want to root.. remove bottom leaves.. about 1/2-1" up..
Shave a bit of the sides off just the bark part.. dip in water then in rooting hormone...
Then get a moist Peat pellet.. Open a hole in the top with a bamboo skewer.. Drop the stem in the hole.. firm pellet around cutting stem. (this also removes excess water) then I put the pellet in a bowl usually 5 per bowl.. then stick bowl in a gallon zipper bag... check for roots after a month or so.. just open bag pull out pellet with stem.. as soon as roots start growing out of the pellet time to pot up to 4" pot.. at that point no zipper bag needed....

Just my 2c..

Gina *BabyBlue*