Failed air layering still prod

Failed air layering still produced some great growth.

@roadkill Congrats on you're new kratom BUSH. Sorry the air-layering broke, but it will be easiest to harvest from if it isn't a 100 foot tall tree. It's a real decision as to when or if to top, even if unintended. 

    Sorta like deciding if your kids should be circumcised or not. ✂️✂️😁  and there will always be a dominant branch trying to take over the role of lead shoot ..

 I can't climb anymore so a bush works for me. Your trees are looking very happy too.🌲🌲

last edited by peteypyro

That’s very cool. Growth hormones getting redistributed to the side branches?

@pete2000 I think I heard that the tip or 'terminal' bud produces an inhibiting hormone that keeps local competitive growth controlled.  When that top bud is removed, so is the inhibiting hormone,  and nearby buds will then grow. So ive heard somewhere. 

  It seems in kratom though, that it likes to branch out easily anyway  🤣

@pete2000 I believe that the terminal bud produces a hormone that inhibits side  branching,  but when the tip bud is removed,  the inhibiting hormone is too, and branching starts. 

@pete2000 You yes are looking good, Sir.

 I wonder if the 14 hour long days are the trigger for blooming? Its less than 2 years old, a toddler at best...

 or the cup of triple phosphate that i sprinkled into its compost last fall? 

 Maybe it's getting to much testosterone?                      (or estrogen?)

     (Children having puberty so young) 

last edited by peteypyro

@peteypyro

Last fall I added some bone meal along with tree fertilizer. Maybe the extra phosphorus along with warmer temps helped? I know cannabis growers increase phosphorus during pre-flower and then use bloom boosters with crazy high P numbers during flowering. 

@pete2000 Yes, that phosphorus really can 'force' plants into bloom. Even this 6 inch tall hibiscus fully-rooted cutting!

                       I swear by it.

        ( and iron re-bar as a stake )

  The orchids that my best half got for our 35th year together were fed a spoon of 'triple phosphate' last fall...

and are again blooming crazy a year later. 

  


and momma Brugmansia always blooms her head off...


...after just a quarter cup full, 

                                   .. .and lotsa water 


Maybe the juvenile Kratom was forced a little prematurely 🤔

   These things happen 'round here when I tinker with things....                          ~Its all good~

last edited by peteypyro

@roadkill. I'd be tempted to cut the secondary branch into short segments, each with its own budding shoot barely coming out. Sort of like an inverted "T". Make cuttings out of those. 

@peteypyro probably lots of factors in play when it comes to flowering. My tree went from a 3” cutting to flowering in less than a year. I recall the gentleman I got the cutting from saying the mother was flowering around the time the cutting was taken. I’d always assumed that was the reason for the early flowering.

Too much phosphorus can be a problem though. It can make iron and zinc less available - https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/soil-fertilizers/high-phosphorus-in-soil.htm

It can also have a negative effect on mycorrhizae- https://www.lebanonturf.com/education-center/biological-plant-treatments/the-truth-about-phosphates-and-mycorrhizal-fungi

Not saying to avoid adding extra phosphorus, clearly some plants respond well to higher levels at certain times, but as with many things it might be best to start with smaller doses.

Really need to test different fertilizers on a bunch of clones. Maybe I’ll give it a shot later in the summer.