Layering Propagation Simple Layering

Simple layers are made by bending and covering the branches with more or less soil. In general, a shallow in short trench or a small hole is made in the earth and the branch pegged or weighted down in it prior to being covered with soil to the depth of 2 or 3 inches but with 6 to 12 inches of the extremity of the shoot uncovered to draw sap and elaborate plant food.

To hasten root formation the stems are often wounded at the points to be covered. Wounding may be done by scraping the bark or cutting through the cambium layer on the lower side of the branch below the bud or shoot to grow, or it may be severely wounded by twisting the branch at this point. Hacking with a knife near the node is also often done. These woundings tend to form adventitious buds on which root growth in asexual propagation depends.

So with many species and varieties of shrubs may be propagated by simple layering that it seems probable any woody plant capable of being bent to the earth can be thus propagated.

Black raspberry canes and shoots cannot be made to root well when covered at more than their tips. When the tips are about ready to take root they should be anchored with pebbles or clods of earth to prevent whipping about by the wind. This is especially important where the ground is hard and dry. Since this method is the only one practiced in propagating black raspberries, it is sometimes called tip layering.

In the following spring the rooted tips are severed for planting with about 6 inches of the stems to serve as handles. The buds from which the new canes are to develop must not be set deeper than the surface of the soil.