Following behind Granddad in the garden on any given day, you’d be likely to look up & catch a glimmer of the sun reflecting from a tin foil covered tree branch.

I asked him once why we were wrapping the trees in tin foil.

He said, “We’re making new trees, Sweets!”

I couldn’t understand how covering trees in the same stuff Grandma covered chicken with would make new trees, but if Granddad said it, then it was so.

I don’t remember seeing what he did to the tree before wrapping it with foil, but I know he always had new fruit trees & rarely visited a nursery.

I believed it was magic.

That he was magic.

I’m still not convinced that both aren’t true.

Now on my own journey in tree propagation, I’ve learned that what Granddad was doing is called ‘air layering.’

One identifies a tree that you want to clone, then use a blade to cut into the bark of a branch & scrape away the (green) cambium layer of the tree branch.

Disconnecting the tree’s connective tissue layer (cambium) on this branch creates a wound that signals to the tree that this branch has been separated from the system & needs roots if it’s going to survive.

I gathered moss from our pecan tree & soaked it in water to use as the growing medium. I then coated each new branch wound in organic turmeric powder, which serves as a natural anti-microbial agent & growth hormone.

A couple zip ties were used to secure the bag to the branch & I wrapped the branch in tin foil to keep the sun’s rays from damaging the young roots to come.

All of nature is intent on surviving & has numerous modes of doing so. If I can keep the squirrels from tearing through my carefully wrapped bundles, in a few months I should have young roots inside the bags which would allow me to cut the branch away from the mother tree & plant it into its own pot to become established.

This Spring, I air layered jocote, loquat & 3 varieties of mango trees.

The ability to “make new trees” from established trees is a skill I believe worth mastering. My attempt to harness this magic would make my Granddad very proud.