I'm here in the orchard with Dave today and we're going to give you a simple
five-step tutorial on marcotting a Longan so these are the tools you need for
the trade which is just a handful of tools we've got a pair of pliers a sharp knife
some string and a bag of Coir mix and this is just one pot of Coir so we
measure this out so we're ready to go and Dave's got all his tools ready to
show you this really simple technique so there's five steps and the first step is
selecting your tree the second step will involve selecting the branch that you're
going to marcot. You're then going to prepare that branch ready to marcot it
you're going to cincture it where you want the roots to form on your tree and
you're going to pack that Cincture and then you're going to leave it to form
roots into this pack of Coir mix that you put on it and once it's ready you
cut it off and you have yourself a marcotted longan tree ready to plant
So step one in our tutorial for marcotting a longan you need to select the tree that
you want to marcot on and what you need is a mature plant that produces excellent
quality fruit so we've selected our Kohala longan because we love these
fruits and it's a beautiful big tree so it's going to give us a lot of options
and we can go around and select the best pieces of wood to make our marcots.
So step number two is selecting the branch that you want to marcot and what you're
looking for is something that has a quite nice form so you've got to imagine
that this is going to become your upright stem so you want something that
branches out in about three or four branches and has a nice straight central
branch so we've selected this branch and Dave's going to prepare it for us
You just remove any of the excess wood and branches and this basically allows him
to see where he's working he just clears off the stem where he's going to put
the marcot so it's just a matter of stripping back some of the leaves and
branches and then he's just going to prepare it ready to make his cincture cut
so he's going to actually start by tying on a bit of string this is going to form
the pad and he does this because he's working on his own and it just makes it
easier in his one-man procedure so this is in preparation for the final step
which is packing it out so this is the most important part and this is where
you're going to cut off the bark so cincturing is ring barking the tree so
what you want to do is you want to take off all the outer bark down to the
cambium layer and you also want to remove the cambium layer from the branch
that you're marcotting so Dave's got this lovely pair of old pliers that are his
favourite tool for this job and the reason he chooses those because they're
nice and rough and they're perfect for stripping the bark off the tree so he's
just using the teeth inside the pliers to just strip that bark back to the
cambium layer so it comes off quite easily it's just the the different
layers of barks he's taking it down to the central core and then he's actually
going to wipe off the cambium and layer now if you don't take off the cambium
layer you'll find that when you pack it your bark will heal over and your
marcot will be unsuccessful so the idea of this you want to clean off the
cambium from this you want to remove all the outer bark and the roots are going
to form from this point here so this area will callus and this is going to
make the new roots and you're going to cut this off once it's formed roots and
this is going to be a new tree with a root system coming from here.
So step 5 is packing out your marcot and this is really important so this is with a
pre made bag of coir mix and it's got moisture in it so it needs to be a
little bit moist but not wet and this is going to keep this cincture nice and
moist and it's going to allow the roots to grow into this porous mix so Dave's
just going to cut it open where he's going to put the branch and this is what
is sharp knife as for
and then it's just a matter of holding down the branch however you can he's got
His bit of string that he's prepared at the start of the technique and then he's
going to make sure that that cincture is in the centre of the pack of coir and
he's going to firmly tie this around so the plastic bag is going to keep that
nice and tight you don't want the rain and extra moisture or pests and insects
getting into that bag so you do need to tie it off quite tightly so he's got a
loose knot that he's going to pull that string around and then he's going to tie
this pack firmly onto this branch so it doesn't move it's not loose the winds
not going to move it the weather's not going to move it the advantage of using
a plastic bag is you'll actually be able to see the roots as they form into this
and you'll know when it's going to be ready
but this marcot is going to take about two months until it's ready to cut off
so we're doing this at the end of summer so probably about the end of April May
we will be ready to take these marcots off we will then put them into a heated
polyhouse onto heated benches and so that they can continue to form roots
when we pot them up so you can see he's tied that off quite tightly all the way
along that marcot and he's going to tie it off in a nice tight firm knot
So when you've finished packing out your marcot there's just one other thing you
need to do and that's just put a couple of drainage holes in the bottom of the
bag and that's just in case there's any moisture that gets into your bag you need to
be able to let it out when it's ready to go you're going to cut it off here.
So this is the end result of your Longan marcotting and this is a potted plant
ready to go this marcot is about four or five months old so it's been taken off
the tree it's been potted up it's growing into its pot and it's actually
ready to plant so this is exactly what you're looking to produce
and this is going to flower and produce fruit at a really young age so the idea
of marcotting is to produce a miniature mature tree that is going to produce
true to type fruit so fruit that is exactly the same as the parent tree it's
a lovely marcotted variety and as you can see it's ready to plant.
so we hope that this this Daley's tutorial marcotting longans will give you the confidence
to try this at home so you can do this and you just go out and have a go if it
works and it succeeds you're gonna have a longan tree in your garden and if it
doesn't you've lost nothing so have a go in your garden have a go at marcotting
or air layering as they also call this technique and if you've found this helpful
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thoughts and comments of what you think because if you've liked this tutorial
we'll certainly be happy to do some more