I'm thinking of trying some Air Layering

In case you haven't caught on to the theme of my little blog here, I'm poor and I'm not really all that clever. So to make up for it I research; I try to figure out what others are doing to boost up bonsai on the cheap and maybe even do it quickly. Not too many poor fuckers (poor, as in no money) out there growing bonsai from cuttings and seeds, but this method is cheap, so that's why I do it. Same for cuttings. Both are cheap methods for potentially getting a bit of stock. But what about cheap and PRONTO?

It occurred to me that I could try air layering as a relatively cheap and fast way to get good bonsai stock. I've never tried layering as the only information I previously had was in books; the books were making it look fucking complicated as hell. Old books, mostly written by Japanese and English bonsai growers.  Use sphagnum moss. Use sphagnum moss. SPHAGNUM MOSS! That's all the authors kept talking about was sphagnum moss:

  "Take your sharp nursery knife and cut into the cambium layer... use rooting hormone gel.. cover that shit up with SPHAGNUM FUCKING MOSS, wrap it up tightly and keep moist. With some luck, you might get some roots which ...."

You know what? Shove that sphagnum moss right up your ass! Fuck that! I can't find sphagnum moss, and when I do, it's expensive. But that's what these authors knew, so that's what they used. So, nope, never tried air layering.

So recently I started re-watching youtube videos on propagating bonsai. Nowadays there's a few bonsai growers from India and other non-English speaking (poor) countries posting bonsai how-to content on youtube. You know what? I love those videos! These bonsai growers from India and other United Nation countries look poor as fuck (just like me) and are using local materials to grow their trees (just like me) and not one of them is pulling SPHAGNUM MOSS out their ass! They're using shitty dirt that they likely just pulled out a ditch somewhere. They're cutting shit up like there's no tomorrow. And they're growing trees out of used coke bottles, dollar tree colanders, heck whatever they happen to have on hand.  And guess what? It's working for them. It's not there isn't something magical about SPHAGNUM MOSS. Maybe that's why the old bonsai authors are touting it so much - cause it's magic! But what if you don't have that bit of magic elf shit? You adapt. You overcome.  You make due with what you got. 

Or you don't.

So I'm feeling more inspired to try air layering, so on to more research. Then I learn about these air layer balls. There are people out there using these pokeball looking devices that you fill with that coconut fiber shit, then like 2 months later, BAM! It's like little fucking magic-pokemon, roots coming out of their little poke balls, they're coming up with roots on their air layer in about 4 weeks or so. 

So yeah, I'm gonna go buy myself a tree and I'm gonna try my hand at some air layering this week. I've tried Walmart and Home Depot, but so far, neither has what I'm looking for. I'll try a couple other nurseries. Once I get some material,  I'll try to include a write up and pictures.