I hope to be able to propagate American persimmon (Diospyros virginiana L.) using the technique of 'air-layering'. Despite the said difficulty (?practical impossibility) of rooting softwood/greenwood cuttings and hardwood cuttings alike, I believe that air-layering would work reliably. If it does, I'll move on to common/northern pawpaw (Asimina triloba L.).

EVIDENCE that this technique will work: I received a containerized, grafted American persimmon from a nursery and it nearly seems certain that the base of the wild American persimmon rootstock bellow the graft was buried under 3" of soil accidentally and this caused, as far as I can tell, the trunk of the rootstock to put forth fine root hairs that looked recent. Being concerned that this was girdling the sapling - that the fine root hairs would not increasingly establish and that the tree would become girdled by the soil, I removed the excess 3" of soil so that only what appears to be the original, dedicated root-system would be covered with soil.
Now, what was an ambiguous region: half root-system/half root-stock stem, is simply the root-stock's stem only.

So, I'm going to attempt to air-layer propagate one of the greenwood branches of an American persimmon tree (starting now: August; zone 6b).

I'll use a powdered rooting hormone and sphagnum moss soaked in willow water (not saturated before applying) and see what happens...

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Steve