I’m always trying to find a better way. I made my first air layer around the age of 10. My father learned the technique from Dr. Frank Brown in the 60’s while living in Miami. My parents eventually moved up to Brevard County (as did Dr. Brown) and worked in the space program. To generate some extra income, they would air layer crotons and sell them to the City of Satellite Beach and to the neighbors. I would help once in a while.
Through the years, I would air layer crotons for fun or when I saw an unusual one. We had a pretty good collection of crotons around our house and air layering them was a common thing to do.
Somewhere around 2005, after running an exotic palm and cycad business, I built a tropical fruit farm on Merritt Island, Florida which today is called Nick’s Island Tropical Fruit. We grow mangoes, lychee, longan and a few others. I was asked many times if we sold “trees” as well as fruit. So when the trees got much larger, I started to air layer the lychees and longans. Along with myself, my father, my brother and sometimes Randy (current orchard manager), we made lots and lots of fruit trees.
It was during this time that I thought there must be an easier, more efficient and sustainable way to propagate fruit trees. The old way of using aluminum foil wasn’t going to work anymore. That’s when I started thinking about the Root Boot. I tried to make something that would help make the repetitive tasks easier, make processing the new trees easier, and leave less of a footprint in the local landfill. On November 12, 2023 I was granted a U.S. Patent for my invention as well as the trademark “Root Boot.”
