I'm going to put them into some rooting material, today. Someone on another website said that maybe I could try air layering....but I do not know what that is. I have to do research on it, and in the meantime....I already got the branch off the tree last night. I have to get it going, pronto. I'll let you know!

With air layering the stem is left attached to the main plant. Some medium, like sphagnum, is put around it and covered with plastic to help keep moisture in. Sometimes the stem/branch is part cut through. When roots grow into the medium it can then be cut off. You need to do it in the growing season.

Thank you. With it being in the neighbor's yard, that isn't an option. The branch is now cut in pieces and in rooting material to grow roots. I'll update when/if I see buds in a couple of weeks. :)

Update: Out of 7 cuttings, so far four of them have teensy tiny leaf buds at the top, like tiny little flame on a wick. It has been like that for two days. I'll update again if/when there is any further progress.

Now, there are very fine "hairs" growing out of the nodes. So interesting, as they really do look like wavy 1 inch long hairs. We need a magnifying glass to see the hairs. In comparison to the sticks that don't seem to be taking...they don't have any hairs. I'm really new to gardening, and all of this so fascinating to me! LOL

Definitely check with a magnifying glass in case they're fungus filaments. Don't want to rain on your parade but with 'hairs' that long and thin I'd be a bit suspicious. Then again, I've never tried to grow carambola from cuttings so I'm only guessing.

Hmmm, I thought of that, but it does look like they are growing right out of the nodes, only. When I saw the first one, I mistakenly pulled it off thinking it was one of my hairs fallen on it. Then realized it was attached. It was emerging right out of the same node as the leaf bud. It doesn't look like mold, but I'll keep an eye on it. If it is mold, they will be discarded. I would try to take a photo to post, but the hairs are so tiny they almost look like magical wisps of smoke without a magnifying glass to look closely.

i thought i would chime in

since i just tried to air-layer my Kari starfruit.

i did the usual air-layer procedure, and after almost 3 months i took off the wrap to take a look, and there were no roots...

i did see some healing growth of bark, and what looked like knobby areas, usually where roots will start to form.

its possible i just didnt wait long enough, but 70+ days should be enough for roots to at least start to form.

since winter was coming i removed it all and am letting it heal.

i think i will try again in spring in the exact same spot, maybe another also.

what i did notice is the sphagnum was a tiny bit drier than i would have liked, though i still think there was enough moisture for roots, i will try to make sure next time i have more moss and water, and its wrapped a bit better.

i am thinking the tree was just able to pull water from the ground easier, since i had lots of mulch , lost of rain and the ground stayed pretty moist.... maybe trying to force the plant to uptake water from the air-layer would have helped.

i started it mid-summer, and i didnt see any new growth on the rest of the tree while the layer was on... i think maybe after it flowers is not a good time to start a layer.

i think i will start it early spring, just before it puts on new leaves.

Thank you for your input. The ones I had in the pots failed. All dried up. I am trying again with the "greenhouse method" that I saw on YT where you put the cuttings in bottles with an inch and a half of water. In the video, he didn't use Starfruit in particular, but his videos were on fruit trees in general. I posted a comment underneath the video, and he said that he thought it would work with starfruit. In the meantime, I ordered some seeds from Amazon. According to another YT gardener, the best way to get starfruit is to graft. He suggested that you can grow a small tree from seed and then use that seed grown tree to graft a scion to from a mature tree. I'm determined to figure this out and get it done. I'll update if the ones in my bottles do anything.