Can Air Layering Help Revive A Dying Bonsai?

Air layering is a great technique and can really help us with our bonsai development, but for some reason people seem to think it is the solution to every problem.

It can certainly do a lot, but unfortunately it cannot help to revive a dying tree. If your tree is unwell you need to work out what is causing the problem and deal with it. Trying to do an air layer is only going to make things worse and it will not help you. 

Air Layers Take Time To Work

You need to remember that air layers take time to work. It may take a few months for the tree to root …so if your tree is dying …will it even be alive for long enough to make the air layer happen?

You also need to remember that air layers should really only be done in late spring, after the first flush of leaves has hardened off …so if your tree is starting to look ill in the summer, can it hold on long enough to reach next spring? …or is it going to be dead long before then?

This really makes air layering not ideal for reviving your tree, I would say your tree will be dead long before you see any results and you would be much better off trying something else to fix the problem.

Air Layering Will Just Split The Problem In To Two

It is also pretty important to work out why your tree is dying in the first place as really this needs to be addressed. All air layering is going to do is split the tree into two.

For example, let’s say you do manage to get an air layer to work and you remove a section of the tree …while this is great, you will probably find that this section is also going to be suffering from the same problem, so what have you fixed?

All you will do is take a sick tree and turn it in to two sick trees. You are not reviving anything; you are just splitting the problem in to two trees.

You need to focus on the actual problem and deal with that before you decide to do an air layer.

You Need To Get Your Tree To Be Healthy Before You Air Layer It

The biggest problem with thinking you can revive a tree with an air layer is the fact that your air layer will probably not work.

When you look at what you need for an air layer to work, the first thing is always a healthy tree.

You need the area above where you have made your cut to be strong and vigorous. The tree needs to be pumping down energy down into the roots …and of course since you have cut that access off, the energy will build up and create new roots where you have made your cut.

If you tree is not healthy, there is not going to be much energy going back down into the tree. You are not going to get strong roots growing and the air layer will probably not work and if it does, it will take a long time or just generally be very weak.

An air layer is not going to revive your tree, you need a healthy tree to revive your air layer into a new tree. 

Revive Your Tree By Fixing Whatever Is Wrong

Really the best advice I can give you is to try and work out what is currently wrong with your tree and fix this.

If your tree has suffering from something and is dying, then it is going to be very weak. You need to look at what you have been doing that might have caused this. You have either done too much of something, or not enough of something. Either way, the tree is out of balance and you need to work out what that might be.

Once you correct this, the tree will hopefully have enough energy to recover and get back into balance. Once the tree is back to full health and thriving, then you can consider taking an air layer from it.

Air Layers Will Weaken Your Tree

You always need to remember that air layering is just a propagation tool, it is just an easy way to turn one tree into two. It will not give your tree health benefits, if anything, it is going to weaken the tree for a while.

If you think about, you have basically cut one of the branches off, so this branch is no longer able to provide any energy to the main roots. All that energy that could have gone into helping the tree return to health and get strong as now been stopped.

However, you also need to remember that you haven’t cut the branch off …the main tree is still supporting it. So now you have a branch that is taking a lot of energy from the tree, and giving nothing back in return.

If your tree is already weak, this is not going to help it out. You could argue that so long as the air layer roots, it will be fine, and maybe so. You could remove the air layer and it could be healthy …but the original tree is only going to suffer and could possibly die, so is it worth the risk?

Let the whole tree get healthy, then air layer from it. This way you will have two healthy trees.

Conclusion

Hopefully you can now see that air layering is not going to be the best way to revive a tree, it will probably just make things worse.

If you have a sick and dying tree, you need to work out what is wrong and correct that. The sooner you can do this, the higher the chance of recovery. Then if you do manage to turn things around, you can think about doing an air layering.