Can I Airlayer an Amur Maple while indoors?

My Amur Maple decided it had it with winter a week or so ago. It is presently on my kitchen table in a south window. The first flush of leaves is hardening off and the tree is doing fine. My last date for frost is around June 1.
I would like to airlayer off the top half of the tree and come away with two trees. The tree is approx 17 inches tall from the soil. The trunk at the base is approx 1 1/2 inches and is approx 3/4 inch at the point of the desired layer.

My question:
How soon before I can leave the tree outside can I do the layer, I would like to get a jump on the season with the tree having leafed out, but, I do not want to jump the gun if this will negatively affect the outcome of the layer.

Thanks
Jay

Hi Jay,

Our bonsai club hosted a workshop early last May, here in Minnesota, with Michael Hagedorn. He is a very excellent bonsai teacher who has studied in Japan. My project was to airlayer a trident maple to correct a misshapened trunk. One thing he did stress was the importance of the sun on the airlayer and that the tree be turned regularly. I would suggest you wait until you can leave your tree outside ALL day and further he did not want a repotting until the next spring.

Good luck....I will be opening the airlayer soon and will get some more pictures.

Norma

Norma,
Thank you.. I was leaning towards waiting, thinking the outdoors was the correct place to grow the layer. Thought I'd possible gain time by starting indoors....guess not.

It is interesting, you say Michael suggests waiting till the following year to separate the layer? I had always understood that 6 weeks to 2 months (with proper root growth) was all the time necessary before separation.

Jay

Yes.. I also thought it could be separated sooner! But because of our short growing season and the fact that the newly separated roots would need spring growth , he advised waiting. The tree is still in my cold frame and I'll have to wait until it starts to to push buds. I'll show you the repot which will probably be in April.

Norma

Thanks Norma, I'll check to see how it goes.
Jay

It is interesting, you say Michael suggests waiting till the following year to separate the layer? I had always understood that 6 weeks to 2 months (with proper root growth) was all the time necessary before separation.

Depends where you live. You folks in Minnesota and Vermont, with a 3-week growing season <g> need to leave it on. In Florida, and even up here in western NC, we have a longer growing season and a spring layer often can be separated i the fall. Of course, that means lots of protection during the colder months.

Jim, point well taken.

But heck it isn't that cold...... it might actually go above freezing here (for part of the day) Friday. Might even last two or three days. But then again, Skiing is great from December through April.

Jay

Oh dear . . . it's supposed to be 61 here tomorrow . . . 72 this weekend.

I only have a few trees still to repot.

Thanks for YOUR WEATHER REPORT,,, Jim
LOL
KJ