Stupid question

I'm going to ask a stupid question. This weekend a friend mentioned that when you do air layering it kills the rest of the tree - is this correct? We have a few trees here in our garden of our rental home (so I can't remove any of them) and thought maybe at one stage I'd like to try air layering, but don't want to do it if it will kill off the rest of the tree.

There are no stupid questions.

Not true, unless you layer an evergreen below all the live foliage. Almost all deciduous tree will sprout from a bare trunk base and survive.

Let me modify Kev's reply a bit. When he says "evergreen" he means -- generally speaking -- needled evergreens such as pine, juniper, fir, etc.

Many broad leaved evergreens -- most figs, holly, magnolia, etc. -- will or well may sprout if you layer below the lowest branch.

Most deciduous trees can be layered anywhere.

So evergreens can only be layered below the leaves?

Lea2109 wrote:So evergreens can only be layered below the leaves?

NO! NEEDLED evergreens can be layered only above a branch with green on it. Broad leaved evergreens and deciduous trees usually can be layered anywhere.

Thank you! It all makes much more sense now!