"White Ash" or "American Ash" advice please

[mashby]

Hi all, welcome to 2011 (I'm sure Nostradamus has something dire to say about this year!)

I have just returned from about 10 weeks in the US - part of which was a 5 day cruise through the Caribean on a "Rick Springfield and Friends Cruise" (my wife's idea not mine) - it was good fun as Kevin Cronin from REO Speedwagon (yes I know my age is starting to tell) was also there, as well as a few American soap stars, and everynight there was a concert and jam session - but for "F's" sake, the size of most of the American people on the cruise was amazing. I am 195cm tall (about 6'4') and weigh 115kg but some of these people were about 5'6" and must have weighed at least 150kg or more. I looked like I was anorexic compared to them. What is even worse is that most of the day (when they weren't devouring their way through the buffet and drinking soft drinks), they spent lying by one of the pools in bathing suits, sometimes even bikinis, or speedos!!!!.

Anyway, when I returned I had some catching up to do on my bonsai - trimming, repotting, defoliating, fertilising etc.

One of my trees is a "White Ash" (fraxinus americana) about which I had posted a thread back in March 2010

(viewtopic.php?f=10&t=3209_" ),

regarding possible airlayering of the tree. The general consensus was to wait until spring or when the tree was pushing out new growth.

At the moment I am considering what to do with tree now that I am back from my holiday. Should I just defoliate and wait until spring to airlayer, or can I airlayer it now?

Following are some photos of the tree. There is an empty 1.5 litre soft drink bottle next to the tree for size comparison.

IMG_2269.jpg

Front view of tree - it is 101 cm at its tallest point and 27 cm at its widest point.

IMG_2270.jpg

Back view of tree.

IMG_2271.jpg

Position on tree of where I would propose placing the air layer cuts etc. Just above the 1st branch as was kindly suggested by a member in my last post about this tree

IMG_2272.jpg

The base of the trunk is approx. 60mm diameter and where the proposed airlayer is to be done is approx. 30mm in diameter.

Can I please ask for some advice from the friendly members of this wonderful cyber-community. Airlayer now or wait? Also, if anyone has any alternative suggestions I would certainly welcome their input as well.

Thanks in advance, and hope all of my friends out there and their families have a healthy, happy and safe 2011.
Michael

[lennard]

Nice bark on this one.

I would rather layer a little bit higher - just above the first potential dormant buds where you have indicated in the last picture. This would give you the opportunity of a broom with the current trunk.

Lennard

[mashby]

Thanks Lennard
Is it OK to do the sirlayering now or should I leave it until later in the year?
Kind regards
Michael

[Ash]

Another reason to layer higher as suggested by Lennard is that if you layer above those next nodes you also take advantage of the bit of taper that the parent tree has just above the first branch. You will thank yourself for a bit of taper down the track with this one. The resulting style will approximate a broom but with one or two primary branches emerging from the trunk below the main tuft of branches. Have a look at a few park growing Ash, I think this is typical of their form. Looks like it is going to develop nice bark tesselation, this will come on that smooth section when the new branches grow as they will thicken the stem and crack the outer bark layer.

regards
Ash

[lennard]

Thanks Lennard
Is it OK to do the sirlayering now or should I leave it until later in the year?
Kind regards
Michael

You could do the air layer now......but i was wondering: do you really need another one of these trees. So much time is wasted developing the original tree.

Lennard