On saturday i made three large air layers to a medium size (8ft tall) unknown fig tree that bears medium green fruit.  The tree originally grew under a fence and formed a secondary root ball on a vacant lot. The tree is divided into two main trunks now(3 inch diameter of each main trunk and 1 inch diameter on the secondary branches), the first being primarily supported by the original root ball and the second trunk by the first root ball as well as the secondary root ball(very well rooted, i tried to pull it up to evaluate its root ball strength and could not budge it).The owner of the yard where the tree was originally growing never knew the tree came from his yard so the original owner must have trimmed it to the ground a long time ago. The air layering was standard, removed 2-3 inch section of cambium layer, applied rooting hormone/moist sphagnum moss and large clear wrap with electrical tape and then covered them with some palm leaves to block the sun. A perfect air layer in my opinion.

I have taken many cuttings from this tree and it roots way faster(will push roots in 3 days) than the other 90% of species i have grown so i thought this tree could handle the large air layers.

I just went back to check on the tree and all of the leaves are yellowing and falling off.(Please see diagram above, i will take take and post photos tomorrow)

Question #1
Could the air layer on the main branch have been too much for the tree to handle?  I thought this may be the case but i did not think that the 2nd trunk with the secondary rootball would be affected given the girth of the root mass supporting it.

Need expert advice.

Probably sprayed with herbicide, bummer.

See no reason why tree should be shedding leaves because of the air layers, esp. after just a few days. Have never seen that happen. Sounds more like an issue of the roots, lack of water, big change in weather, etc.

Even if the air-layers were the issue, it just means that you are now rooting dormant cuttings, on the tree. Doesn't mean it won't work, but the photosynthetic energy will not drive root growth as it would in an air-layer.

Pitangadiego, i forgot to mention that i did some very light digging approximately 2-1/2 to 3 ft out from the main trunk to see if digging up the tree would be possible. The ground was extremely dry and hard and i did not penetrate the soil more than a couple inches so i moved to plan b with the air layering.

Do you think this light digging was enough to disturb the roots and cause the leaf dropping?

The tree still has fruit and did not drop those yet and im hoping that it will not. Do you think it will drop the fruit also?

The figs on this tree normally ripen pretty late in august.

thanks for the insight

What Hoosier mentioned seems likely .
Tree will not do this with airlayers , lack of water will do it slowly as many fig trees grow out of walls overseas and in arid places.
You post seems to suggest this happened over a period of short time.

Im almost 99% positive that the tree did not get sprayed with a herbicide.
It is pretty hot and dry here in houston right now but we have had several light rainshowers over the last few weeks. None of the plants around this tree are dying which would support my theory that it is not lack of water or a herbicide.