My potted trees have put on a couple inches of growth and appear to be wide awake. Is it safe to start doing air layers this early in the season? Our daytime temps are 60s and 70s with low 50s at night. If it is safe, does it matter how many I do per tree?

 
 

Wow, mine haven't broke bud at all (except one or two) and we are in the same zone!  Mine were in a detached garage with added heat only on the coldest nights.  So if your garage is getting some warmth from the house then I guess that must be the difference.  I would think you could start air layers any time.

Steve,

They sleep in an attached garage.  Temps stay around 48-55° during the winter.  They started waking up in early March.  I have windows in the garage, so it got a lot of filtered sunshine.  In just the past couple of weeks, I've been shuffling them and they're set for full sun now.  Anything below 45° and they come back in the garage.
I usually do air layers in June, but thought it would be nice to get them done sooner if it didn't have any negative effects on the trees.  Thanks for the response!

Frank, I'm sure it's safe to start them. Freezing temps would be the only danger. They just will take longer in cool weather. I started one mid-February here, with my trees leafed out about the way yours are now. We got down to the high 30's a couple of nights, and the layer is fine. Shouldn't matter how many per tree.

Gary,

That is great to hear!  Thanks a lot.

I need to do air layers for friends, but I'm waiting till the breba ripen.  Don't want to ship them in dirt.  Waiting till later to do them so I can ship bare root.

Suzi