I did a test last year with 1 girdled and 1 not and the 1 I girdle rooted so much faster in 30 days it was full of roots vs the 1 I didn’t girdle it took 2 months.
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What a great idea! I will try this with roses.
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And other stuff too ! Let us know how it works .
Hopeing that if this catches on those bottles along our roads will become
Repurposed ,into a highly sought after commodity,full of useful plants,
Freely traded, then we just need to work on the unicorns , and rainbows .
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This is the best comment on here and it is buried! Such a simple process AND getting a clean start from infected stock. I use the same plastic bottle technique, but I don’t cut the bottom out. I just make slits in it. It allows a little more moisture to stay in the bottle. But the down side is a greenhouse effect when the sun heats up the bottle. I alleviate this by shading the bottle.
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Yep, you can cover it Reynolds wrap.
Tony
Dug through old photos and found one showing just how many airayers you can fit on a tree. These are paper cups wrapped in tin foil, mostly to hold moisture in.
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I bet you could get 1-2 more on there, don’t you think ?
Good job !
You are making me look like a slacker…
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Ha! Maybe a couple more 
I needed to get as many plants as possible from that one tree for a planting.
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How many of those were successful? When were they placed and did you rewater while they were rooting?
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Not all of them had rooted by the time I cut them, I stuck the ones that didn’t in pots and most of them eventually rooted from what I remember. I put them on in early March 2012, I do remember having to rewater once, I made a little depression in the top of the tinfoil to collect water and then poked holes and hosed it down.
I remember someone from Malaysia did about as many or maybe even more with plastic bags and that might be a better way to go since those would not dry out at all.
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Yes,…!
So easy…
Thanks, Hillbillyhort! Love this method! Here’s my first water bottle air layer—my first air layer ever, actually. I waited until it was well in leaf, so had to slit the bottle vertically to put it on, but still easy. Separated it a while back, and it didn’t even know it had been moved.
I’m going to do a lot more of this next year—on figs and other stuff!
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Just wanted to bump this back up.
It appears that my unprotected in ground figs have survived above ground despite several days approaching single digits.
So … I am putting the water bottles on for air layers before growth starts.
It’s so much easier to do with out leafs, just slide that bottle full of dirt over the stem . Few things are this easy .
If you have not tried this yet , I recommend giving it a shot.
It’s time !
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Could you post photos? I’d like to try it!
Their is a youtube video on bottle layering. I like doing this although I have my own way of bottle layering. It’s about the same. When you do a lot you get a knack for what works for you.
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I am sure the method in the video works well.
It’s so much more time consuming than what I do.
I simply cut bottom off of bottles,fill with dirt , slide on stem before leafs come out .
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Most of the air layers I do the bottle will not fit without being cut in half. So much so I cut the screw cap part right off as it is so hard to cut through. Air layers are tricky as the roots circle so much I worry about girdling. I myself will not trade for them in general. I make some exceptions. More than half the air layers I got in trade didn’t make it. I much prefer rooted cuttings.
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Would it to help survival to make some pruning cuts into those circling roots before planting?