Best time/frequency to defoliate a privet?

jkd2572

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What I have found with elm is that if you cut them back hard they bud out like crazy down stream. thus increasing ramifications. I did this this year on two trees. I was very surprised at the outcome. they have quadrupled Ramifications in one season
 

jkd2572

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One was very expensive so I did it after the first. Very old tree. It responded the same as the first one
 

Smoke

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You are correct, of course. Cutting back the meristem is always part of my defoliation process and what initiate the bud pop. But defoliation does seem to stimulate the tree into a false spring accelerating the bud growth. I agree that too much defoliation will weaken and even kill a tree. It should be used with caution.

That said, there is one more situation where I defoliate. Defoliation seems, in my experience, to help certain broadleaf trees to survive collection and transplanting. Live oaks in particular survive collection at a much higher percentage if they are defoliated. Also maples, liquidambars, and others can be repotted in the summer if they are defoliated when they would not otherwise survive the experience.

Well now your comparing apples and oranges. Defoliation at time of collection just helps the roots catch up to being reduced by as much as 80 percent sometimes. By defoliating the tree, the tree stops growing having no photosynthsis and no transpiration.

This is nothing like defoliating to increase ramification or reducing leaves.
 

Smoke

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That small trident above.....what if we were to put some wire on it. Maybe pull some branches down and swoop the ends a little. Let it grow out another season and check it out again next year.

If you took my class and recieved this tree along with some instruction you could walk away with this. This is one of the average ones, many of the rest are way better than this one.

Price of the class will be $125.00.

Come to California in Feb. 2014
 

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I have defoliated the trident so you can see the structure. This is not due to defoliation this is due to directional pruning, clip and grow. The only way a trident should be devolped. /...

You are Funny Al
 

Adair M

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Ok, Al, I'll agree with you that the terminal tip needs to be cut off when we defoliate.

Back in the day, before I defoliated, and I would just trim back the termial tip, I usually only got a new bud to pop at the base of the last leaf on the twig. No budding back closer to the trunk. Defoliating WOULD induce budding back closer to the trunk, which is what I was after.
 

Smoke

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Then your not cutting the secondaries nor tertiaries back enough before the branch is made. If you cut back enough it will pop all along the twig. If you just nip off the last three leaves on a four inch long branch then yea, I can see where you only got some apex buds. I think if you look at the two pictures in post 8 you will see I have not just "trimmed" the terminal tip. I have induced hard pruning on tertiary and secondary foliage structure. I get buds everywhere, without defoliation. I see no benifit in taking off the trees engine and "stress" it from doing its job, when reducing the leaves by a third thru pruning will acomplish the same thing. It will make new leaves just as fast, more reliably and smaller due to expotential leaf addition.

Maybe you could post some shots in a seperate thread about building ramification with defoliating. I would enjoy to see what your methods have produced. I too am always on the look out for a better way, though, defoliation is not high on my enjoyment list.
 
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Most people think defoliating increases ramification.

It does not. It only induces a second flush of buds at the junction of where the buds were before you stripped the leaves off.

To increase ramification, the tree needs constant pruning. This is not stressful to the tree and induces emergency auxins which promote lateral budding which increases ramification.

Do as pictured below every week all spring and summer and you can triple volumne in one season.

Continue defoliation and sooner or later the tree wil respond by not budding at all. Defoliation would only be done for a late summer exhibit such as the one just finished at REBS in August when someone would want fresh green leaves, otherwise defoliation adds no significance to the branchwork in a tree.
Of course defoliation increases ramification, for every pair of leaves you take off you get four back, that's the main reason for doing it.
 

Smoke

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Of course defoliation increases ramification, for every pair of leaves you take off you get four back, that's the main reason for doing it.
You'll have to show me how that works. No cutting, just removal of leaves?
 
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