Developing Portulacaria Afra

[MrWunderful]

The weather is still nice and I figure I can get one more flush so I said screw it I will prune the long internodes on the big one (got this much in about a month!)


before:


pretty bushy



after:


I might hit it with copper wire this winter.

 

[MrWunderful]

Speaking of variegated, i like to let each shoot get atleast two sets of leaves before pinching (at green line below) because you get a little better branch structure and more extension and thickness



cutting it at the red line, you will get back buds on all 4 junctions if vigorous, and that quickly leads to a pompom on the end of a little branch, which I dont care for.

I have found that the constant cutting and dividing gets pretty extreme, to the point where its far easier and faster to hedge prune (then branch edit later) especially on a larger tree:



letting each shoot get two sets of opposing leaves allows the internode spacing to not get “too” short to pinch/cut/edit and I find it balances the trees energy.

This is assuming you are using an artistic branch cutting technique to design an interesting branch. 2-4-8-16-32 gets boring.

 

[MrWunderful]

As an experiment this year, I am taking two cuttings of roughly same size from same mother and am going to develop them with standard “traditional” deciduous technique as informal, and formal upright. As seen in Peter Adams (amongst others) book.

Same soil, same size pot, etc.

Looking forward to comparing their growth and hopefully documenting them as they develop.

 

[just.wing.it]

As an experiment this year, I am taking two cuttings of roughly same size from same mother and am going to develop them with standard “traditional” deciduous technique as informal, and formal upright. As seen in Peter Adams (amongst others) book.

Same soil, same size pot, etc.

Looking forward to comparing their growth and hopefully documenting them as they develop.

View attachment 357574

Why same soil same pot? Why not change something between the two and see if you get different results?

 

[MrWunderful]

Why same soil same pot? Why not change something between the two and see if you get different results?

Great question. I have the soil/fert/watering for my porties pretty locked in where I want it. I can get super coarse aggressive growth, or quality internodes and small leaves. I guess I would always prefer a better soil mix, but pumice and bark with a little lava and akadama has given me results I am satisfied with so no need to research.

I suppose, this specific experiment is more about the efficiency of the Formal vs informal design, and how well a succulent takes to traditional tree building techniques. The goal is shohin size, and Both will be wired directly to bottom of pot for radial root growth.

 

[just.wing.it]

Great question. I have the soil/fert/watering for my porties pretty locked in where I want it. I can get super coarse aggressive growth, or quality internodes and small leaves. I guess I would always prefer a better soil mix, but pumice and bark with a little lava and akadama has given me results I am satisfied with so no need to research.

I suppose, this specific experiment is more about the efficiency of the Formal vs informal design, and how well a succulent takes to traditional tree building techniques. The goal is shohin size, and Both will be wired directly to bottom of pot for radial root growth.

Nice. Sounds cool to me.
I have a couple that I love to mess with they're amazingly tolerant and resilient.
Ride on!

 

[MrWunderful]

Defoliated my big guy. Going to build it out in a traditional formal style, it will get hard pruned and heavy fert this summer. Maybe repot too. Unglazed square with simple feet and heavy lip.

 

[MrWunderful]