fall care

[jamesrb]

GreyBark Elm I am keeping in my "grow tent" with humidity trays, grow lights, and small fan to keep the air circulating. Would it hurt the tree to give it a hard cut back? It is healthy and had a good season outside.

Also I have a Serrisa that I hard pruned. I plan on keeping it out in the open room in a window that gets alot of light.

I guess my main concern is the fact that I did some hard pruning this time of year. I am hoping that I didn't comprimise the health of otherwise healthy plants.

oh, I am in zone 6 Boston. And this will be my first full year of Bonsai-ing!!

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Welcome to the Nut House

When hard pruning, it is always best to wait until the tree is at its strongest - either at the end of Winter when the buds are starting to swell, or in the early Spring when the tree is throwing a lot of strong growth. The Fall is a good time for maintenance, light pruning.

If you are worried about whether you over-weakened your tree, don't do anything else to it Particularly, don't repot until it has recovered from being hard pruned and is showing strength. If you prune hard as well as repot, you will doubly stress your tree. It can be done successfully if you know what you're doing and are extremely careful, but you are increasing the risks that you will kill your tree.