Greengage #1 - Progression

[stav121]

So, after some identification, I have created this thread to keep a track of the progress of my Greegage.

This was the state of the tree the day before I received it from my relatives, just a tree left to grow unchecked for years in a large pot. At this point the tree was around 2+meters tall:



After I received the tree I went ahead and did a much needed root work and moved it to a pot much smaller where I can do future repots much easier and keep it checked. There was barely any space left in its pot, the tap root had circled the entire pot probably around 5-6 or more times.


While doing this work, I noticed a huge number of scale insects pretty much everywhere on the tree, which I removed and sprayed the entire tree with a Neem oil solution two times in the course of 2 weeks - at the end of which the tree had woken up and flowered. After some waiting I noticed that the leaf buds were about to open, so it was the perfect time of a perfect butchering:

The tree was chopped back to the lowest visible bud. Now, after waiting a while (I think less than 10 days) the current state of the tree:


At this point there are buds popping up everywhere on the tree. There are new visible buds opening up even 1 and 2cm from the base of the tree.

Now - I wait a couple of weeks more and I should start to fertilise and push this tree to grow.

I live in Greece, the weather here is already well over 20 degrees which means that this is probably going to be the biggest growing season I've had so far, can't wait to see how this one will look in a few years time!

 

[stav121]

So, here it is today a few days after the buds starting to show everywhere. There are a lot more buds that still haven't leafed out.

 

[stav121]

Minor update, the growth over the last 10 days, I have selected some branches for now and wired them down so I could potentially use in the future:

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Interesting! Where do you live? Do I see olive trees growing in the background?

 

[stav121]

Interesting! Where do you live? Do I see olive trees growing in the background?

Yes, your observation is right, there are Olive trees growing in the background!

I live in Greece, so Olive is probably the most common ornamental tree here.

The temperature has been well over 10°C in the night for nearly a month now (which is pretty uncommon even in our climate) so all the trees have woken up early and are pushing growth like crazy.

 

[stav121]

So another update.

Around 2nd of April I did a cutback of the tree since it was growing too long too fast and was getting out of control for my space.

Here is what was left after that:



I left the branches closer to the base grow freely, and selected one at the top as the new leader.

Today, April 22nd, this is the tree:



Since the weather is too hot here already, it is growing amazingly fast. There are new shoots coming up everywhere right now, and some are growing a few centimeters a day at this point.

The plan now is to let it grow for about 3 more weeks, and then cut back hard since I have a huge move coming up and I will have to reduce the size of most of my trees to be able to transport them easier.

 

[stav121]

Up for the year's 3rd trim soon. Had to trim it back again 2 weeks ago since I was moving places and the tree had to be moved to the new home with me.

The new place is smaller and has less direct sun exposure, which seems to work fine with this tree. Once it was moved to the new place it has exploded with even more rapid growth.

 

[stav121]

So, about 1 month ago I decided to chop it even further, I didn't really like it being so tall, so here is the result (1 month later).


And from the other side:



Today I brought it inside for a cutback because of space limitations. As you can clearly see the tree has kind of decided on it's own what the front is since it has no real branches on one side. I only left the leader untrimmed for obvious reasons. This is the 4th trim of this tree this season, it seems like it will take anything I throw at it (2 trunk chops and one major root work in less than 4 months) and still it thrives.

 

[Baron von Smoogle]

Going through your post I was wondering why you left the trunk so long and then, as I got to the end of your post, you chopped the trunk!
Much better.

 

[stav121]

Going through your post I was wondering why you left the trunk so long and then, as I got to the end of your post, you chopped the trunk!
Much better.

I literally have no idea what I was thinking on the first chop. I agree, the second one is much better and much more at scale with the width.