How to Develop Cedar

pbrown00

Mame
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I've rooted this cedar cutting I took this last winter, and I'll leave it alone to grow roots for a year or two now. I am wondering, however, how people develop these trees. The growth seems to be very slow, and I don't think I should directly wire the foliage. Should I just let it grow uninhibited for a while?

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I think it is a tsuga, that is an arborvitae, and not a real cedar. But, no matter. Although I like their floppy foliage, it tends to look unkempt if not wired. #22 or #20 annealed copper wire seems to work well for this. You'll need to play with how far down the green you wire - too much and it winds up looking like a lifeless board.

It is up to you what you do with it. It is kinda cute as it is, which makes me think of trying to keep it this size for a while - wire, style, trim to enhance its appearance. Then, if you aren't really diggin' it any longer, at some time in the future, you can then grow it out for a while to make something else of it (sculpt it into a different artistic image :)).

I have an arborvitae that I grew for years from a sapling smaller than this and then tried to make something of. At first it pleased me, now it doesn't. So I'm chopping it and going to grow it into something smaller and completely different. They grow pretty fast. It's dimensions will likely double within 5 years, although you may be limiting its height in the process (chop trunk, wire up branch to be a new leader, rinse and repeat).

The two ways to go are different games, so it is just a matter of what you want to do now. You will almost certainly wind up doing both in the future. It is as inevitable as this won't be your only tree - right?.
 
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