Well,Good.As I see it.If someoness trees look right.Then something good is happening and one can delve into the obvious causes and effects.
I was introduced how ‘chopping’ of leaves by grazing animals can actually induce pheonols?( or good things) in the leaves that make stronger and more pest and fungus resistant.
The most successful results I have seen of this popular technique is with large ,mature stock( in some instances anyway) where the tree flushes big time with so many happy photosynthesizing leaves where the net gain from energy produced from photosynthesis is more than compensating for the initial gross comprimised loss of photosynthetic carb energy that was initially produced in each leaf.
Some cases I observed heavy salt fertilizing which actually stimulates essential oils,terpines and other fruity things in the plants because the plants are stressed from lots of salt inhibiting water absorption.Then they get flushed for a week or whatever......probably straight , good ph water.Still adequate salts on roots to sustain the minerals the plants need in this rapid( or pushing ,intense growth time). When plants are pushed in high light or maturity,ripening or the like,the extra nutrients go a LOOOOONG Way. Especially potassium.
So when I delve why so and so’s trees are so green,dense and vibrant after chopping and even defoliating with this method..........I believe agressive feeding is a must because this plant would deplete essentials like potassium very,very quickly.
At the same time there is a balance where I would let rest too and let the tree be a tree and just photosynthesize........
Just me though.I have never tried it,except the time I tried it with every watering with collected rainwater and heavy Dyna-Gro and my rain was so pure the fert plumeted the ph to around 3 with every watering and my little trees stopped everything and declined very quickly.