Japanese quince clump
- Thread starter parhamr
- Start date
Leo in N E Illinois
The Professor
- Messages
- 11,481
- Reaction score
- 23,816
- USDA Zone
- 5b
Ok, I'll never show a tree, so to me flowers are never a waste.
I understand the desire to quickly develop a tree towards exhibition quality. If you are in a hurry to get there, yes indeed you should remove flowers.
However, I'm in the ''other camp''. To me the flowers are the rent the tree has to pay to get me to water it over the year. If I didn't get flowers, I would get bored and forget about it. The reason don't have more than one boxwood is that trees that stay plain green all year bore me. I need to see at least some flowers every year. So I never remove all the flowers. On a weak tree I might thin the numbers down to just a few, but generally I let most flowering trees bloom as much as they want. Flowers are not a big metabolic expense in quince. - but the fruit are a bigger metabolic expense. Even so my crab apples in training I do allow then to keep a few fruit every year.
thumblessprimate1
Masterpiece
With quince, I notice you could get more branches faster if you don't allow flowers to develop. If you let the branches grow strong then cut back hard in summer. But since I've learned to graft on quince, I try to have flower every year. I only cut back immediately after flower buds form except when cutting back hard like I did this year; I cut back to the silhouette then hard after first blossoms faded.
pweifan
Shohin
parhamr
Omono
@pweifan it’s great! There are dozens of branches that have grown 2–4 feet in length. I’ve even pruned a few of the most vigorous branches to stimulate interior bifurcation.
It’s too heavy for me to move around very much and it’s not a very interesting subject to photograph. I might soon snap some pics if the lighting is right.
It’s too heavy for me to move around very much and it’s not a very interesting subject to photograph. I might soon snap some pics if the lighting is right.
parhamr
Omono
It’s… shrubby
The leaves got smaller as the 90°F days counted up.
Old bark at the base separated and broke off; many inner branches have lignified:
The root cuttings look good:
The leaves got smaller as the 90°F days counted up.
Old bark at the base separated and broke off; many inner branches have lignified:
The root cuttings look good:
parhamr
Omono
The clump has a heavy flower load again this year.
The interior branch development (bifurcation and directional changes) is visible and I intend to continue down its current path. I think what that means for 2020 is I’ll allow a full, strong flush of growth to harden and then I’ll perform a hard cut back to the first or second bud on each branch.
After that heavy cut back it might be an opportune time to remove some of the dead stubs on the main trunks.
My goal is to produce a gradual taper change into the primary, secondary, and tertiary branches. That will require many years of extending, thickening growths.
The interior branch development (bifurcation and directional changes) is visible and I intend to continue down its current path. I think what that means for 2020 is I’ll allow a full, strong flush of growth to harden and then I’ll perform a hard cut back to the first or second bud on each branch.
After that heavy cut back it might be an opportune time to remove some of the dead stubs on the main trunks.
My goal is to produce a gradual taper change into the primary, secondary, and tertiary branches. That will require many years of extending, thickening growths.
parhamr
Omono
Here are 4 of my 5 root cuttings from this plant. Tonight I did a little bit of investigation into the roots. I can reduce the root mass for whatever the next stage of development will be.
I think that’s the right pot in the middle, but the quince is just plopped in there. I’ll clean it all up and secure the plant soon.
I think that’s the right pot in the middle, but the quince is just plopped in there. I’ll clean it all up and secure the plant soon.
Attachments
Maiden69
Masterpiece
Do you have any updates on this quince?
badatusernames
Omono
Yeah I'd love to see, this is helpful to watch the progression of
parhamr
Omono
@badatusernames @Maiden69
It’s still alive, but severe, recurrent fungal infections of the bark had really done a number on this clump. The major trunks are all dead. I was a bit too late to recognize the problem, but copper and thiophanate methyl fungicides are controlling it.
Here’s the as-planted front
Rear
Rotated 75 degrees clockwise from front
Rotated 90 degrees CCW from front
Closeup of death
What was happening is a severe blistering (rust?) of the bark caused loss of sap flow and those main trunks died. At first I thought it was just shedding thick, old, corky/plated bark from the change in planting culture. Damn, I was wrong.
It’s still alive, but severe, recurrent fungal infections of the bark had really done a number on this clump. The major trunks are all dead. I was a bit too late to recognize the problem, but copper and thiophanate methyl fungicides are controlling it.
Here’s the as-planted front
Rear
Rotated 75 degrees clockwise from front
Rotated 90 degrees CCW from front
Closeup of death
What was happening is a severe blistering (rust?) of the bark caused loss of sap flow and those main trunks died. At first I thought it was just shedding thick, old, corky/plated bark from the change in planting culture. Damn, I was wrong.
Maiden69
Masterpiece
Well, that sucks, at least you are able to control it... the few ones I have are still whips and finally started shooting suckers from the base. I can't wait till spring to cut back and start pushing the energy down.
