Question for Al: (sorry if this counts as high-jacking the thread, but it is KoHo related and related to Als post)...
I have a very old collected KoHo which is mostly stump not much branches... working on that... anyways, I've had it for 2 years... last year was spent 're-vigorating' it in a larger pot with a crapload of ferts and good soil. It grew lots (3 ft shoots).
This year, I chopped the apex in the early spring
when the buds were just about to open. Not a huge chop (the trunk is like 5" at the base, and the apex chop was less than 1" diameter).
About 2 months later now, the tree is growing gangbusters, and backbuds have
not come up at the chop yet. I sealed the wound nicely, and the apex hasn't died back (yet) and there might even be a bud or two trying to poke through the sealant (maybe imagining that though).
So, my question is, what did I do wrong?
The apex is old, covered in old bark... do they not bud predictably on old areas? Is spring the wrong time to chop? I cut off the long shoots which were grown for thread grafts/to thicken the primary branch
in the fall and that branch has budded in many places.
I see these Croatians collecting their massive old Oriental hornbeams and chopping them back like its nobody's business, seemingly with no problems...
Here's the tree... you can see where it was chopped at the top. Sorry about the busy pic...
Help! I am in zone 6... so please keep that in mind
Thanks, I will greatly appreciate your response.
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