Larch: secondary buds growing out too much

[Nishant]

Hello Friends,

I am a bit concerned here that all the buds on my larch are popping out and not just the primary ones at the end. This will likely destroy the pad structure if all of these were to develop as a branch.

What is the way out to this? Please advise.

 

[p_anova]

I may be mistaken but I believe once the new growth hardens off, you can prune back to maintain the shape of your tree leaving behind some of the new growth. Ryan Neil has a video ot two on post growth management. Worth a watch.

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Hmm…. I believe that’s called having a healthy larch!

That’s how you want these to grow. One can select to prune back to any buds on a branch to shorten the profile. The ones inside are worked to create the pad…

btw: One of our BN folks has been doing a lot of work on larches over the years ( @leatherback ).

You can check out his website at https://www.growingbonsai.net/?s=Larch

cheers
DSD sends

 

[WNC Bonsai]

One of the good things about larch is you can get several flushes in a single growing season. And you can regularly prune back to shape too. I especially pinch out the gowing tips on the new growth at the top of the tree to keep it from overpowering the lower branches.

 

[Shogun610]

That is a good problem to have, I regularly just cut back new shoots to balance growth depending on branch situations. If growing out , leave alone , if building ramification on a branch structure you already have to set, trim growth back on tips.

 

[sorce]

"first world problems".

Sorce

 

[Nishant]

I will leave these buds develop as tertiary branches and may have to remove some of the secondary branches to thin out and create space for the tertiary branches. This spring I pruned quite a few pencil thick branches that were in wrong place. I believe this may have triggered the larch to start branching all over.

Last year the tree did not grow like this even though it was quite vigorous last year and many new back buds had came up. Quite a lot of the secondary branches the tree has are from last year.

 

[ajm55555]

Hmm…. I believe that’s called having a healthy larch!

First time I read someone complaining because they have a healthy tree ;-)
Keep it up!

 

[Nishant]

Hello All, Coming back to yet another reason why I started this thread is that there is this branch that I need to redevelop. There is a particular bud that will do the job and obviously is far back. So please tell me this: If I were to pinch these small growths at this stage, will it be a problem to that foliage whorl? Will it kill the whorl next year as there will be no bud to go dormant as such?

 

[leatherback]

Trees need to grooow to stay healthy. Larches that are constantly pinched, get short stubby branches. Larches that are allowed to grow a bit, get strong and generate lots of branches that one can use to develop the tree.

I have seen and heard arguments for both sides of the pruninggate. I am this year allowing all buds that want to grow, grow. Pruning back once the branches reach 4-6 inches after carefully looking at a bunch of larches I really like. There they have been allowing the tree to grow at least one flush each year. I prefer to have lots of active buds to which I can cut back and get more movement and taper. A branch that does not grow, does not develop ?