Runaway JWP ideas/advice

[battt]

Hey everyone

Still a n00b but having fun with it.

I picked up this JWP for pretty cheap because yolo. It’s not exploding but it’s in fair health. Clearly in need of a style.

The guy I bought it from got it about 6 years ago and it was imported from Japan. I think he’s trimmed a few bits but I reckon it’s more or less been left to it’s own devices majority of the time.

He’s repotted it in early May this year (UK), the soil is not great (basically potting compost with some gravel). I’m a bit concerned with how that might play out in a wet uk winter. I should probably keep it sheltered rather than attempt to repot I think.

Should I have any concerns with that?

It’s also at a peculiar planting angle where the presumed front (pic with the mug) is quite forward of what might be an apex - so probably tilt forward if planning to keep the tree in its presumed original form…

As I walk around it I’m less sure about where to go with it - it’s just gone quite lanky and extended. So I’m interested in how you might treat this material!

 

[battt]

I think it’s this particular angle that’s giving me pause

 

[0soyoung]

It has a nice basic structure. I see the top shoot (inside the slashed red circle) as a sacrifice that will be removed once the trunk has the thickness you want). The foliage in the orange ? area might be made into the apex OR you may decide to take it away and eventually make the apex with that foliage below-left of it. I like the sweep of the trunk to this foliage, but it is already kind of heavy relative to the trunk below (i.e., poor taper of the trunk, but maybe improved after a few more seasons with the sacrifice running).

Were it mine, I think i would try to style the foliage in the orange circle into an apex. Likewise, create some initial pads of the lowest left and the right branch that is next up the trunk. Then see how things go next year

Position things so that the foliage near the trunk gets good sun exposure. JWP strongly tends to only grow from tip buds and only occasionally back bud. "This spring's" foliage will be abandoned in the fall of the following year, hence the foliage tends to just walk away from the trunk. Just keep this in mind (the importance of providing good sun exposure to interior foliage).

The other things to keep in mind are that foliage is what feeds the tree and makes it get bigger/thicker. You will want that lowest left branch, for example, to be the thickest branch, so you want to keep all the foliage on it that you can until it reaches the appropriate thickness, then you'll cut it back to reduce the foliage 'engine'. Similarly, you can remove some foliage on a stem to slow the rate of thickening - it doesn't have to be an all or nothing sacrificial thing; you can tune rates of thickening by adjusting the associated foliage 'load'.

A little practice styling and positioning foliage for sun exposure and see what happens next year. Adjust things to enhance what you like in what is happening.

 

[battt]

Thank you 0soyoung! Really sage advice. I was inclined to start taming it but you’re right. I should look to control here and there and let it play out.

I will try and get a couple pictures of the apical regions you suggested. It’s pouring with rain right now. I think the taper there might be ok but there’s an illusion going on with the part that leads up to the sacrifice where it corkscrews behind itself. The highlighted area in the orange ? zone is actually two branches heading upwards so one will likely have to go, or be lowered into a less congested space to the right perhaps.

Really appreciate you taking time to give your perspective!

 

[battt]

Rain let up so I’ve grabbed some more snaps.

Here’s a better look at that main branch on the left. It’s got quite a lot of ramification which is nice.



There’s quite a straight weak back branch coming from the same spot. I think this should be deleted, right?



The lowest pad on the right is made up of a couple of branches. A back branch that has some decent movement and branching with a straight shoot coming out and meeting a branch a bit higher up on that side. Bit of a confusing area. Maybe wire that straight shoot to go back more with the rest of that rear branch and let the higher up branch develop a bit?



The more forward facing higher up branch actually has another back branch going over the the lower one. Bit of a confusing area



I think some things have gotta go round there.

Then upwards to the apex! We have a couple of branches going for the top job.



I quite like the look of the branch coming out on the left to be a pad on that side - it has a cascade feel the way it slopes off the leader so I think it might be a shame to cut it and use the one on the right. But then what to do with the one on the right - if it goes, it leaves a lot of space in that region.

Anyway thanks and well done if you made it down this far.

Some more apex pics

 

[battt]

Perhaps if the branch to the right of the apex goes, the left one could come across and up?

 

[Potawatomi13]

Oso correct! Let trunk develop decent size before major work. After a couple years move into deeper bigger pot to get root crown down even with soil, aid trunk growth. Tree has pretty good graft. A big+. Please add location and zone to profile.