This years second flush of growth

Rob_phillips

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Hi all things have been growing well here in the uk we have had some awsome weather recently.
The trees that got pruned back at the end of spring have been throwing out some awsome 2nd growth
My crab apple
20170623_162605.jpg 20170623_162631.jpg

And my twin trunk acer
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My question is if you dont mind chucking some advice my way is how to deal with this new growth properly?

And how long should i let it extend and harden off before cutting back again?
I know there different species and differnt rules on development apply i just wanted to reinforce my ideas and plans and see what others are doing aswell.
Feel free to share your trees aswell im intrested to see how your trees are doing going into the summer months.
 

RKatzin

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I am just frantic right now trying to keep up with trimming back the new shoots, particularly my Japanese Maples. I think we're in the third or fourth flush here in Or.
I do my trimming during the waning phase of the moon and the new moon is tomorrow. This begins the waxing phase, this being the growing phase of the trees. Anything I don't want to grow I want to remove before they begin another growth spurt.
I look at every branch of every tree, removing all the little nubbies that appear on the trunk and branches. Then I go through the new shoots and reduce or remove all. Nothing is left untouched. It's either removed or cut back to shape, as needed. It's a real meditative process. Let's see if I got any pics,
Japanese Maples
IMG_20160604_174216374.jpg IMG_20170618_141016986.jpg 1498239084422-1642589177.jpg 14982414611391643379871.jpg
 

ConorDash

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Hey Rob,
How the bloody hell to keep your maples leaves in such great condition?
The wind and varying weather (I'm in Essex), has ravaged my leaves.. do you keep yours sheltered or?
 

Rob_phillips

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I live at the foot of the malvern hills so we get alot of strong gusts blowing down them and it swirls around the garden so of it gets too blustery i put my maples in the green house and if its hot and sunny i put them under the big apple tree in the garden so they get shade allday.
But to be fair the leaves only dryout if the trees roots cant supply them with enough water fast enough to cope with the wind and sun.
my maples are in high amounts of akadama 3 parts akadama to one part pumice and one part lava so they can hold a bit of water and supply the leaves.
 
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Victorim

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Hey Rob,
How the bloody hell to keep your maples leaves in such great condition?
The wind and varying weather (I'm in Essex), has ravaged my leaves.. do you keep yours sheltered or?

My three are in good nick. In the heatwave this week they were hose drenched 4 times a day. I'm on a hill so get a fair bit of wind too.
 

RKatzin

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Ok, that is the first step, I've removed all errant shoots. Any traverse shoots, originating on a branch on one side of the tree, traveling through the tree and popping out on the other side. Any shoots originating from the underside of the branches and any coming from the inside of a curve.

Now we go deeper into the tree and touch up the branches themselves. I looking for bars and I have set the limit for the length of a bar at a half an inch, what's that, six or eight centimeters. Anything longer will be cut back to the shoots I left earlier. Some don't have any at this point, and on these I will remove the shoots at the end of the stem and this will cause shoots to pop that I can choose from later this summer. I'll go through this process three or four times a season on trees I'm building branches on, if I want to keep them in top form. I like to be meticulous at this, anything you miss will come around to bite you in the butt later.
 

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ConorDash

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My three are in good nick. In the heatwave this week they were hose drenched 4 times a day. I'm on a hill so get a fair bit of wind too.

Yeah mine is not good.. as ever so far lol. New leaves are coming out but deformed and tips getting burnt too.
I think I should just resolve to the fact mine has something more going on than just wind or climate damage.
Anyways... future will tell.
 

ConorDash

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Have you put sphagnam moss over the pot to help keep it moist longer as your in a mix of just molor clay

I don't, but this has been mentioned A few times so as of today, it will have...
After all the time on this tree (nothing compared to some more experienced guys), I want to just get it healthy for once...! I need to buy some stuff anyway but I think I'll buy some insecticide and fungicide and start a schedule of using them on trees. Cover all bases as much as I can. Did get seaweed extract for it which some told me would do wonders, so far not so sure..
Anyways! This is your thread, too many threads have focused on my maple lol. I'll sort my tree out.
I do love your twin trunk maple, looks great. How long have you had it?
 

ConorDash

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I think it was around £450 i got it from greenwood bonsai nursery

Cool, sounds good. Final question.. could you buy online or did you have to visit?

In terms of pruning when hardened or not, recently learnt with Elms that there is a case to be put forward for both ways. Waiting till the growth is more "bushy" and hardened off, then pruning. But also pruning when younger and air wiring green growth (thus before hardening).

As far as I know, when it comes to Maples, pruning is done in Autumn because they bleed. Ill be doing my first load of work on my Maple in Autumn, but that will be hard pruning. I imagine you CAN do light pruning during Spring and Summer because there's no way you'd have to wait once a year to prune them.
 

just.wing.it

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I don't, but this has been mentioned A few times so as of today, it will have...
After all the time on this tree (nothing compared to some more experienced guys), I want to just get it healthy for once...! I need to buy some stuff anyway but I think I'll buy some insecticide and fungicide and start a schedule of using them on trees. Cover all bases as much as I can. Did get seaweed extract for it which some told me would do wonders, so far not so sure..
Anyways! This is your thread, too many threads have focused on my maple lol. I'll sort my tree out.
I do love your twin trunk maple, looks great. How long have you had it?
I use chopped sphagnum on some of mine too, about a 3/4 inch thickness, very effective.
Beware of breathing in the dust, make sure you are standing upwind when you chop it....
I just grab handfuls and force it through my large size soil sifting screen, into a plastic bin.
Works well.
Some people use an old coffee grinder I've heard...
 

Rob_phillips

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Cool, sounds good. Final question.. could you buy online or did you have to visit?

In terms of pruning when hardened or not, recently learnt with Elms that there is a case to be put forward for both ways. Waiting till the growth is more "bushy" and hardened off, then pruning. But also pruning when younger and air wiring green growth (thus before hardening).

As far as I know, when it comes to Maples, pruning is done in Autumn because they bleed. Ill be doing my first load of work on my Maple in Autumn, but that will be hard pruning. I imagine you CAN do light pruning during Spring and Summer because there's no way you'd have to wait once a year to prune them.
Ive already done one set of pruning in late spring and also partial defoliated it as it was really dense so i removed one leaf from every pair.
I was just making sure i was making the right decisions as far as what to do with this new set of growth
 

RKatzin

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I have mentioned that I trim by the moon. May I explain, you may find it interesting as well as useful.
It's all very cyclic, round and round she goes. Let's follow one cycle, moon and trees together, beginning at the new moon, which happens to be today here. So for the next two weeks the moon will be increasing in size and it's effect on this planet will increase. You can see this in the tides of the oceans. Is this news to anyone? What may be news is that this same effect is going on in every living thing on the earth as well. In trees, our main concern here, the ebb and flow is apparent in the cycle of flushes. The new shoots grow out as the moon waxes. The force of the moon's gravity pulls the water, the energy and life force of the plant up into the trunk and branches, generating a flush of new growth. If I'm trying to grow a tree out I don't want to mess with it during this phase of the cycle. If I want to curtail growth or weaken an over exuberant limb I would trim it now while the life force is in the limb. As the moon approaches it's zenith the effect becomes quite strong and can be a very stressful time for trees. If you watch you will notice that your containers will dry out much faster during this period. If you've got a weak one this is when she'll keelover on you. Trees will bear down with their roots and clench desperately to the ground. Not a good time to repot or collect. I try to leave them be at this full phase.
Growth pretty much comes to a standstill as the trees focus on staving off the intense force of the full moon. As it wanes the trees relax again and return to a normal growth. The life force of the tree recedes back down the trunk and into the roots. That's called gravity. Now I go through the tree, in this relaxed state when the flow is in remission. As I said, now is when I'm prepping the tree for the next cycle. In this relaxed phase is when you can most easily do your root work and collect trees.
I hope this makes sense to you all. I don't adhere religiously, but I do take it into consideration when deciding what and when I do certain things. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do, but if I can put it off to a better time I will.

I can hear Color going " bloody hell, this blokes all sixes and nines" LOLOLOL
 

ConorDash

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I have mentioned that I trim by the moon. May I explain, you may find it interesting as well as useful.
It's all very cyclic, round and round she goes. Let's follow one cycle, moon and trees together, beginning at the new moon, which happens to be today here. So for the next two weeks the moon will be increasing in size and it's effect on this planet will increase. You can see this in the tides of the oceans. Is this news to anyone? What may be news is that this same effect is going on in every living thing on the earth as well. In trees, our main concern here, the ebb and flow is apparent in the cycle of flushes. The new shoots grow out as the moon waxes. The force of the moon's gravity pulls the water, the energy and life force of the plant up into the trunk and branches, generating a flush of new growth. If I'm trying to grow a tree out I don't want to mess with it during this phase of the cycle. If I want to curtail growth or weaken an over exuberant limb I would trim it now while the life force is in the limb. As the moon approaches it's zenith the effect becomes quite strong and can be a very stressful time for trees. If you watch you will notice that your containers will dry out much faster during this period. If you've got a weak one this is when she'll keelover on you. Trees will bear down with their roots and clench desperately to the ground. Not a good time to repot or collect. I try to leave them be at this full phase.
Growth pretty much comes to a standstill as the trees focus on staving off the intense force of the full moon. As it wanes the trees relax again and return to a normal growth. The life force of the tree recedes back down the trunk and into the roots. That's called gravity. Now I go through the tree, in this relaxed state when the flow is in remission. As I said, now is when I'm prepping the tree for the next cycle. In this relaxed phase is when you can most easily do your root work and collect trees.
I hope this makes sense to you all. I don't adhere religiously, but I do take it into consideration when deciding what and when I do certain things. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do, but if I can put it off to a better time I will.

I can hear Color going " bloody hell, this blokes all sixes and nines" LOLOLOL

Was "color" supposed to be me? Lol, cos that sounded like a put on English accent.

I had known about the moon phases affecting everything as such but it was good to read again, just because something is once read, doesnt mean it is all remembered fully :).
To put it simply, whilst the moon is increasing in size (waxing), its gravity increases, stressing a tree, making them push growth. = Do not work on tree.
Whilst the moon is decreasing in size (waning), gravity is decreasing and relaxing a tree. = Work on trees, including repotting or digging up.
 

Rob_phillips

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If the crab apple was yours what would you do with it?
I think the plan i have now is to just keep cutting back the new growth but i may leave it slightly longer than cutting it back to just 1 or 2 set of leaves go create a fuller capopy. Any thoughts on that?
 
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