unusual pruning technique

[Joe Dupre']

I stumbled onto a neat pruning technique that I've never read about. I use mainly the Walter Pall method of pruning and growing trees. I tend to let my deciduous trees grow pretty freely and then cut back to the outline a couple of times a year. That takes care of the silhouette, but leaves lots of long internal shoots. I go back into the canopy and trim those shoots back. On a bushy tree, it's sometimes difficult to find all the too-long shoots. What I do is gently shake the pot and tree. This causes the long shoots to move more and at a slower pace than the shorter shoots. It's surprising how the long shoots stand out after you've done this a few times. Try it. I'll bet it makes you smile when you see it happening.

 

[jandslegate]

Really cool. I will use this as a more focused approach on some of my trees in the future. I have a dwarf Crape Myrtle that's growth went 0 to 100 this season. I was doing well to keep a silhouette for more than a week or two. Thank you for this.

 

[Scorpius]

Kinda like Bob Ross cleaning his paint brush. Shake the devil out of it.

 

[Mikecheck123]

I stumbled onto a neat pruning technique that I've never read about. I use mainly the Walter Pall method of pruning and growing trees. I tend to let my deciduous trees grow pretty freely and then cut back to the outline a couple of times a year. That takes care of the silhouette, but leaves lots of long internal shoots. I go back into the canopy and trim those shoots back. On a bushy tree, it's sometimes difficult to find all the too-long shoots. What I do is gently shake the pot and tree. This causes the long shoots to move more and at a slower pace than the shorter shoots. It's surprising how the long shoots stand out after you've done this a few times. Try it. I'll bet it makes you smile when you see it happening.

Cool idea. I just found a 12 inch shoot on the interior of my Chinese elm. Living a secret life.

 

[Shibui]

I take hold of the growing ends of each shoot and move it side to side. You can easily feel and see which are coming from way down in the tree and follow down to remove it at the base.