What’s up with My JBP

[clapper]

I have some 2-3 year old JBP trees and noticed that the primary buds that developed earlier this year are now sprouting buds on their tips. I had thinned the buds to 2-3 to avoid a big whorl/swell and too many branches but now what do I do with these. See pics.

 

[sorce]

This is what I call "fall bud reinforcement".
Ryan Neil speaks about energy to put on, and energy to sustain.
This fall reinforcement is an abundance of energy, a "putting on" over putting on if you will.

I'd aim to consider that sacrifice and cut it off later.

I reckon there are a lot of different ways you can play this growth.
Timing of your thinning may offer some control.

Sorce

 

[clapper]

This is what I call "fall bud reinforcement".
Ryan Neil speaks about energy to put on, and energy to sustain.
This fall reinforcement is an abundance of energy, a "putting on" over putting on if you will.

I'd aim to consider that sacrifice and cut it off later.

I reckon there are a lot of different ways you can play this growth.
Timing of your thinning may offer some control.

Sorce

Thanks, this will probably be the sacrifice branch for a few of my trees but others have it on side branches. Can I pinch them before spring so I don’t get so many shoots?

 

[sorce]

Can I pinch them before spring so I don’t get so many shoots?

Like fully removing the entire shoot that contains them....yes.

But I think there may be better ways to accomplish goals without as much invasion at this time.

I assume you are a man, most men are attracted to whorls. That's a joke, but we do have a rather looming, over-concern with whorls that causes us to...ahem....act without thinking (too fast).

It's easiest to recognize this analogy in a study of these strong fall tip budding situations, but it is fully applicable to regular whorls like the one you are having these sprout from, and even older whorls.

Analogy.
Imagine that tip of buds as an off-ramp from a highway, with each bud being a future direction.
Your design goal is akin to your destination city, you have to pick the right one to keep.

At this stage, you can guess which ramp to keep to get to your destination.


But after things grow, it becomes much clearer which is the appropriate direction.


Now, that blue x is just the destination analogy, not a position of the actual branch.

The actual destination depends on the goal.

The point is, and this is where your conundrum lies now, that we are always merely guessing which bud will get us to our destination.

Is the goal a thin short branch that forks quickly, or a long necked sacrifice runner that puts most of it's growth far away to keep the rest from being shaded?

We can know none of what these will actually impart into our goal until they have a year of growth on them.

So the benefit of leaving them all is twofold and exponential.

You get a seasons worth of energy add on from leaving on all growth.
You get the benefit of selecting only that which is perfect for your goal.

Compare that to the feller removing energy and left to work with what the only 2 buds left have to offer. If those 2 buds don't fit into the design plan, he must cut them again to make them work, or worse IMO, keep a flawed design. Energy loss in this scenario is also exponential.

I want to get more into "cross talk" and how it pertains to bud selection and removal. And the ramifications of timing.
But before, can we get pics of your whole trees with more design goal ideas laid out?

Sorce

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Thanks, this will probably be the sacrifice branch for a few of my trees but others have it on side branches. Can I pinch them before spring so I don’t get so many shoots?

If it’s going to be a sacrifice branch you would want it to be strong, just don’t let it totally shade out the branches you intend to keep below.

The whorled buds are common on young strong JBP. You can keep them or remove them now, keeping a pair of “normal” buds. At this early stage, and since it sacrifice growth, it doesn’t really matter. Later when you’re trying to balance the strength of the tree, you won’t want or have big disparities between the weakest and strongest buds.

I grow JBP and if you search here for my posts containing the terms sacrifice branches and final branches you’ll see detailed explanations.