When to chop again

dbonsaiw

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I cut down a 6 foot maple earlier this spring to about 11" on which I only wanted the first 4", but followed the advice I received here to cut higher to see what buds pop. The bud gods have smiled on me and many buds are popping on the first 4" of trunk. Should I just go ahead and chop it down to 4" now or wait until the summer (or even next spring). I was inclined to wait until summer when the new leader has grown a bit so I can make the angled cut more precisely. Thoughts appreciated.
 

sorce

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I thought that was your Stewartia thread, a lot of those principals apply same.

It totally depends on the size of the wound to be healed, determines how large the "new leader" must be in order to heal it, or even uro it believably with appropriate looking healing growth if we're deep diving.

The thing for me is, another cutting straight through a lot of BS "opinions" that remain opinions because there is never talk of any of the variables.....Last Repot, soil type, watering, growth rates, fertilizer, etc etc....that are very relevant to the process.

What isn't a variable, ever, is the fact that no tree will ever lose any design options if you wait, which tells us any and every premature cut that didn't heal was just a result of impatience.

Hell, nevermind all the "opinions" shared without relevant information that leaves us with no answers....
Just seeing 2 trees of the same type in roughly the same situation grow at 2 completely different rates should be enough to keep us from cutting to build instead of building to cut.

Everything we don't cut adds energy.
Everything we remove removes design options.

If we remember that, patience becomes.

Sorce
 

dbonsaiw

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Imagine a maple stick about 11” tall and 1.5” wide at the base. There’s nothing on this stick in a pot other than buds all growing within 4” of the soil. This is really just a temporal question as I will cut it down to the highest bud I want to grow as a leader later in the season. The question was simply is there a reason to wait or can I just do it now (why grow buds/branches higher and waste tree resources?/do I want to disturb the roots with sawing in the middle of the growing season? Considerations like that).

I indeed had a thread on how low to cut big box maples and this tree is in fact one of those trees. The advice was not to cut nearly as low as I wanted, see what grows and work from there. I followed the advice and, lo and behold, I’m getting lots of buds really low down. One is exactly where I wanted the new leader to grow. There are no more fears of the tree not back budding or budding too high. There’s about 7” of excess trunk.
 

0soyoung

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I would cut now. Just don't cut so close as to possibly damage the stem in the vicinity of that bud pair you're keeping (clean up the cut next spring). Buds tend to be fragile, as do new branches., so the only reason I see for waiting might be to wait to have this bud pair (that you want keep) are hardened branches that are far more resistant to incidental damage.
 

Shibui

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I've found it much better to wait until the chosen leader is growing strong.
New shoots are not attached well and a small knock can break them right off. It is hard to cut close enough to a shoot without touching it and I've had several occasions to regret moving new shoots too soon.
The other aspect is sap flow. We want as much flow as possible into that new leader. Sudden changes in sap flow can cause withdrawal - occasionally from the new leader but more often from the roots that are currently feeding other parts of the trunk. Given time the sap paths can re -route but abrupt stops can cause what we know as die back.
Without pics to check I'm just talking generalizations but I would trim the redundant new shoots to reduce their part in circulation - not total removal at this stage. Allow the chosen leader to grow to take as much of the sap as possible.
Complete the chop only when you are confident that the tree is relying on the new leader and feeding it strongly. Should only take a couple of months but well worth the delay IMHO.
 

dbonsaiw

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I may just wait - high time I exercise a little patience in this hobby. Attached is a pic - it's not very helpful, just a stick in a pot. You can hardly even see the buds.
 

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